English Lit. EE (help me pls)

[tash_a]

Hello fella ib students! I am very new to this, but I desperately need help to any of you who are willing to

I am doing my EE on english lit, and my topic is: "an examination of Emily Dickinson's treatment of nature on a selection of her poetry." My supervisor suggested me to choose this topic.

Now, my research question, I believe, can still be refined, and so far what I got is "How does Emily Dickinson’s treatment of nature in [four to six] of her poems help to convey her questions in life and her psychological state of mind?"

What do you think? I am a little bit concerned that I will focus too much on her life/biography, and from what I've read in the IB guide it says that “Essays that interpret literary works in terms of the writer’s life tend to produce reductive readings based on second-hand information. Such essays receive low marks and the IB therefore advises students to avoid biographical topics.”

My supervisor said that I dont have to worry too much since I can just focus on how the poems convey the meaning of life in general than oppose to what the poet thinks. Nonetheless, I am still in my second semester of year 11, and I think I can still develop my RQ. I have other ideas which still have Dickinson's nature poems as a focus:

- Comparative study on her nature poems with other poets.

- Focus on the two ways she approach or represent nature in her poems.

I would really appreciate anyone's help tbh!! Give me your opinions

[kw0573]

A general tip is that once you know the topic, you should start research and a draft. You should always be free to slightly modify your RQ in light of new information from your research and change your RQ to suit what you have researched. It's pretty much useless to focus intently on few words at this point in your writing process. The equivalent of this in writing is to prioritize content revision over grammar mistakes when you first edit your draft. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by kw0573