ThePenetrator Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Hey, guys! So as a second year IB student, I've started my work on the Extended Essay and have chosen to do it in English A1, as it's my favourite subject by a mile. After reading ''Rime of the Ancient Mariner'' in class, I was deeply intrigued with the poem and went on analyzing it for weeks, both in preperation of the oral exams and because the ballad struck me with its remarkable complexity. In my research, I found something very interesting about the poem, that being the alchemical thought both in Coleridge's own style of writing and noticably in some of the pieces he created. Interested even futher in this, I took apart Mariner in search of something to further this theory, and, to my surprise, found an overwhelming amount of evidence for it.After talking with my A1 teacher we agreed that this research would be a great starting point for my EE and that I should be able to focus on exactly that relationship between the Alchemical practice and ''Rime''. What I am struggling right now is the fact that after doing some googling with the keywords of the poem and ''alchemy'', I've found a few essay papers that mirror this idea if not completely then at least partially. One in particular, seemed to focus directly on the alchemical symbols in the poem and their relation to Coleridge. So what is there left for me to do? Should I change my EE topic because something similar has already been said on the internet or should I just push forward and try to create a more compelling display of evidence for the same theory? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariiia Posted October 25, 2014 Report Share Posted October 25, 2014 Hi! Ok well even if there is a lot of papers written about your topic, you can still write it about the same thing as long as you don't have identical essays. You can always use them as sources i they phrase something very nicely or something like that but maybe it would be a better idea to not read them to avoid plagiarism, even if it is accidental, and you seem to know enough about the topic to do without them anyways.Basically, go ahead and do your topic, and you can always change it later on if you need/want to. Hope this helps! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcurrant Posted October 26, 2014 Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 (edited) Go ahead and write on the topic all by yourself ( without reading those essays! ) If you read the essays, then there is a risk of undue influence -- and plagiarism. Edited October 26, 2014 by Blackcurrant 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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