The Ultimate "OMG Help me with my EE" Thread

So I really need help because my EE proposal is due TOMORROW and the only thing i've figured out is that I want to do my EE on English with the book 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry (i'm going in the dystopian route) but I can't think of a question and my teacher says it's good to compare two books but I can't think of another book similar to 'The Giver' that I can use.
Also, if 'The Giver' doesn't work out, i'm considering to do 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern or anything Paulo Coelho.
Any ideas?

I have seen way too many EE threads floating about.
So instead of making a new thread for every EE question there is, better post just in one thread right? =]

From now on, I will merge all threads concerning Extendeds into this one.
Hopefully the forum wont be so clogged up anymore and you will all be able to get more varied answers!


When you are finished deciding over you EE topic, please post here:
What's your Extended Essay Topics?

probably very stupid question to ask, and probably varies between schools, but when generally do we have to pick a topic for IB?
because I want to do it for Eng Lit, it would greatly influence what books I read next...also, um, if anyone can tell me where to find books to write essays on would be great~ I'm currently reading and loving Sense and Sensibility but I've heard on other forums that I should avoid 'mainstream' topics like Jane Austen's novels if possible...I haven't read many classics and I don't know how to start other than from the 'famous' ones

I had to pick a topic by November/December of year 1, but couldn't really get started on it until I got my supervisor in January. I did it in English Lit, which was great because there's no waiting around for labs to be free, waiting for plants to grow/data to be collected, etc, so I was the first in my year to complete the first draft of my EE.
If you really love Sense and Sensibility, do your EE on that! It's true that they will not look kindly on well-worn topics, but that doesn't mean you can't use a popular author. You just have to look at it from a new angle, a different perspective, etc.
For example, I did my EE on dystopian literature, which is another very common topic. To make it a bit different, I chose to compare the depiction of a character in 1984 (obviously an extremely popular choice), and We (a Russian novel which is a lot less known, yet equally, if not more, important in the body of dystopian literature).

Thanks~
it seems like everyone's doing theirs on dystopian literature, I've heard about someone at my school who did it in Lit and also wrote 1984...
Can I ask how did you find out about We? Did your teacher mention it or did you discover it online or something?

wow, you were 2000 words over the limit? you must have chosen a very interesting topic

cool!

has anyone else here done/is going to do their EE in Lit? Would greatly appreciate more advice <3

I think I want to do something with America's interventionism policy during the Cold War, but I want to veer away from Cuba/Bay of Pigs because I feel like that gets done too much. Any ideas?

America intervened in a lot of places during the Cold War. The Korean and Vietnam Wars are great examples of USA attempting to contain/ roll back the tide of Communism. The Korean War seems to be less covered than Cuba and Vietnam, so perhaps you can do more research on that and see if it interests you. Another country up for consideration is West Germany/ Berlin... explore USA's political and economic policies in that area e.g. the introduction of Deutsche Mark vs. Ostmark which culminated in the Berlin blockade of 1949.

I'm not exactly sure what you guys mean by an extended essay but anyway for the A level syllabus in Singapore, we can pursue a Higher 3 coursework. The "normal" subject is at the Higher 2 level.

I did my H3 in Lit, choosing the dystopian novels Brave New World, 1984 and A Clockwork Orange.

p.s. for those who need Literature references (especially on practical criticism of poems), feel free to check out my Lit blog at theawarrior.wordpress.com!