A question on the Extended Essay

[Boksolar 0]

Hi,im a junior and i was wondering if you are able to do an EE on your native language.

for example, if you're chinese, with chinese parents, but have been living in the states for your entire life,

can you do an extended essay on chinese?

or is it against the rules to write it on your native language/culture?

[alefal 439]

Hey there!

In theory, there's nothing wrong with writing an EE on your native language / culture as long as it completely fits the subject in which it's written. For instance, you could write about a language itself and/or its culture, let's say Chinese, if you're studying the Chinese B subject, but not if you're studying Chinese A (as you'd have to study literary works in Chinese). If you're writing your EE in history, it should be exclusively a history essay (the historical events could have taken place in China or be very relevant to Chinese history, though).

It would be very helpful to know in what subject you're considering to write your EE, as that will give us a better idea of whether or not you could implement a commentary on the Chinese language or culture.

Good luck!

[Boksolar 0]

I'm actually thinking about writing it on some aspect of either chinese or japanese

since im taking both next year

English is my main

but since I'm taking english, chinese, and japanese it would be acceptable to write an essay on any of the subjects, since I'm taking the course for it right?

[maereth 27]

If you're taking chinese, you should probably ask your teacher how he feels about being your supervisor, because the EE simply has to be written in a particular way. If your teacher has previous experience with that and his students got good marks, you can do that. What levels of the languages you're taking?

[carpediem 125]

You also have to double check with your IB coordinator, on whether or not you can do the EE in Chinese. It may be an issue if you don't actually take Chinese as your Group 1 language, but you can do it for Group 2 subject if you already take Chinese B. If you don't take Chinese as a subject at all, you'll have to really make sure your IB coordinator approves of you doing an EE in a subject the school doesn't offer.

(Some IB coordinators have issues with doing EEs in subjects they don't offer; some don't. Doesn't hurt to ask before you find out your final EE is rejected during submission.)

Edited July 17, 2013 by carpediem