mia Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 The wordcount is 650-750 words per commentary. This includes diagrams. But there doesn't seem to be an agreement on what counts as a word in a diagram - does the label 'A' count as a word? Does a number count as a word? Does P1 count as a word? Does Psubsidy count as one word or two words?Or is this really trivial and not worth thinking about? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Glau Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 No it's not trivial at all actually. Imagine handing in your IA and then being marked down for something like word count Yeah anything you label on a diagram counts as a word. Even if you use 'S' to represent supply on your diagram, then S still counts as a word. But if you use a short form (ex. GPL to represent general price level) then GPL would count as one word. Make sure that somewhere in your IA you state that GPL means general price level though!So yes, P1 would be one word. As for Psubsidy, I've never used it in an IA but I use Pe to represent equilibrium price in diagrams and I count it as one word. So I guess Psubsidy would count as one word too 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maxy1896 Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 My teacher told me as well that all words in diagrams count as well. Even footnotes are supposed to be included in the word count. I haven't found any official document where it says what needs to be included in the count and what can be left out. Incidentally, I was told that in the extended essay words in footnotes and diagrams ARE NOT included in the count, why is that? Does anyone no where it says what needs to be included? Because I was asking myself too with the Ddomestic if this is two words or one word? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Glau Posted March 14, 2011 Report Share Posted March 14, 2011 The IB is so unclear about what count as a word and what doesn't, it's annoying. The best thing to do if you have a lot of words like Psubsidy where it could count as either one or two words is to write less than the limit of 750 words. When I was doing trade barriers for one of my IAs, the tariff diagram had a lot of words like that so I limited myself to 700 words, just in case the examiners have nothing better to do than to count words... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BronxNerd Posted March 16, 2011 Report Share Posted March 16, 2011 I didn't know diagrams counted as words!! My teacher never told me that! Oh well, I guess my IAs are staying like that. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Glau Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 (edited) Actually my economics teacher told us that IB is changing the syllabus soon so that words in diagrams do not count towards the word count. But since I'm a May 2011 candidate for economics I guess words in diagrams will still count for me I'm guessing it would apply to you too? Edited March 17, 2011 by Summer Glau Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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