The research question is so important, it must be

• clearly be stated at the end of your introduction, followed by your research thesis
• and on the title page
• there is no abstract in the EE.

The entire essay should be focused on the research question. The examiners mark every paragraph by referring back to the question as you phrased it.

Be careful to ensure that the wording is always exactly the same each time it is stated.

The best type of research question is highly focused.

When using "to what extent," always limit it to a single factor.  If you say "to what extent do sociocultural and biological factors" then this question means you are looking at a combination of those two factors, compared to other factors.  This is a question that is much too complex to be argued in 4000 words.

Check that your research question wording is always the same, on the title page and in the introduction.

Whenever possible, specify the population in which the research will take place. 

The introduction must

1. set the question into context,
2. outline how the argument will be made and
3. say why it is worthy of study.

Why you are interested in the topic is also part of the worthiness of the topic but that is something that you include in your reflections.

It is important to operationalize the variables in your research question. If you are going to discuss "aggression", for example, then you should explain how aggression will be defined in your essay.  Please be careful when choosing your definitions.  Every study that you use must fit the definitions that you have chosen.

The extended essay examiner will be looking to see if you have carefully chosen your sources as a part of the EE planning.

Please remember the following rules:

• All references must include a title, author, and date.  Any sources that do not meet those requirements should not be included.
• All sources that are listed in the references must be cited in-text - and vice versa
• If you use a direct quote, you must cite the page number.

It is important that you not copy references from other sources.  For example, when an EE examiner sees a student write: There is evidence that Social Learning Theory (Bandura 1967; Bandura & Crane 1972; Hannibal et al 1988, McCloskey & Barnett 2001) plays a key role in depression, this is potentially a case of plagiarism.  You should only cite sources when you use information directly from the source in your text.  Listing like this is not appropriate for the EE and may lead to questions about academic dishonesty.

The examiner is looking for a clearly stated logical step by step explanation.

It is important to break your EE into sections that focus on single aspects of your topic. And then, within each section, each paragraph should be devoted to a single idea or study. If you are starting an explanation of a second study in the paragraph, stop and start a new paragraph!

Each paragraph should begin with a "topic sentence" which clearly alerts the reader to the goal of the paragraph. A simple test of the reasoning of your paper is to simply list all of your topic sentences. Could this serve as a clear outline of how to answer the research question?

It is important that you don't just evaluate all the studies; it is more important that you evaluate the argument more holistically and focus on the strengths and limitations of the argument that you are creating.

The evaluation should be relevant to the question. If you are examining the effectiveness of SSRIs on the treatment of depression, the fact that only Americans were studied is probably not relevant. Ethics may also be rather superficial. The fact that a placebo group was not used, would be much more important in the evaluation of the research.

Being able to identify questions that remain is important. For example, you may have found in some of your research that men seemed to respond more positively to SSRIs than women do. However, this was not your research question. So, in your essay you may want to include that this is an area of research that needs to be developed.

You need to write in a clear and precise way to score highly on this aspect of the EE.

You also need to use psychological terminology correctly, showing a correct understanding of the terms. In order to demonstrate understanding, you should link it to the research. So, for example - "A problem with this study is that it is retrospective in nature, relying on the memories of the participants rather than observing their behaviour directly. This makes it difficult to know whether specific variables in the relationship led to divorce, or whether the negative feelings of the participant during the study led to a memory bias in which certain variables were seen as the cause of the divorce which may not have actually played a significant role."

A few very well developed critical points about a study is far superior to a long list of evaluation points which are generic and not clearly linked to the study.

The conclusion should be concise and include a reference to the research question.  It should not repeat all of the aspects of the argument that have been made.

There are lots of things to check here.  But none of them are difficult to do and there are 4 marks at stake.

Please do not use footnotes. Combining footnoting with in-text citation is penalized.

Remember, you should not include appendices in your paper. The instruction to EE examiners is that they are not required to read the appendices.

Please note - you should only have a "works cited" page - not a "bibliography."  A bibliography is defined as all the sources that you consulted, even if they are not cited.