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Tips for Economics Portfolio (Commentary)


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Hi guys I know I'm new here but nonetheless I'd like to give some parting advice on the Eco Commentaries.

Firstly suggested topic areas -

1. Market structure - something on oligopolies I guess ? Search for "price fixing"

2. Unemployment - well this one's easy. But try and get a short and succinct article here without too much analysis. Just maybe someone mentioning the sectors or something like that for a line or two and the rest important data. Tips - try searching for Greece or Portugal right now and you might save yourself some time while searching for you're article.

3. Inflation - see above for unemployment, Also suggested country - India.

4.Something on trade this time again refer to points from 2 and 3 and use your common sense.

5. Market Failure - search for local deforestation or smoking or whatever floats your boat really.

Choose and 4 out of the 5.

This is a diverse group of topics and I suggest stick to these ones. DON'T DO DEMAND AND SUPPLY, its waaaay to easy.

While choosing your sources don't go to FT or the Economist. Please try and visit a regular newspaper which keeps the analysis at minimum. My personal favourite is Reuters - lovely short articles. (use them for 2,3 or 4 only though).

Structure

Summary of the passage.

Identify the economic theory (if it is unemployment then what type of unemployment is it etc....)

Analysis - who benefits look at all the stakeholders. (Include the usual evaluation stuff like short term vs long term while prioritizing your arguments, see who benefits and who doesn't etc...)

What can be done. (usually what the govt can do - example taxes .....)

Conclusion and with your mini-recommendation.

Please include your diagrams while identifying the economic theory.

Tip: DEFINE WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO PROPERLY, don't just say its an oligopoly explain what the term means!

A lot of the commentary work is free marks if you follow this, even if you suck at economics.

Nice sources IMO:

Reuters

BBC

Irish Times

The star (It's Canadian I think)

Times of India

Hope I was of any help and do correct me If I'm wrong anywhere.

I'm sorry but I'm sure you'll find the criteria elsewhere in this site so I've not posted it.

Edited by Capt'n Marth
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Is it only me or when writing commentaries it's really hard to get to 750 words or really hard to keep it under 750 words? As in once I start writing I cant stop

At times I found it was hard to get to 650 words and other times I found it hard to stay under 750 words :P It depended on the IA for me. To be honest if you're over/under by about 10 words they probably won't notice. It's if you're over by about 50 words that it could be a problem.

Realised I've submitted my IA Portfolio with sources (e.g. 'The Guardian') but not the urls, is that likely to be a problem?

No, I didn't submit any URLs for my online sources and it was fine. All I had was the title of the article, the name of the source, and the date the article was written.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For 2013 candidates:

A note on word limit for economics IAs

The following are NOT(!!!!!!) included in the word count:

- Acknowledgments

- Contents page

- Diagrams

- Labels (of five words or fewer)

- Headings on diagrams (of 10 words or fewer)

- Tables of statistical data

- Equations, formulae, and calculations

- Citations (which, if used, must be in the body of the commentary)

- References (which, if used, must be in the footnotes/endnotes)

Note: footnotes/endnotes may be used for references only. Definitions of economic terms and quotations, if used, must be in the body of the work and are included in the word count. Please note that a citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of the commentary, which is then linked to the full reference in the footnotes/endnotes.

Edited by brofessional
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A note on word limit for economics IAs

The following are NOT(!!!!!!) included in the word count:

- Acknowledgments

- Contents page

- Diagrams

- Labels (of five words or fewer)

- Headings on diagrams (of 10 words or fewer)

- Tables of statistical data

- Equations, formulae, and calculations

- Citations (which, if used, must be in the body of the commentary)

- References (which, if used, must be in the footnotes/endnotes)

Note: footnotes/endnotes may be used for references only. Definitions of economic terms and quotations, if used, must be in the body of the work and are included in the word count. Please note that a citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of the commentary, which is then linked to the full reference in the footnotes/endnotes.

That is for 2013 candidates. The word count includes labels and descriptions in diagrams candidates sitting the May or Nov exams this year.

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Hi, I'm doing Economics HL.

I'm currently writing a commentary about rising air fares due to increased demand. Although the first impression one gets is that it's pretty basic, considering its just a simple supply demand PED PES thing. Although the commentary is basically that, I have included other stuff that goes away from the basic 'price increasing due to increased demand coupled with limited supply'

My question was : Is this too basic a topic for an Economics HL student?

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Hi, I'm doing Economics HL.

I'm currently writing a commentary about rising air fares due to increased demand. Although the first impression one gets is that it's pretty basic, considering its just a simple supply demand PED PES thing. Although the commentary is basically that, I have included other stuff that goes away from the basic 'price increasing due to increased demand coupled with limited supply'

My question was : Is this too basic a topic for an Economics HL student?

My first IA was on supply & demand/Price Controls and I got a 94 on it (my teacher didn't convert it into IB scores for us but I think it's a 6...) Anyways, most of the microeconomics topics are a bit "basic" because it is so early in the course. As long as you are demonstrating that you understand the topics, then you should be fine. Good luck!

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How do you guys manage to fit a GOOD commentary within 750 words? I find it nearly impossible sometimes to fit everything I want to say (mostly for analysis/evaluation) into such a small limit, and my teacher includes EVERY WORD in the word limit meaning everyime I write P1 or Q1 on a diagram, my word limit it shot to hell.

My portfolio is supposed to be finalized tomorrow and I have a ridiculous teacher and my 3rd and 4th commentaries (development and international trade, respectively) are not at all impressive in my opinion. I can't afford to get less than a 6 in my portfolio and my teacher is useless.

How do you guys fit SO much into an evaluation? Do you spare on the more obvious details about the situation itself? Or less terms used? AGHHH!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi,

When I make reference to the article, should I quote (in quotation marks) the sentence/the group of words I'm referring to or should I just put the sentence into my own words?

Thanks,

brofessional

You can do either one, but I usually just paraphrased the article since it takes up less words and I get to the point faster.

You could also use a signal phrase like "The article states..."

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I have a question about the Economics Internal Assessment on Microeconomics. I have an article, and have written my first draft. Somehow, my teacher found it to be not so good, and gave me an 80 on the draft. I want to make it better, but can't seem to find enough topics to analyze within the article.

Can anyone give me some ideas on what else I could analyze in this article? The link is here:

http://www.usnews.co...roduction-costs

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