Major help needed with English EE :(

[coffeetable]

So yeah! The first draft is due in a week.

Initially I did 1000 words of introduction between comparing a short story with a novel, although now I feel as if I shouldn’t do that, even tho my teacher suggested me those two works of literature.

What should I do? carry on working with these two or make some changes?

Does anybody know any good short story on the theme of Isolation? Thinking about just comparing two short stories instead, since it takes less time to read one, keeping in mind I only have a week.

Writing is not a problem, just that I need the right topic to work on.

[ShineeLikeMe]

If your intro is 1000 words, then you definitely have an issue. EE introduciton should only be about 150-200 max.

Also have you considered doing two poems instead. That would be even faster to read. Although I don't have any works to give you, apologies.

[coffeetable]

Thank you for the feedback, but are you sure that the intro has got to be 250 words max? isn't it like 20% of the Essay?

[Sandwich]

The introduction should be as long as you need it to be, certainly it can be over 250 words, I'm not sure quite why you say that, Duynguyen. There's no rule, it depends solely on what you have to say and what your EE is about. Many EEs need more than 250 words to set the scene!

Also the whole point of the EE is that you do it yourself. Ideally this means your teacher doesn't spoon-feed you the texts to use, but there's not much you can do about it if they have and you're okay with it. However, if you don't like the texts remember it's your grade and your essay! So pick it yourself! You have to be the dynamic one and decide whether to cut your losses and write on a topic you feel more passionate about (engagement with your Ee honestly really helps you to get a good grade, so I'd recommend being 100% sold on whatever it is you end up doing) or whether to keep going.

I'm not sure why you've only left yourself a week to write it (slightly crazy!) but for May exams the actual EE doesn't have to be in until February or perhaps March, to my knowledge! Whatever draft deadline you've been given will be an internal one. So I'd say that it's worth putting in the time and effort to do it well as opposed to rushing it and doing badly or something you're not sold on purely for the sake of an internal deadline. The EE is serious business! So do it well.

[JoeG]

Well, if you wanted to do another novel to compare to your current one, you could use Ethan Frome.

It is an IB text, and you could use it well. Although, isolation is a major theme of the novel, so be careful if you do decide to use this.

Honestly, if you're doing well on your Extended Essay so far, don't change your works. Just keep working on the essay.

Edited November 29, 2010 by JoeGuff

[coffeetable]

The introduction should be as long as you need it to be, certainly it can be over 250 words, I'm not sure quite why you say that, Duynguyen. There's no rule, it depends solely on what you have to say and what your EE is about. Many EEs need more than 250 words to set the scene!Also the whole point of the EE is that you do it yourself. Ideally this means your teacher doesn't spoon-feed you the texts to use, but there's not much you can do about it if they have and you're okay with it. However, if you don't like the texts remember it's your grade and your essay! So pick it yourself! You have to be the dynamic one and decide whether to cut your losses and write on a topic you feel more passionate about (engagement with your Ee honestly really helps you to get a good grade, so I'd recommend being 100% sold on whatever it is you end up doing) or whether to keep going.I'm not sure why you've only left yourself a week to write it (slightly crazy!) but for May exams the actual EE doesn't have to be in until February or perhaps March, to my knowledge! Whatever draft deadline you've been given will be an internal one. So I'd say that it's worth putting in the time and effort to do it well as opposed to rushing it and doing badly or something you're not sold on purely for the sake of an internal deadline. The EE is serious business! So do it well.

Hi there, first of all thank you for the feedback! Yes, thank you for the clarification on how long the introduction should be, because the idea of 250 words only introduction sounds crazy, solely because not even my world lit intro was that small (it was around 300). Secondly, nah! They did not ‘spoon-feed’ me but rather recommended me those pieces of literature because I couldn’t find any interesting books on the topic I was interested in studying.

I didn’t get the last part, as you saying not to submit the internal deadline draft which is rather incomplete and to do a new one all together for the final draft?

Well, if you wanted to do another novel to compare to your current one, you could use Ethan Frome. It is an IB text, and you could use it well. Although, isolation is a major theme of the novel, so be careful if you do decide to use this. Honestly, if you're doing well on your Extended Essay so far, don't change your works. Just keep working on the essay.

(: Thank you so much for the suggestion.

[Sandwich]

The introduction should be as long as you need it to be, certainly it can be over 250 words, I'm not sure quite why you say that, Duynguyen. There's no rule, it depends solely on what you have to say and what your EE is about. Many EEs need more than 250 words to set the scene!Also the whole point of the EE is that you do it yourself. Ideally this means your teacher doesn't spoon-feed you the texts to use, but there's not much you can do about it if they have and you're okay with it. However, if you don't like the texts remember it's your grade and your essay! So pick it yourself! You have to be the dynamic one and decide whether to cut your losses and write on a topic you feel more passionate about (engagement with your Ee honestly really helps you to get a good grade, so I'd recommend being 100% sold on whatever it is you end up doing) or whether to keep going.I'm not sure why you've only left yourself a week to write it (slightly crazy!) but for May exams the actual EE doesn't have to be in until February or perhaps March, to my knowledge! Whatever draft deadline you've been given will be an internal one. So I'd say that it's worth putting in the time and effort to do it well as opposed to rushing it and doing badly or something you're not sold on purely for the sake of an internal deadline. The EE is serious business! So do it well.

Hi there, first of all thank you for the feedback! Yes, thank you for the clarification on how long the introduction should be, because the idea of 250 words only introduction sounds crazy, solely because not even my world lit intro was that small (it was around 300). Secondly, nah! They did not ‘spoon-feed’ me but rather recommended me those pieces of literature because I couldn’t find any interesting books on the topic I was interested in studying.

I didn’t get the last part, as you saying not to submit the internal deadline draft which is rather incomplete and to do a new one all together for the final draft?

What I meant by the last part was that if your internal deadline is going to force your hand and either make you do a topic you don't fancy or do it only half as well as you would otherwise, don't let it pressure you into either of those scenarios It's always a good idea in the IB to remember which deadlines are real IB ones and which are internal, it makes life a lot more manageable when you know which to take seriously!

Also sorry I didn't mean to be offensive or belittling when I said spoon-feeding, I guess what I really meant was that it's easier to be enthusiastic, detailed, original... and all those other good things... if YOU are sold on what it is you're doing. So if your teacher picked the books you should definitely consider finding some better ones, unless you do in fact quite like the choice and have some good ideas with the ones you've been given. I know I agonised over my EE topic for ages, but if I hadn't really been into what it was I eventually chose, I'm not sure I would've put together half as good an argument or noticed half as many things.

One of my friends once told me that finishing her EE was like having a baby, only an essay-baby, and I'd agree with that! You spend so many hours of your life researching it, writing it, perfecting it and emailing it to yourself repeatedly that you become emotionally invested. It's hard to put in the same level of dedication if you find the topic boring