Tips for the Special Subject Extended Essay
one general rule I follow is that whatever you have written you should be able to halve while improving the quality of the writing
Daniel completed his BA History and Politics at Magdalen College in 2023. He is a disabled student and the first in his immediate family to go to university. Daniel is a Trustee of Potential Plus UK, a Founding Ambassador and Expert Panel Member for Zero Gravity, a Sutton Trust Alumni Leadership Board Member and a History Faculty Ambassador. Before coming to university, Daniel studied at a non-selective state school, and was a participant on the UNIQ, Sutton Trust, and Social Mobility Foundation APP Reach programmes, as well as being part of the inaugural Opportunity Oxford cohort. Daniel is passionate about outreach and social mobility and ensuring all students have the best opportunity to succeed.
The Special Subject Extended Essay at 6,000 words is likely to be one of the longest essays you write in your university career. It is quite different to most other assessments in being focused on primary source material. I want to give a few tips from my experience that you may find helpful
Start early
Give the paper a look as soon as it is released, to give you the maximum time to plan. That way you won’t be rushing at the end of term to get started. This also gives you time to ponder the question so you can give it your best shot.
Choose the question you can answer best
It may sound obvious, but it’s always worth choosing a question where you can put your best foot forward. This may be a different question to the one you find easiest or the topic you are most passionate about, but you want to ensure you can answer the exact question asked of you. Some questions give far more room than others to show your skills, so do watch out for this.
It is worth giving the mark scheme a review first, and understanding exactly what the tutors are looking for; that way you can assess the questions effectively to see what gives you the best chance to shine. You can then refer to it throughout the process, from planning to writing and redrafting.
Read all the sources on the reading list, and some of the secondary reading
The reading list is a key resource to use, so read all the sources on the list so you know exactly what material your tutor is expecting you to bring in. You may not use every source as they may not help you answer the question, but at least you have the maximum range to choose from. You may also choose to bring in additional sources, but that is your choice – often there is plenty on the reading list as it is to answer the question.
I chose to look at all the secondary reading on the reading list for my question, however that may not be necessary as after a while you tend to find similar information or arguments are communicated – this is often a sign you have read enough to have a good understanding of the historiographical debate which the question may be touching on.
Plan
The most crucial stage in this whole process is planning. The essay length means this plan needs to be more detailed than others, running through what you want to say in each paragraph and the evidence you are using as well as your overall answer to the question in 1-3 sentences.
You want a logical structure – each point building out on the previous to outline your framework in an easy-to-read way, each paragraph deliberately situated to link to what was said before and after. You don’t want your writing to lose momentum mid-way through, so the plan needs to be as detailed for the start as the end.
You may find it helpful to sketch out how many words you want to allocate to each paragraph to ensure you are communicating concisely while only including the most important points. You need to start with the basics, as if the tutor marking the essay has never read the sources before. You need to analyse what is contained within the sources to build out the frameworks you may use or criticise.
Secondary reading is playing a secondary role. Used to illuminate theory versus reality if the question allows you to or enriching details contained in the sources. The sources should be doing most of the talking, and analysis starts from the exact words and phrases used in the text. Where appropriate, you may use a framework or argument from a secondary reading to apply to the primary sources as the Extended Essay is still a piece of analytical historical writing. This is no means a requirement but can help to provide structure to a long piece of writing.
The plan submission is the only time your tutor can provide input into your Extended Essay., It is therefore worth making the most of this opportunity by providing lots of detail. There can be no second attempts or reviews of what you have written after this.
It is likely you will need to meet your tutor before the end of 8th week of Michaelmas having only received the question a few weeks before, so it can be helpful to get ahead on the classes and tutorials taking place around it for the gobbets (I have written another blog on how I approached these).
