How much emphasis is needed for research for english A1

[subido69]

I plan to do an extended essay on the elements of Nietzschean philosophy in The Sea Wolf by Jack London. I have already written the majority the essay and know exactly what I want to say. The only problem is that my advisor is telling to place emphasis on the liteary part while the IB coordinator is stressing finding experts who agree and disagree with me. Who is more correct? Should I make sure to have everything backed up by some historian or be able to put my own ideas within the essay? Comments, suggestions, criticisms are welcome

[Hyperbole]

While working on my EE (Swedish A1), I got the impression that it is very important that you show that it is a literature essay. This means that you should show, in the Introduction, why and how this topic is literary, and that every part of the essay should be all about literature.

At the same time, citing other people's opinions is a useful way to back up your own ideas; you should not skip it completely. I often used quotes from secondary sources to start off an argument, and then went on to show what it was in the novels that made me think so.

I guess the bottom line in my experience is that you shouldn't lose the literary aspect of the essay. If you don't make sure to connect it to literature, the examiner might wonder why you didn't write it in History or whatever, and that's definitely something you want to avoid! But don't completely skip taking into account secondary sources, by no means do that.


Also, that said, I don't know the score of my EE yet and so I may have completely failed. My supervisor doesn't think so, and this is the advice she gave me. I hope you find a good balance!


Oh, by the way! Has your supervisor helped with many EEs before? Who is the most experienced, and whom do you trust more: your supervisor or your coordinator? It might be likely that your supervisor knows the requirements for the subject better than the coordinator does...