How can I write a 4000 word essay on Harry Potter?

[Guest AbbieOnFire]

Oh, hi!

So I need to have an EE topic and a super-visor by monday... and I'm still a on the fence on what to write about. I'm thinking of either ITGS [ The negative effects Video Gaming has on people and society as a whole ] or English--- something, anything to do with Harry Potter. Since I managed to write up an arguement on how Aunt Petunia could be a witch ranking up to 8200 words over the course of one weekend, I feel confident that a Harry Potter EE would be easy enough.

Trouble is, I don't know what the IB would want in a HP EE. =\ Help?

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Oh, hi!

So I need to have an EE topic and a super-visor by monday... and I'm still a on the fence on what to write about. I'm thinking of either ITGS [ The negative effects Video Gaming has on people and society as a whole ] or English--- something, anything to do with Harry Potter. Since I managed to write up an arguement on how Aunt Petunia could be a witch ranking up to 8200 words over the course of one weekend, I feel confident that a Harry Potter EE would be easy enough.

Trouble is, I don't know what the IB would want in a HP EE. =\ Help?

An EE in Harry Potter is fine as long as it is relevant to the subject you're writing in. i.e. it fulfills the criterias of a literature essay if you're writing it in A1.

HOWEVER the problem I see now is your topic.

Petunia is NOT a witch. JKR had specifically stated that. It doesn't matter if you can write 8K or 10K words on how she "could" be, it doesn't change anything. A literature EE is supposed to explore literature aspects of the work, not to prove something that blatantly isn't true. You can't take an irrefutable fact and try to prove it wrong, even when the author herself had stated that alternative to be impossible.

However, you could try to take an interpretation or view people have of the book/characters/plot etc and try to put a new spin on it and support that. For example, what you could do is take the general view that Dumbledore is a great wizard and debate whether he was great. The general opinion of characters in the book is that he is great...up to book 7, when there was finally all that stuff about his past. You could try and debate his so-called greatness through exploring his character, his motives etc. (actually I think this would be an interesting topic, with potentially loads of material to talk about...)

As for the ITGS idea, I think your current idea now is too broad. You want to narrow it down to a particular group in society, not talk about society as a whole, otherwise you'd end up with too many things to talk about.

[Guest AbbieOnFire]

Indeed. Thanks, this helps alot.

The whole Petunia debate was made just before the release of HBP, with Dumbledore's holwer to her still fresh in my mind. I was actually dissapointed at her minimal role and lack of revelations in DH-- but I thought Rowling handelled writing the Dursley's off extremely well.

As for the ITGS topic, yeah... I suppose you're right. I'm actually considering making it into preteens and/or teens or simply China. o.o;; Or was it Korea now? I haven't had my caffiene I can't think.

[kc4293]

The Harry Potter idea could be a good one, as long as you focus on a specific literary element (for an A1 paper, or philosophical element for Philosophy paper, or its role in culture for history(?) paper, etc.). I think the character development is wonderful in the books, and I sort of wish I had written about that for my paper, even though I did love my topic. I think HMSChocolate wrote a paper on Harry Potter book, though, so it's obviously do-able. The guidelines for A1 papers suggest that it needs to be a work of literary quality, but I think anything that you could spend 4,000 words of analysing on proably has some literary quality to it anyway, and I think HP should fit easily into that category. One of the books I compared was a fairy tale, so I'm just hoping that is acceptable too

[Guest mr_whatsisname]

geee...i would say,that in general, harry potter may not be the best idea for an english EE... it is a great book an all, but an IB examiner would expect something more sophisticated (that's what i think). I mean if the same examiner gets two EE's, the one about Harry Potter, and the other about Catcher in the Rye, i believe that he/she would be more in favor of the second...but that is just may idea...i am only trying to think as a grown up

[Afterglow]

geee...i would say,that in general, harry potter may not be the best idea for an english EE... it is a great book an all, but an IB examiner would expect something more sophisticated (that's what i think). I mean if the same examiner gets two EE's, the one about Harry Potter, and the other about Catcher in the Rye, i believe that he/she would be more in favor of the second...but that is just may idea...i am only trying to think as a grown up

Not neccessarily. It's not about what book your researching on but more what you are researching for and how well you that.. As long as there is a very good research topic and that the novel of your choice is the right pick for your topic, then it should be fine. Of course, the examiner might have his or hers personal opinions but they need to discard those and then do an objective assessment.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

I've said this before. Doing EE on something like HP is a gamble. Some examiner love the idea, some might hate it. You never know who you're going to get. Usually when you do something like HP (like I did) it's because you enjoy it...so realy in the end...that makes up for it if you do happen to get a bad grade (for me it would have anyway, but I got 28/36 - a B, when an A was 30/36 so I can't say it's a half bad idea).

[whattheazn]

For EE, the more analysis and more evidents to support the topic explain the effect and significant will earn a higher grade. I am doing my EE on the holocaust.