EE Extended Essay on '1984' in English B

[zhanna2712]

Hello everyone. My subject area is English B and I'm writing my EE on Orwell's '1984'. I need your advice on my research question; my first option is 'How effective is the use of dystopian features in G.Orwell's 1984?'

And the second is: 'To what extent is the employment of technologies effective in creating a believable dystopia in George Orwell's "1984"?' 

I'm wondering which one is better and whether they're narrow enough. Also, if there are people who wrote their EE on "1984", please share your experience.

Thank you beforehand.

[klodelkolma]

I'd recommend finding another, less popular book to write your EE on. Since it's very popular, a lot of people write about it and it's automatically harder to get a decent mark. Btw, "1984" is one of our mandatory books for English B.

But if I was to choose the best RQ, I'd vote for the second one.

Good luck!

[Thrashmaster]

I did my EE (English A) on 1984 and Ayn Rand's Anthem, and I got an A on it, so it's still possible to get great marks on 1984 if you do something original!

 

And, that first research question you have is almost verbatim of what my first version of my research question was. However, I changed it a lot, because I wanted something more specific and more literary focused, but dystopia still played a big part in my EE.

 

But, looking at the two research questions, they seem pretty much the same to me. They have a different command term at the start, but overall you're just looking at how effectively Orwell created an atmosphere and tone of dystopia. But how do you judge that? Dystopia is only dystopia if it opposes what you believe is utopia. You'll need to define dystopia at the start of your EE for either of these questions (and, funnily enough, your definition will probably be influenced by 1984, since it is such an influential dystopian work on pop culture).

[zhanna2712]

I'd recommend finding another, less popular book to write your EE on. Since it's very popular, a lot of people write about it and it's automatically harder to get a decent mark. Btw, "1984" is one of our mandatory books for English B.

But if I was to choose the best RQ, I'd vote for the second one.

Good luck!

Thank you! I guess you're right that the novel is too popular but I think it is too late for me to change the book, especially given that our Ib coordinator expects us to have 4000 words by the 26th of August.

1984 was supposed to be our mandatory book as well, but strangely enough my class found it too hard to read.

Thanks again :3 

[zhanna2712]

I did my EE (English A) on 1984 and Ayn Rand's Anthem, and I got an A on it, so it's still possible to get great marks on 1984 if you do something original!

 

And, that first research question you have is almost verbatim of what my first version of my research question was. However, I changed it a lot, because I wanted something more specific and more literary focused, but dystopia still played a big part in my EE.

 

But, looking at the two research questions, they seem pretty much the same to me. They have a different command term at the start, but overall you're just looking at how effectively Orwell created an atmosphere and tone of dystopia. But how do you judge that? Dystopia is only dystopia if it opposes what you believe is utopia. You'll need to define dystopia at the start of your EE for either of these questions (and, funnily enough, your definition will probably be influenced by 1984, since it is such an influential dystopian work on pop culture).

Hi You are right about my research question, I'm not satisfied with it either. I'm thinking of changing it to "To what extent was the use of language, technologies and propaganda effective in creation of a believable dystopia in George Orwells’s ‘1984’? And I'm including the definition of dystopia in my EE, as well as analysis of literary techniques.

I don't even know what to do now, I'm sure I won't be able to write something original.

Thank you for your reply though, it was really helpful ^__^