maekida Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I'm struggling to understand the "categories" section of the extended essay guide. As far as I understand, if you're writing your essay in language A1 you have to study either ONLY works originally written in your own language OR compare at least one work written in your own language with another work translated from another language. Is this correct??I'm worried for two reasons here. My topic is the significance of a particular trait in fairy tale characters, and I'm comparing a broad range of fairy tales from different countries, focusing only on their treatment of that particular trait. But it's not really context-focused at all.Firstly, is it okay that I'm not studying the works of only one or two authors?Secondly, does this actually fit into either of the two characters?My supervisor okayed this topic but I'm having some serious doubts. Please help!!! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryoika Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I'm struggling to understand the "categories" section of the extended essay guide. As far as I understand, if you're writing your essay in language A1 you have to study either ONLY works originally written in your own language OR compare at least one work written in your own language with another work translated from another language. Is this correct??I'm worried for two reasons here. My topic is the significance of a particular trait in fairy tale characters, and I'm comparing a broad range of fairy tales from different countries, focusing only on their treatment of that particular trait. But it's not really context-focused at all.Firstly, is it okay that I'm not studying the works of only one or two authors?Secondly, does this actually fit into either of the two characters?My supervisor okayed this topic but I'm having some serious doubts. Please help!!!There are 3 categories of group 1 (A) extended essays:• Category 1—Studies of a literary work(s) originally written in the language in which the essay ispresented• Category 2—Studies of a literary work(s) originally written in the language of the essay compared withliterary work(s) originally written in another language• Category 3—Studies in language.Source : http://www.1lo.lublin.pl/Nfiles/EXTENDED_ESSAY.pdf Yes, you can do EE on your own language work or multiple language works. You can also do study in language itself. My teacher told me, for example, of a student who did his EE on the historical development on the word "cool." Firstly, is it okay that I'm not studying the works of only one or two authors?A: I am not an I.B. teacher or an adviser, so my opinion might be incorrect. But to be honest, I do not think that it is "safe" to study multiple fairy tales (more than 2) because E.E is supposed to be very narrow and focused. Since there is a need for it be focused and narrow (depth, not breath, is what my teacher used to say), it will be a little harder to write a good E.E if you focus on more than two fairy tales. I would suggest that you do it for two fairy-tales and compare/contrast the characteristics of the two characters in the tales. Secondly, does this actually fit into either of the two characters?A: I am not sure what you mean by this. Can you rephrase it for me? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maekida Posted December 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I meant to say, "does this fit into either of the categories?" No idea why I wrote categories... oops. Thanks for your advice re the broad scope of the question - I'm trying to narrow it down but I'm having such a hard time because my supervisor isn't responding to any of my messages. Really stressed! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maekida Posted December 15, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I have another idea which is to select one archetypal character, for example the evil stepmother, and compare and contrast her throughout several fairy tales. My problem is that if I were to narrow it down to only two I'm not sure what I would be trying to say, if that makes any sense. 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flinquinnster Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I agree with Ryoika in that you should aim to rapidly narrow your EE's focus - and I think that comparing the trait/traits of the evil stepmother archetype in different fairytales is a good start. If you are going to be looking at such a narrow character focus, I think that doing two texts would be a bit flimsy, as you mentioned - so I wouldn't hesitate to go to at least 4 - unless your fairytales are significantly longer/shorter than what I'm imagining... If it gets messy attempting to analyse and compare too many fairytales, I suggest that you could group your texts and analysis thematically. So, you could look at 4 overarching archetypes of the evil stepmother and compare them - and within each of your 4 'types', you could refer to one or two or even more fairytales as the textual evidence for quotes. Structure is always problematic - I eschewed the thematic approach for mine and just did 2 short stories end-on-end as I thought that the chronology of each individual story was critical to argument flow - but if you can narrow down your question and thesis, you will get a better idea on how best to structure your argument to make sense. And best of luck in getting in contact with your supervisor - it may be hard to, but I think doing a solid draft for EE in the summer holidays is the best way to go. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcurrant Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 (edited) Yep - as long as your EE question is well-focused you should go with more than two fairytales for a good spread of examples and sufficient material for comparison/contrast. Edited December 16, 2013 by Blackcurrant Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryoika Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 I have another idea which is to select one archetypal character, for example the evil stepmother, and compare and contrast her throughout several fairy tales. My problem is that if I were to narrow it down to only two I'm not sure what I would be trying to say, if that makes any sense.Hmm, since it's short stories (not 1000 page novels), it's possible that you might lack information if you focus on two short-stories. Maybe doing 3~4 is a better idea for short stories (fairy-tales).If you really brood over it and consider every steps before writing, you should be fine Do not be stressed! 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryoika Posted December 15, 2013 Report Share Posted December 15, 2013 (edited) I meant to say, "does this fit into either of the categories?" No idea why I wrote categories... oops. Thanks for your advice re the broad scope of the question - I'm trying to narrow it down but I'm having such a hard time because my supervisor isn't responding to any of my messages. Really stressed!Category 1 is where you only focus on one language, so English of course. Many fairy-tales are written in non-English languages and come from various cultures (plus, the most notable fairy-tale writers, the Grimmbrothers, are from Germany), so I think your E.E. is fitted for Category 2, not 1. Make sure you include at least one fairy tale ORIGINALLY WRITTEN IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE (not translated into English!).In other words, try to find fairy-tales written in English (British, Canadian, American, etc..) culture. Edited December 15, 2013 by Ryoika 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmpaLumpa Posted October 16, 2021 Report Share Posted October 16, 2021 So umm if I want to write Camus' Le pest what category does that belongs to?? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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