The following layout considerations are stated on page 216 of the Extended Essay curriculum guide.

Please check your work to make sure that all of the following criteria are met:

• A title page
• A table of contents with headings used in the essay and the relevant page numbers
• Headings for subsections of your report.  Potential headings include Introduction, Background, Supporting research, Counter-evidence, Discussion, Conclusion, Works Cited.  Introduction and Conclusion are required.
• Images used must be carefully labeled and cited.
• Page numbers
• Use size 12 font and make sure that you double space your essay (or at least 1.5 spacing).  Do not change the default margins.

The following advice is about how to make your essay more reader-friendly.  Remember, these are being read online, so the more reader-friendly your essay is, the better! 

Students often lose marks for the following structural issues:

• Lacks a clear introduction or a clear conclusion
• Lacks paragraphing to assist the reader.  When paragraphs are two to three pages long, this loses marks.
• Paragraphs should either be indented - or a line must be skipped between paragraphs.  This is the most common reason for losing a mark for presentation.

First, under criterion D, the following mistakes will lower your marks:

• All sources are not listed in alphabetical order.  They should not be divided by type.  And always make sure that your reference starts with the last name.  Using first names means that your sources will not be alphabetized.
• Citation is "inconsistently applied."  Be careful not to write:  In a study called "An investigation into reconstructive memory" carried out by a psychologist named Elizabeth Loftus in 1974....
• Mixing both in-text citation and footnotes.  Please do not use footnotes.
• Poor presentation of the page.  Citations should be written as hanging indents with a line skipped between citations.  Also, do not write all in capital letters.  Finally, if there is a very long URL, please truncate the URL appropriately.

It is also important to note that there is a minimum requirement for citation. According to the guide, you must have the following information in the citation:

• Author
• Date of publication
• Title
• Page numbers

Failure to include this information means that it is not seen as a valid source.  This can have implications for criterion A where you assessed on your choice of sources. If you cannot find the date or author - do not use it.

The following information is in the Extended Essay guide.

• Tables should enhance a written explanation but should not themselves include significant bodies of text. If they do, then these words must be included in the word count. If you include a table with summaries of studies or an evaluation of studies, this will be added to the word count for your essay. This is seen as poor practice and often means that top marks are not awarded for criterion B or C since the text often is not able to explain ideas appropriately.
• Students must take care in their use of appendices as examiners are not required to read them. All information with direct relevance to the analysis, discussion, and evaluation of the essay must be contained in the main body of the essay. It is important to remember that the examiners do not read appendices.  If it is important to your essay, it must be in the body of the essay.

Finally - a hot tip. Google docs is a much-loved program used by schools.  However, it was never designed for publication. 

Before you upload ANYTHING for IB, first save your Google Doc as a pdf and check out how it looks!  Google Docs often exports a document that does not look like the one that you saved.  Many, many students lose marks because they are uploading from Google Docs and not looking at their document before submitting.  Don't be one of them.