IB Extended Essay Topic

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Yes learning how to learn is very important considering college will be mostly self teach? (Or so I've heard).

College will be mostly self taught. The hard part of learning how to learn is understanding how you best process information and adapting existing tools to help you do that.

There is another important skill and that is prioritizing. That doesn't mean working on whatever is due next first, it means being able to estimate how much time and effort will be required to complete each assignment. In college, you almost always have more demands on your time than you have hours to spend. That is why I told you the most efficient way to approach your extended essay project.

 

[busydude]

I'm going to tell you the secret of good essay writing. Never pick something you're interested in, want to learn more about or, hold strong opinions on. Go to a library and peruse the books on Japan. Find a topic there is plenty of information about and, is easily defended. THEN, tell your teacher what topic you've picked.

I wish I met you when I was in grade/high school.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I wish I met you when I was in grade/high school.

Me too.

When I started writing papers in college, everything was do or die. I kept trying to write TRUTH (the hell with capitalizing just the 'T') and change society, the world and EXPRESS MYSELF /caps.

Thank God I had a great teacher for English 101. She taught me the skills and the right approach to writing in college. She knew I knew nothing about English, grammar or, style. She told me to just do what she taught me and promised I'd do well on all my writing assignments. I did and got 'A's in all my writing classes at school. If I'd had a teacher like her in HS, I might have gone to English.

 

[Meghan54]

I think what Magnus is trying to say is that if you do your research paper on a subject you know well and are passionate about, you'll shortchange yourself in how to do the proper research.

Since the topic you're wanting to choose is something you know well, you'll end up going right back to the same "sources" you learned from, come to the foregone conclusion you already have, and do a half-assed paper based on very biased research.

On the other hand, if you choose a subject you know little about, you'll actually have to do your research from the beginning, uncover small nuggets of information that may lead you in a different direction entirely, and you'll learn the process completely. After all, isn't this assignment to learn how to research and put what you found into a coherent, focused argument?

To me, researching something you know well is like a Teabagger Republican researching the Democrats. Going in with preconceived ideas will only result in a regurgitation of what you already know and ignore anything else that doesn't fit your expectation of what you should "discover" in your research.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

I think what Magnus is trying to say is that if you do your research paper on a subject you know well and are passionate about, you'll shortchange yourself in how to do the proper research.

Since the topic you're wanting to choose is something you know well, you'll end up going right back to the same "sources" you learned from, come to the foregone conclusion you already have, and do a half-assed paper based on very biased research.

On the other hand, if you choose a subject you know little about, you'll actually have to do your research from the beginning, uncover small nuggets of information that may lead you in a different direction entirely, and you'll learn the process completely. After all, isn't this assignment to learn how to research and put what you found into a coherent, focused argument?

To me, researching something you know well is like a Teabagger Republican researching the Democrats. Going in with preconceived ideas will only result in a regurgitation of what you already know and ignore anything else that doesn't fit your expectation of what you should "discover" in your research.

Even if you don't know the topic well, everyone has preconceived notions. So, what happens is, you start looking for sources to support them consciously or not. Worse, you attempt to educate the reader as to what you believe are the important factors. It's a recipe for disaster.

You will never be able to consolidate the information and make sense out of it in the preconceived structure you began with. You have to let the information suggest it's own structure and adopt the hierarchy of beliefs that numerous other authors already presented. It doesn't mean you can't find new insight, it just means there's not going to be any revelations.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

On my topics. I honestly don't have any knowledge of except from what I read in the news paper.

The two topics that I've narrowed it down to is

1) the energy crisis in japan
2)shift in demographics of the population of japan

 

[SandEagle]

a buddy of mine once wrote a paper for his remedial english class. the title was something like 'The Coin Father'. it was about a dime who kept getting harrassed by a bunch of nickels and one day the dime had enough and engaged the quarter, who was the coin father, to settle the dispute. it had a Godfather type story behind it. i remember some coins doing a drive by too. anyway it was the dumbest thing ive ever read and a whole bunch of us laughed at him for years. truly asom times.

maybe you can write a japanese version of it called 'The Yen Father' or something?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

a buddy of mine once wrote a paper for his remedial english class. the title was something like 'The Coin Father'. it was about a dime who kept getting harrassed by a bunch of nickels and one day the dime had enough and engaged the quarter, who was the coin father, to settle the dispute. it had a Godfather type story behind it. i remember some coins doing a drive by too. anyway it was the dumbest thing ive ever read and a whole bunch of us laughed at him for years. truly asom times.

Dick move bro. He probably would have been a great author of children's stories but then you go ahead and make him feel like shit so now he's unemployed and battles his endless depression by selling the organs of old ladies for coke money.

 

[SandEagle]

Dick move bro. He probably would have been a great author of children's stories but then you go ahead and make him feel like shit so now he's unemployed and battles his endless depression by selling the organs of old ladies for coke money.

actually he dropped out and works as a gas station attendant. he loves the job though. i think.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

actually he dropped out and works as a gas station attendant. he loves the job though. i think.

Lol

 

[OverVolt]

http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/di...um/extended-essay/what-is-the-extended-essay/

I've written several papers of that length. Its not too bad once you do the research and get into the swing of things. You will need 10-30 sources. Just FYI. I suppose if you were citing whole books (Like 100-300 page paperbacks), probably about 3-5 books.

When you follow the citation trail you'll find alot of sources leading back to similar places.

Anyway. I think Magnus is right.

What field of study are you interested in? Sciences? Economics? Social studies?

I doubt the OP still needs help after 3 years and the person who necro'd this is a spammer.
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