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English: Urgent help


cherrylemonade

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Hey guys,

I'm in full-blown panic mode. EEs at my school are due January 3rd and I've almost finished with my draft. I was looking at some guidelines and now I'm not so sure my topic is even valid. My advisor is my English teacher, and she never told me about the whole Group 1/Group 2/Categories thing, and I've just been confronted with the information. My research question is "How does Gabriel Garcia Marquez use his novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold to criticize gender roles in Latin America?"

I've just run across a site that might just ruin the 30 hours I've put into researching this topic -- according to http://schools.4j.lane.edu/ihs/DOCS/ib/essayfor2009.pdf , English Group 1 Topics (which I'd have to be doing, since I'm writing in English) aren't allowed to be "based on language, culture, and/or society topics." Group 1 is comprised of two categories, as I understand it. Category 1, where "The essay must be based on the literature of countries where the language is spoken (that is, all works discussed will originally have been written in the language of the essay)." Category 2, where "The essay must be a comparison of at least one literary work originally written in the language of the essay with a literary work or works originally written in a different language to that of the essay and probably studied in translation."

I'm freaking out right now. Am I wrong about something here, or do I really need to come up with a new topic, research it, and write the essay before January 3rd?

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  • 2 weeks later...

It looks like you really have a problem with the topic.

Good news: The EE doesn't have to be mailed off to IB until March or April, if I'm remembering correctly. Your adviser and coordinator should be okay with you turning in your EE late because of the last minute topic adjustment since it's not only your fault. Since it's already been 10 days since you posted this, I'm going to assume you've contacted your adviser and coordinator and hopefully they've gotten back to you.

If you're still in the same place, I'd tell you

1) I'm so sorry this happened. It sucks a lot.

2) You're going to get through this.

3) You have a few options.

If your Spanish writing skills are good, then you can consider writing your essay under Group 2, Category 3 with the same topic. The hurdle is writing the whole thing in Spanish, going go a Spanish copy of the novel and re-analyzing for any translation issues or new topics that come up, and searching for some sources in Spanish. You'll be "competing" with people who are very comfortable writing in Spanish, so that's daunting. However, if you can write well enough, it doesn't have to be as good as a native's since they're more lenient on the actual writing of the essay. OR

You could find another novel originally written in English that has issues of gender roles either in Latin America [which would be harder] or elsewhere. If it isn't the same region, you may have to narrow your topic a bit more. OR

Find a new work and topic.

4) You may have resolved the issue and are back on track. If so, good for you! If you're still freaking out, accept that it's not fair, but you can overcome this and make a plan.

Good luck!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I haven't actually written my EE yet, as my advisor extended the deadline dramatically for me; I have another month. I've read The House On Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros and I'm going to be doing a comparison of machismo in both books. Personally, I think the rules set forth by IB regarding the Extended Essay are ridiculous. But thank you for your help, it really calmed me down! (:

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