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I need some help coming up with an EE question.


Abby Appel

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Okay, I have an idea that I want to work with The Great Gatsby, and I want to look at the differences between West Egg, and East Egg. Look at the differences between the two. Almost like looking at how the hollowness of the upper class, like Tom and Gatsby and all, compares to the lower class, with Myrtle, and George. I also wanted to focus on the literary aspects of how he describes the two.

I just need help putting this all into a research question. Could anyone please help me?

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I'm no expert on English, let alone Gatsby, and I certainly don't know if there is enough content that you can analyse with the following suggestions.. but hopefully something sparks an idea! I'm not sure whether these suggestions are even good… just tried to phrase questions according to the information you had above.

  • In what ways are West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby different/similar?
  • How does Fitzgerald describe and compare West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby?
  • To what extent is West/East Egg more *insert descriptive word here* than East/West Egg in The Great Gatsby? This would allow you to compare a specific thing, but you could also compare other sub-things under that. If that even makes sense...

The best thing is actually for you to try and come up with an EE question - even if it's phrased badly. You probably have the best idea of the arguments you want to write about, so just try and write a question. You could even ask your EE supervisor to give you some ideas and feedback on any research questions you're thinking about.

If you're still stuck, read the EE syllabus, and check out some past english IAs - it might prompt you into figuring out how to phrase your question.

Just remember.. the research question should be specific and sharply focused.

hope this helps! :)

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I'm no expert on English, let alone Gatsby, and I certainly don't know if there is enough content that you can analyse with the following suggestions.. but hopefully something sparks an idea! I'm not sure whether these suggestions are even good… just tried to phrase questions according to the information you had above.

  • In what ways are West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby different/similar?
  • How does Fitzgerald describe and compare West Egg and East Egg in The Great Gatsby?
  • To what extent is West/East Egg more *insert descriptive word here* than East/West Egg in The Great Gatsby? This would allow you to compare a specific thing, but you could also compare other sub-things under that. If that even makes sense...

The best thing is actually for you to try and come up with an EE question - even if it's phrased badly. You probably have the best idea of the arguments you want to write about, so just try and write a question. You could even ask your EE supervisor to give you some ideas and feedback on any research questions you're thinking about.

If you're still stuck, read the EE syllabus, and check out some past english IAs - it might prompt you into figuring out how to phrase your question.

Just remember.. the research question should be specific and sharply focused.

hope this helps! :)

Ahh, thank you ever so much. It does help.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I think comparing the Great Gatsby to other similar works that have similar themes will be more effective.

Truth be told, the extended essay topic now seems like the class essay I did when I read that book.

To get a good grade, your topic should be more developed/complex. :dontgetit:

All the best. :blowkiss:

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Yeah, I love the idea of comparing West Egg and East Egg, but ideally those concepts come into play for doing your oral commentary (it did for mine) or class essays. Like said before, you can use that idea and compare it to another book that shadows the same theme. And then you can delve more into it by comparing the lit devices used...or something like that

Good luck! :)

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There is absolutely no need to look to other books to compare your one book to, unless you want to. I think your topic idea is very interesting as it stands and there is no need to change it. Focusing it to West and East Egg would allow you to look into academic literature written about the subject as well!

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HI IM SO EXCITED WE HAVE THE SAME EE BOOK! I'm doing unreliable narration in the great gatsby (finished my first draft two weeks ago). You've probably already started writing by now, but all the same, it'd be nice to have someone to talk to about the book! I love your topic - there's heaps to write about and you can certainly connect it to lots of major themes.

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I kind of agree with SmiledBeloved and ak18. We did varios presentations and essays related to The Great Gatsby and, although your idea of comparing West and East eggs is fantastic, I am not sure that you will have enough content to fill the 4000 words, instead I feel like you will get kind of overwhelmed. So, if you want to keep the initial topic, you should look for other texts that have kind of the same theme/idea of the eggs and compare them :lol:

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