Extended Essay- English HL

[MaferZ]

Hi guys! I've just found about this page and tomorrow we have our first session to make our extended essays. I was thinking of making it about English literature, and one book I loved and read when I was a kid was Harry Potter.

I´ve been reading some comments and many of them say that an extended essay related to HP is not likely to get an A, I would like to know if it's a good option to choose this book although it may be a cliche, or maybe you could suggest me other topics.

My school is new in this, is its first years in the IB program so we don't have any reference in our school about previous essays.

Could you help me please?

[SeniorStatus14]

Hi! I suggest doing your essay on something you really like, like Harry Potter because if not the writing process will be agonizingly slow! I did my EE on Harry Potter in fact! My exact research question was; "To what extent does J.K. Rowling use mythology in the Harry Potter series to advocate societal values such as bravery, hard-working, power, and wisdom?" So basically each trait represented a different Hogwarts House. As much as I said I hated it while writing it, I actually really loved rereading each of the books a million times and analyzing each creature back to its origins and seeing if it could teach children things. I'm actually really proud of this essay as I put a lot of hard work into it (even if I did procrastinate majorly with my schools deadlines). I don't know how IB will grade my essay beause I'm in the class of 2014, but my EE mentor loved it and gave me an A. My school is also in its beginnings with IB as my class will be the 3rd IB class to graduate.

I think the trick is to find a topic thats never been done before or isn't seen a whole lot. Like, a lot of people write about mythology and Harry Potter, but how many people point out that it can be used to teach kids lessons and that its not just some silly book that parents let their kid read.

Good Luck on your EE!