The first draft

This section covers supporting the submission of the first draft and your responsibilities
in relation to providing feedback on the first draft.

These include:

• Developing and using a checklist

• Guidelines for providing quality feedback
• Guidelines for the essay return meeting

What does this mean for this section?

The requirements of submitting the first draft and the final version of the extended are
very similar. By establishing the same procedure on both occasions it will assist the
student immensely at this stressful moment in their final year. The extra requirements for
the final submission will be dealt with in the next module

Submission of the first draft

This activity is designed to enable participants to develop a key support resource.

What should I do if the first draft is ready to be submitted?

Writing a checklist

Another suggestion put forward by many experienced supervisors involves a checklist for
the first draft and the final presentation copy.

There are many variations of the checklist:

• The first and most basic form of the checklist is one that is used by the student to
guide them when presenting their first draft.
• The supervisor when reading through the first draft can use a similar checklist.
This can be a little more sophisticated involving the dimensions of critical
analysis, historical judgement and historical understanding.
• Both of these checklists can be used again, with some appropriate adjustments, for
the final presentation copy.

They should include the following examples:

Checking references and bibliographies

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It is advisable to remind your students before the date for handing in the first draft that
you do expect correct referencing and so on and remind them how to do it.

Word count

This restriction is strictly enforced. Examiners are told not to read or mark beyond the
4,000 words if this is exceeded.

Resource development activity: The first draft checklist

Resource development activity

What does a checklist look like?

As you progress through this PD module, you can determine what you would like to
include in this checklist. Feel free to use the discussion forum to establish the key
elements of a checklist.

This checklist can have two versions: one for the student and one for the supervisor.

The supervisor's version can include reminders to ensure all relevant information is
communicated to the student, also room for individual checks for students who it already
been determined require specific feedback.

Activity objective:

Participants will:

• design a checklist to guide students when submitting their first draft for feedback

Instructions - Resource development activity

Actions required: Complete the following resource development activity

1. Read the relevant topics in this module.

2. Determine what you would like a student to ensure before

handing you the first draft.

3. Writing up a resource for student distribution

Outcome: A series of resources to support the response to the first draft

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The first draft: what is good, quality feedback?
What should feedback on the first draft achieve?

You will have given a date for the first draft to be handed to you. No doubt some students
will seek help and encouragement during the period they are writing it, while others will
go away and appear with it on the appointed day. Each of these students should have a
clear idea of what they must achieve with the first draft. This goal should be established
by you before this feedback stage begins to ensure they are working towards the required
goal.

A checklist as a support mechanism

It is a good idea to provide all your students with a checklist of what the first draft must
have included to ensure the meeting is as productive as possible. This provides you with a
mechanism to guide the meeting, allowing the student to clearly identify the actions that
should come out of the meeting. An almost identical second checklist can also be used to
support the final submission. This will be a focus in the final PD module. As a start you
should ensure that your students include in their submission the following elements:

• research question
• contents page
• page numbers
• correct and consistent reference notes
• conclusion
• bibliography
• abstract.

Comments: verbal or written?

Some supervisors, to ensure they do not overly annotate the essay, type up comments on
a separate sheet of paper and use this to structure their discussion with the student. They
can then use this as the basis of a follow-up email to add any comments or clarifications
that result from their reflections after the meeting has ended. The supervisor is also
establishing a record of the discussion.

What about the abstract?

Please note: the abstract should not be written until the essay has been completed. Do not
ask the students to engage with this task just yet.

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Defining quality feedback
What does quality feedback involve?

This is a very important part of your responsibilities as a supervisor, and is essentially a

rather delicate operation. Without heavily annotating the draft, you have to indicate
faults, explain how the essay can be improved, and also avoid discouraging the student.
In other words, tact and a thorough knowledge of the criteria are essential!

Should it require a formal interview? Should it involve other teachers as well?

You will of course have to read the essay before meeting the student to discuss it. You
must not annotate it heavily, as this would be rewriting it for the student, and constitute
your work, rather than theirs.

What should the feedback focus on?

On the question of feedback, one supervisor suggested that

"Once students have completed the first draft and I've had time to read it, we once again
meet. At this point, I go through the main issues that I've found. In general, most of the
discussion is on the appropriateness of the research question (does it still fit or make
sense, now that the research is done?), whether or not the paper is organized in a manner
to answer the research question, if the evidence is relevant and helps answer the research
question, and if the analysis is consistent. "

It might seem strange to return to the issue of the research question at this stage of the
extended essay but often a student has consciously, unconsciously, or inadvertently
developed an answer to a slightly different research question. As this supervisor suggests,
having established that the research question is still relevant or made an adjustment, the
feedback should focus on the basic elements of the extended essay such as the quality of
the research, the selection of evidence and the construction of the argument.

An overview from the senior examiners

The senior examiners consulted during the development of this workshop wanted to
stress the following points.