A tip I didn’t employ but some people may find useful is to write out the entire essay having produced a mini-plan, then put together a detailed plan from that. You can see what paragraphs work, which ones don’t, and how many words you need to communicate your points. Your detailed plan can then be reviewed by your tutor to give you feedback, which you can then apply to the essay you have already written. No piece of writing is perfect first time and often goes through many reworks before it is right. Doing this may help to focus your efforts on exactly where improvements need to be made. As with everything though, remember the History degree is composed of 7 assessments, so while maximising the mark in coursework components can give a boost if you find exams more challenging you don’t want to increase one mark at the expense of many others.
Writing and Redrafting
Don’t leave writing until the last second – you ideally want a break between writing your draft and reviewing it and editing it. Depending on how you write and if you struggle from writer’s block, you may find it helpful to write a sketch essay before reworking that into a real draft. I find sketch essays helpful, it is where you try to get all your arguments on paper within 1-2 writing sessions so you have it to work with. If you get stuck on something just keep writing past it. The purpose is not to produce a perfect essay but to see what areas you may need to read more on or rework. It can be far easier to work like this than aiming for a final essay first time, as the pressure to get it right can override your creativity and fluent writing abilities.
Initially when writing don’t worry about the word count, as you want to give room for all your ideas to be expressed fully before cutting down. If you struggle with conciseness, one general rule I follow is that whatever you have written you should be able to halve while improving the quality of the writing. Longer does not mean better, and detail needs to be balanced with the need for breadth. You want to take your reader from where they are, to where you want them to be. That doesn’t mean treating them condescendingly and you also don’t want to be a broken record. You want your writing to be enjoyable.
I always keep a copy of every draft I complete. If I cut paragraphs I always keep them saved on a separate document in case they come in useful later. I remember when doing my A level History coursework I removed a paragraph as it didn not fit with my argument. The week before the deadline I re-added it as it fitted with how my writing had developed. Ever since then I have kept a copy of each revision, as there may be hidden gems that really come in handy a little bit down the line as your writing develops.
With long pieces of writing, the basic structural devices really come into their own. The use of connectives, and opening and closing sentences of each paragraph summarising what is contained within them become so useful for producing a coherent body of writing. A good piece of writing is like a spiral, starting from a small point and slowly rotating outwards in terms of depth (moving further up and down away from the point) and breadth (moving further left and right away from the point), taking the reader on that guided path. It should feel it was written in one sitting even though it wasn’t, and of course the usual spelling and grammar should be tidied up to make it as readable as possible.
If you are struggling with time management, it is worth setting realistic goals for each day or week (however you prefer). Whatever goals you set should contain some buffer, not every day will be the same productively, and you want to work sustainably. There is no point writing 2,000 words in one day if they are low quality or you then can’t work the next day due to tiredness. Better to work at a stable pace and make continual progress towards your goal. Try to set a goal to finish 1-2 weeks early to allow for overruns in the run up to submission.
Submission
There is no right time to submit; I have always stood by giving the final draft a read for errors on the morning of the submission date, and sending it in 1-2 hours before the close of the window in case of technical errors (backing up to cloud based storage regularly is super useful if the worst does happen – your Oxford account comes with 1TB of free storage on Office 365). Others like to send it in 1-2 weeks early or when it is ready – whatever you do, make sure you have a schedule with buffer as you don’t want to lose easy marks for having submitted it late without permission from the Proctors.
With your Extended Essay, something to factor in is balancing time spent on it with time spent on your thesis. By the morning of Friday of 8th week of Hilary term, a History thesis has to be written and submitted. There is no holiday time to rescue the timeline if term gets busy, and the sources and secondary reading are potentially not so easy to find or consult. The thesis is also double the word count, so ample time needs to be factored in for writing it. Every week you spend on your Extended Essay is one not spent on your thesis, revising your other papers, or resting. You need to consider everything that you need to achieve and where your energies should be most concentrated to prioritise effectively.
While this blog may be one-third of the length of the Extended Essay, I hope it has been helpful in running through the stages of the process and my advice for each stage. The Extended Essay is a good warm up for the thesis, and really puts your structure skills to the test. For those who particularly benefit from coursework, it is also a great opportunity to potentially bag some safety marks before going into exam season. Follow these steps, and fingers crossed you have set yourself up for success.
