Length
The body of the Extended Essay must have less than 4000 Words.
This page contains nearly 800 words. There is no room for padding and zero statements in your essay.
Title: less than 10 words: not part of the word count.
Contents: chapter headings and page numbers: not part of the word count.
Introduction: adapt material taken from books, journals, and/or web sites (more than one source). Usually several pages in length and up to 1500 words. Use photographs, diagrams etc. to reduce the word count. References are listed at the end of the essay. Select the most relevant material, and edit any writing taken from published sources.
Question: state a specific question in no more than 50 words, on a page of its own.
Methods etc: if measurements are reported as part of the essay, the methods section will be up to four pages long, including diagrams and photographs, containing about 1000 words Write about apparatus and computer programs, and how they were used. Photographs and diagrams reduce the word count. Write paragraphs in a past passive construction, about what was done. No lists: they look as though they were copied from somewhere.
Data (a specific title): measurements in tables with errors. Data in an essay could be in the form of images. If there are many tables, they are put in an Appendix. Data will occupy several pages, depending on what was done.
Analysis (a specific title): includes graphs and diagrams etc. derived from the data. Explanations in the analysis section may take 500 words.
Discussion: several paragraphs that may take 500 words.
Evaluation and suggestions for further work: may take 300 words.
References: follow a standard format: not part of the word count.
Acknowledgements: may be a few sentences: not part of the word count.
Style
1 Put what was done in the past passive, using was and were ... never I or we.
2 Remove padding and zero statements that mean nothing. eg. However, ... This is because that ... In order to....
3 Remove slang and vague numbers like .... pretty good ... a few ... about five times ...
4 Replace should with will.
5 Make sure your sentence lengths are varied to add life to your writing. Split up any sentences that are too long Make sure all sentences have a subject, a verb, and contain only one idea.
6 Read the whole document aloud, looking for repeated words and awkward sentences.
7 Check plurals ... s or no s ... was or were ... is or are ... Since this is a physics essay, remove any contractions like ... It's for it is and can't for can not.
8 Make sure ... a, an ... and ... the ... are correctly used. (Read, and listen to yourself. Find someone with time, and try reading it to them.)
9 Check that you have avoided the anthropomorphic fallacy. Put words you are not sure about in inverted commas. The motion detector was put on the floor 'face' up.
10 Spell check the entire document again.
Completeness
Ask yourself
1 Are all the headings in a consistent font, and is the hierarchy of sizes appropriate?
2 Are all symbols for variables in the text, and in any equations, in italics? Are all powers, subscripts, and superscripts in Roman, at size 10?
3 Is the text appropriately spaced, of an appropriate size, in a suitable font (Times New Roman) and are captions in a consistent font and size.
4 Is the word count (less than 4000 words) stated on the title page?
5 Is the abstract complete, succinct, well written, and less than 200 words?
6 Is the list of contents correct for titles and page numbers?
7 Is the question clearly stated on a page by itself?
8 Is the introduction relevant and does it lead to the question?
9 Is the methods section (however named) complete and well illustrated. Could your mother understand what you did?
10 [When appropriate], are errors stated and justified in the data section? ie. Have you taken sufficient readings (and repeated readings) etc. to determine the errors in your measurements without having to guess.
11 [When appropriate], are the graphs clear, and well presented in the analysis section with correct (calculated ) error bars and/or with extreme lines?
12 [When appropriate], are final errors (calculated and/or determined form extreme lines on graphs) stated as ± in the analysis section?
13 Is the meaning of each graph (by name and number) explained fully in the discussion section?
14 Have you discussed any limitations in your work in the discussion section?
15 Have you made suggestions for further enquiries?
16 Are all figures, tables and graphs numbered separately and correctly, and placed correctly, in the body of the essay or in an Appendix?
17 Do all figures, tables and graphs have captions?
18 Are the references, URL's, etc. correctly numbered and formatted?
19 Have you included acknowledgements?
20 Have you spell checked the entire document. and printed it on one side, of numbered pages, in color, three times?
Tired are we? If you are not tired, you have not been working.