Eight steps to success with 
The Individual Study / Extended Essay

Subject choice (when allowed)

In some cases you will be given the topic you are to study: in others you will be left to choose your theme and title. Where you have a choice there are a number of issues to consider. (a) It is important to choose a subject which will interest you and sustain your motivation. (b) There is no sense, however, in opting for a topic for which you cannot obtain information. Before you settle the subject it is good sense to explore what information you can obtain either immediately or within a short time span. However brilliant or inspiring your projected title is, without accessible information about it you will be unable to write a good assignment.

Early steps

1. As soon as the title is settled, collect a minimum of 5 to 7 books. Your books should range from short general accounts from texts covering a wider timespan to detailed books solely on your topic. Scan through your books to become familiar with the contents relevant to your topic. Also, keep a look out for journal articles and CD-Roms and videos relevant to your study. You will be disadvantaged if you gain sources only a few days before your assignment is to handed in.

2. Then, unless you are already very familiar with the topic, read a concise account in order to gain an overview.

Investigation-led study: the most important step

3. With your overview reading in mind write out about eight key questions that you think need to be answered to understand the topic. Why did ‘x’ happen? What were the consequences? What was the importance of ‘y person’ or ‘z event’? (You may also wish to consider counterfactuals: suppose a policy had not succeeded, what would have been the consequences?

Note. The surest way to produce a study of substance is to make your work question led. Question-led study will lead you away from a narrative dissertation. Much of your reading will be guided by your search for answers to the questions you generate as you deepen your insights and understanding. Better students will be active, adventurous and resourceful in the search for information. And, because the questions come from you, you will have made it your study and not a ‘cut and paste’ summary of historians’ work.

Break-up of the assignment into small steps to manage your time

4. Dealing with one of your 8 or so questions at a time, read parts of one or more of your books that help give answers the question. You should not need to make a huge number of notes because you are gathering information and ideas to answer only one of your questions.

5. Write out what you consider to be the answer to the question, adding information to illustrate and support your statements.

6. With one of your questions dealth with, repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other questions. With the questions answered you have your anaysis of the topic in rough.

Note. You have divided your overall study task into about 8 question-led sections. Loosely divide the time allowed for the assignment into the same number as the sections and focus on one section at a time. You have broken the major project into smaller, manageable, parts. Such a division will enable you to pace yourself over the time allowed. As you complete each part you have the satisfaction of progress. The greatest reason for under performance is that work is crushed into hectic and hasty activity just before the deadline.

Tackling each step, one at a time

7. The questions to which you will seek answers provide the small units, the steps in the bigger study task and the units of paced work as you build up your rough draft.

The answers to your questions will be the backbone of your study. Needless to say, you do not write your study in a question and answer form but the content of what you write will have been generated by answers to your questions. For example, you change the questions ‘Why did Hitler insist on the death of Rommel?’ into ’The reasons for Rommel’s death’. Your answers to your questions, added together, become the first draft of your study.

Note. When you read to find answers to your questions, only brief notes are needed before you write your conclusions. In this way, the amount of general note-making is reduced.

Note. When you write your rough draft, it is a good idea to write on every other line, a practice usually followed by authors. This makes the refinement of your account for the final draft easier.

Note. As you work, aim to be prepared to discover new issues that could be considered and to search for new sources. You may find your earlier ideas of the shape of the study change as you progress but this is good, a sign of your full involvement in the subject.

Changing a rough draft to a final draft

8. When you allocate time for your study remember to leave at least seven working days to revise and refine your first draft and to write your finished study. You will be surprised by how much you are able to improve your account and improve its tone when you write the finished draft. Only when your study is completed should you write the introduction because only then will you know exactly what is to be introduced.

Postscript: Have a look at the online study guide for advanced students on this web, especially Chapters 2, 3, 6 and 10.