They noted that the essays submitted in each session seem to produce their own collective
weaknesses. The most recent ones-some old, others newer are:

Essays with

• no research question and poor titles

• unsuitable and/or, too wide topics
• too long introductions

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 • weak and inconsistent referencing
• essays with only quotations referenced
• bibliographies not listed correctly,
• lack of focus for example, the essay answers a different question
• essays which exceed the word limit, and lie about it.

These comments provide a sound basis for establishing the parameters of your feedback.

Three possible dimensions to providing quality feedback

1. Make notes on a separate sheet of paper and give the student as much oral advice as is
necessary. For example, you can note if there are no page numbers, or insufficient
reference notes, and you must plan how to explain to the student how to rectify these and
other weaknesses and problems.

2. Consider and comment on the draft from the point of view of the following:

• Narrative
• Description
• Analysis

3. When necessary, provide suggestions on how you advise the student on adopting a
more analytical approach.

Strategy development: First draft feedback meeting

Strategy development: Planning your feedback on the first draft

The feedback on the first draft involves responding to the first draft and also providing
advice to the student on how to develop the essay further.

Developing a strategy outline for this providing this feedback will involve the following:

• identifying a list of actions that should happen before, during, and after (both
short term and long term) this meeting
• identifying the resources required for your reference and the students
• identifying possible issues that might arise and determine appropriate responses.

Developing a strategy outline

What is a strategy outline?

A strategy outline is a self-constructed support resource where a teacher who is

encountering a new role and associated responsibilities can identify and plan the options
for action as part of their decision making process. It is designed to include the

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implications of an action in relation to aspects in their professional performance. A
strategy outliner is therefore intended to provide the teacher with a support mechanism.

In other words, a strategy outline provides you as a professional in a demanding role with
a reference resource for planning meetings and interactions with your students. It enables
you to capture and detail the aims and objectives of the meeting, resources required,
possible activities than can be involved in the meeting, and the follow up required. This
increases the quality of your interactions with students, reduces the preparation time and
provides you with an ongoing overview and checklist of the student's progress, especially
if related to a performance contract and timeline.

Strategy outlines ensure you are fully prepared for the meeting each time and can be
improved upon as you find or develop new resources and activities. The Learning
Pathway, to be introduced in Topic 3.3, can also be implemented via your strategy
outlines. They also provide you with the opportunity to reflect upon your teaching
practices and implement improvements, if appropriate.

Guiding questions:

• What are the communication goals for the meeting?

o How do you intend to achieve these?
• What outcomes do I want from this meeting?
o What is the timeframe for these subsequent actions?
• What common concerns will a student have regarding this meeting and its
goals/outcomes?
• What common difficulties does a student face regarding these goals/outcomes?
• What has already been communicated to the student?
• Should anyone else be involved in the meeting or be informed of the meeting?
• What activities might support the meeting's goals and outcomes?
• What follow up is required, and by whom, from the meeting?
• What resource will I use during this meeting?

A complementary resource is a meeting or submission agreement or Student tracking

form that can be used in conjunction with the supervision contract.

Understanding the aims and objectives of assessment

What is your role as a supervisor?

The IBO assessment criteria are very explicit on how they will assess an extended essay.
In other words an excellent piece of research and argument will not always ensure a high
mark.

Read the following extract from the extended essay report - May 2003 in History.

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"Every session there are a considerable number of essays that are highly regarded by
supervisors (on the evidence of predicted grades, comments on the cover sheet, enquiries-
upon-results, etc.) but which sadly do not achieve the grade expected. From an
examiner's perspective, many candidates lose marks for reasons that could so easily be
avoided."

For the purpose of this section of the workshop this quote suggests two things. The first is
that supervisors are not sufficiently aware of the assessment criteria and process to advise
the student when they are presenting an essay that will not be rewarded in this context.
The second is that supervisors can also fail to provide simple advise on basic elements of
the essay's final presentation.

In the end, an extended essay is the student's responsibility and this should never be
forgotten by the supervisor. However, the supervisor can play a role in ensuring that the
student has the best opportunity to gain an appropriate mark for their efforts and ability.

Identifying the easy marks

"A surprising number of essays would score 5, even 8 marks more with careful attention
to such basic points"

Extended essay report (History) - May 2003

Saving marks the easy way

When asked, a principal examiner will frequently identify where the students lose easy
marks. From their long experience of assessment, they have identified for this workshop
where marks can be, (and are), lost:

Criteria Problem Marks lost

A no research question (or thesis statement) 2
E no conclusion 2
F no abstract 2

abstract exceeds 300 words

research question, scope or conclusion is

missing
G essays exceeds 4,000 words at least 3
no contents page, page numbers up to 3
J no evaluation of sources 3

It is perhaps worthwhile building this table into the student's checklist.

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