I turned in my fucking draft as my final essay and still almost got a perfect score

~4.11.18~

After some thought and caffeine, I figured out a way that will help with essay planning and structure.

I took notes/research, writing down everything that was relevant to my essay question. I noted down references, statistics and what I already knew on the topic. I didn’t worry too much if it was all jumbled amongst each other. I then took a large A3 piece of card, wrote my title/question in the centre and the key points around the edge in a spider mind map style. Using my post-its, i then made minimal notes from my research and stuck them around and moved them to help decide on a logical, concise order to form my essay plan and structure.

Throughout my research process, I also wrote down any sentences/paragraphs that came to me from my notes that would stand as the basis for actual paragraphs in my draft, that I can then tweak to perfect. I will add those to my plan/structure in a different colour too so that I can keep track.

From this, I will build my draft and tweak where appropriate to create what will hopefully be a pass worthy essay.

Whoo, you’ve finished IB1, exams are behind you, you can almost taste the lie ins and you’re already planning your post-exam holidays for next may. But wait, there’s one huge thing standing in the way: THE EE! It seems entirely overwhelming and you have no idea how to start, let alone how you’re going to get 4000 words written. This is exactly what I’ve just gone through, and I think I’ve found a great way to Get. It. Done.

Step 1: The question.

You’ve got to find something you’re actually interested in if you’re going to make it all the way. So, formulate a great question, make sure it’s focused and specific, as well as actually being in one single subject so that you can find the perfect mentor. Mine ended up being ‘How far could Kant’s Categorical Imperative provide a guiding principle within biological research’. It’s a philosophy essay and focuses on just one scholar.

Step 2: The mentor

Finding a good mentor will allow you to actually get it done, and give you the most support possible. Don’t choose your favourite teacher because that’s not going to go very well, let’s be real. I chose a teacher that is really organised, so he could give me advice and support, and he also set up regular meetings to check my progress.

Step 3: The guide

Before you start writing, make sure you know what you should write. If you search ‘IB EE (your subject) guide’, you’ll find a specific guide which explains how each of the criteria sections applies specifically to you. If you know how to succeed, it’ll make it easier to write.

Step 4: The sections

If you ignore everything else in this post, this is my single biggest tip. Break that whopping 4000-word essay into easy 500-word chunks. That means that it is easier to focus on what you need to write, and makes it easier to reach the word count. While it’s okay not to write 4000 words, most high scoring ones will need to be at least 3500. But it also allows you to know how significant the section needs to be. Mine were: Intro 500, Kant 1000, Criticisms 500, Applications 500, Examples 1000, Conclusion 500

Step 5: The writing

Just write as much as possible. Literally, just write. Keep a record of the sources you use so that you know where to add references, but apart from that just put everything onto paper, so that you’ve made a start. I tackled one section a day, and it only takes like an hour to get each one done.

Step 6: The editing

Now that you’ve written it, edit the hell out of it. Add references, move paragraphs, change words, add facts, rewrite conclusions or introductions, and check that the whole thing flows well. I took out whole sections and moved almost 6 paragraphs into different sections.

26/100 days of productivity

i dont think it is exactly the same in becoming as the "y2k" aesthetic as there is definitely some self-awareness but their designs but they seem very honest. it feels like a lot of stuff that the average joe (of the small down that i live in) wouldn't really get but it was able to catch on enough that people like it and replicate it (including me) (this is my only point of reference in life (i am leaving for college in a bigger city the coming august))

the 2020s is really where i see this die off. of course, people were doing similar things in the 90s 00s and 10s, but, at least from my perspective, it *feels* like (i *think* that) there isn't a lot of new stuff going on and design at the front of popularity is all based on nostalgia. its obviously because the terror of the coronavirus pandemic and linked lockdown made people want something other than this, and the only thing we (we as in me too) could think of is something in the past, and we latched on to those nostalgic feelings. it very well could be that i am just not in the right circles, but it feels like the millennial epidemic of the 2010s.

the "millennial epidemic of the 2010s" was (and still kind of is, just with a new generation) the phenomenon of people only relying nostalgia from their childhood to make new media. see: retro "8-bit" style games, the wave of indie horror games being all "ps1/psx/n64" style, and video game channels only talking about games from 10+ years ago. Really what i mean by "millennial epidemic of the 2010s" is just a symbol for the nostalgia-obsessed framework of enjoying and creating media that *feels* (that i *think* is) most popular nowadays (i know this is provably untrue, but unfortunately most of my being was in the 2010s).

what do i really want? something new. something different. even something like the 2010s web brutalism feels fresh in a day and age that *feels* dominated by 90s and y2k aesthetic. everything i see (and do! i will admit, as i have before, that i am a perpetrator! i myself am trying to better myself in this department!) seems like it is all nostalgia ridden. I know that new things come from riffs on old ideas, but is it really new when it is designed to be like it was from a certain era? i think we should stop the nostalgia circlejerk and try and think of something outside a box in which we must categorize everything. take my hand, and together we can be part of the revolution

Here's my essay draft and notes on both the official draft and in my notebook.

includes introduction, begging paragraph on Kensuke Koike, talking about curating and my idea

Here are my idea notes and sketches for my essay in my notebook, includes essay planning