Wrapping Up

I have finally concluded a meeting with Mr. Paetzold to discuss the points in which my essay can improve. Most of these were based off my supervisor's comments but as he was not available at the time, they ended up being discussed with our Extended Essay Coordinator. The comments dictated as follows:

1. Divide the essay into subheadings
2. Rewrite the abstract 
3. Put question, theme, etc on cover page
4. Define and discuss the global theme more
5. Use your introduction to talk about "what's next"
6. Talk about the limitations of sources - history points
7. Put the abstract in front of the table of contents

Most of these points were pretty straightforward however the two that I believe are going to take both the most time and eloquence in including back into the essay is the inclusion of source limitation as well as incorporating the global theme into the abstract, introduction and conclusion. Especially since I have found that I have written my essay in such a way that my introduction directly flows into my first point, I am definitely having difficulties attempting to explicitly write it in. The conclusion on the other hand should be fairly straight forward. I gave myself about 200 words "wiggle room" so to speak to implement these changes before turning it in for revision so hopefully that follows through as being enough words, making the process easier. 

Something that I ended up having to completely rework is my abstract. I believe I slightly misunderstood the direction that it was supposed to take and so I approached it from a different angle, originally attempting to use it basically a synopsis of my essay yet excluding qualities such as the global theme, the fact that it was a world studies essay, which of the subjects I was incorporating into the essay, how I was approaching the essay and, again what that final conclusion would be. I have since then gone back and reworked it several times to try and find the balance between being to vague and having the required elements while still keeping within the world limit. It is becoming much more difficult than I would imagine. 

I have not yet, but my next step is to begin introducing my source limitations. Because I take history as a course and this OPVL process is a natural one, I have no doubt that I will be able to find a way to smoothly add them into the essay without spending too much time doing extra research, etc. However I am concerned about breaking up the flow of the argument and pace of the essay, yet after talking to Mr. Paetzold he assured me that this was a natural part of the process and that examiners were aware that the breaking of flow was simply a natural part of World Studies History development.