Follow an extended essay from question to submission
Build a sequence of research decisions, useful drafts and final checks for an independent essay.
Know which task you are doing
The extended essay is independent research expressed through a focused academic argument, with a maximum essay length of 4,000 words. Start by recording your assessment session and the guide your school has supplied. A topic can be interesting without yet being a researchable question. Your first job is to identify what you want to find out, which disciplinary approach fits, and what evidence could support an answer. Keep these decisions visible in a one-page working brief that changes as you learn.
Make research produce decisions
A reading session should leave something you can use: a source evaluation, a clarified term, a narrower question or a tested claim. Record full source details when you first encounter material. Label quotations and your own interpretation separately. Ask what each source can establish and what it cannot. When sources disagree, investigate their evidence and assumptions instead of immediately choosing the one that agrees with you. Your research notes should help you explain why your eventual argument takes its particular form.
Build the middle before polishing the beginning
Once you have a plausible answer, sketch the chain of reasoning that would support it. Write a working paragraph for the part with the strongest evidence. This exposes whether you are analysing material or merely arranging summaries. You can draft sections in a practical order rather than reading order. Leave explicit placeholders for missing details, but do not use placeholders to conceal a missing central argument. The opening and conclusion become easier to write when you know what the body actually demonstrates.
Try a worked planning sequence
Imagine a student investigating representations of isolation in one novel. Week one's output is a shortlist of passages and a provisional analytical question. Week two tests whether narrative perspective, rather than every literary technique, gives the strongest focus. Week three produces two paragraphs comparing passages. One paragraph fails because it describes the plot; the student revises the claim to examine how narration limits access to other characters. These are illustrative milestones, not an official timetable. The useful feature is the evidence-led change in direction.
Use supervision at decision points
Before a meeting, send or bring the question, current progress and one consequential uncertainty. Explain what you have tried and the decision you are considering. Afterward, record your next action and the reason for it. Keep research and version history so you can discuss your work accurately. Supervisors support the process within the applicable rules; they do not replace your judgment or authorship. Consult your school's arrangements for drafts, formal reflection sessions and final submission before assuming that every type of assistance is available.
Reserve time to finish the actual file
A complete draft still needs a check that its question, evidence and conclusion agree. Remove material that does not advance the answer. Verify references against the sources, inspect figures and apply your guide's word-count rules. Open the exported submission file and check its pages rather than assuming the source document exported correctly. Keep the submitted version. A useful roadmap ends with a readable, traceable essay and completed required documentation, not with the moment you reach your intended word total.
Your next-step checklist
Checklist choices stay in this browser.
Official references
This is an original practical guide from IBvia. The examples are illustrative; your subject guide, assessment year and school instructions determine the requirements.
Keep working on your next step
Check your extended essay idea before committing
Test scope, source access and research methods so your EE question has a realistic route to an answer.
Read the guide ↗
Turn subject interests into extended essay possibilities
Use disciplinary lenses to create original starting points without treating a topic bank as a ready-made question.
Read the guide ↗