jinye Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 So yeah, I'm doing a Chemistry Extended Essay.The topic of my essay is the Effect of sugars in the yield of extraction of caffeine from coffeeThe sugars I will use are: glucose, fructose, sucrose, aspartameI would certainly like some tips to narrow the best possible way the research question. Some doubts I have about it are: do I put all the sugars in the question? Do I put the brand of coffee? The type of coffee? etcThen, I'm a little concerned with what I actually need to write in the essay. Obviously the argument will be towards the effect of sugars in caffeine, however what should I write in Introduction, where it says I need to put my RQ in chemistry context, and how it is original. I know that Organic Chemistry is the topic I need to focus on, but I am not being able to make any important relationships to my RQ.I would really use some help here, thank you guys! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IB-Adam Posted August 30, 2012 Report Share Posted August 30, 2012 First of all, it would be enough to only use one or perhaps two different kinds of sugar since I suppose that investigating all four kinds would be very time-consuming and would definitely make you exceed the 4000 word limit. Remember that you can write a really good essay even though your experiment is novice. Experiments are aimed to be novice!Regarding the brand naming, of course you should mention the all the brands of coffee you've been using. The quality of coffee differs alot depending on the brands which produce them. Please note that the examiner is supposed to be able to do an exactly simlilar experiment as you did.My advice to you if you really don't have a clue on how to write an Extended Essay in chemistry is to read the EE guide about chemistry. The guide will hopefully answer all your questions. In my opinion half of the essay (2000 words) is more or less like a lab report, while the rest could include theories based on your research question and method for your experiment.// Adam Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jinye Posted August 31, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2012 Thank you!Yeah I've been in the school lab lately, and extracting only once takes a lot of time! I'll probably narrow it to 2 like you said.I did read the EE Chemistry Guide, and it is indeed very helpful. However, I can't find myself focusing on one specific topic about Chemistry to talk about in my essay, since there's so much to say about Organic Chemistry. For example, should I talk about the chilarity of the sugars? Or in the functional groups there? Because everything is related to the essay, but I can't obviously put everything there.I'm really confused ahah :/ Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jinye Posted September 11, 2012 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2012 I've narrowed my research question to this:Does the addition of sucrose or fructose affect the yield of extraction of caffeine using dichloromethane, from a brewed Nicola coffee?Do you think it can be further narrowed? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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