Quick Answer
Choose a topic in a DP subject you study, then narrow it until one focused research question can be answered in 4,000 words with sources or data you can actually get. From May 2027 you also choose a pathway: subject-focused (one subject) or interdisciplinary (two subjects). A good topic invites analysis and argument, not description.
What You'll Learn
- Start from genuine interest, ideally in a DP subject you already study
- Narrow the topic until it supports one focused, arguable research question
- Check sources, data, equipment and ethics before you commit
- From May 2027 you choose a subject-focused or interdisciplinary pathway; World Studies no longer exists
- Your EE must not duplicate your IA or any other assessed work
What Makes a Good EE Topic
Your topic drives everything that follows: your research question, sources, methods and how analytical the essay can be. The EE is about 40 hours of independent work, it is graded A to E, and together with TOK it can add up to three points to your diploma score; you need at least a D to be awarded the diploma. A good topic is one you care about, sits clearly within a DP subject (or two, for an interdisciplinary essay), is narrow enough for 4,000 words and leads to analysis rather than a descriptive account. The IB guide warns that staying too broad almost always produces superficial, descriptive writing.
- Personal interest strong enough to last several months
- A clear home in one DP subject, or a real reason to combine two
- Room for argument: informed people could reach different conclusions
- Reliable sources or data you can access, or an experiment you can run safely with school equipment
- A scope you can cover in depth within 4,000 words
Pro Tip
Start noting possible topics early in your first year of the DP. It gives you time to explore, test ideas and change your mind without deadline pressure.
Subject-Focused, Interdisciplinary or World Studies?
How you frame your topic depends on your exam session. Under the new guide (essays assessed from May 2027), you choose between two pathways. The subject-focused pathway uses the knowledge, concepts, theories or methods of one DP subject. The interdisciplinary pathway integrates two DP subjects and replaces the old World Studies option. Under the 2018 guide, used up to November 2026, you wrote in a single subject or chose World Studies, an interdisciplinary essay on an issue of global significance using two subjects and one of six global themes.
- Subject-focused (new guide): best when your idea can be fully explored through one subject's lens. The IB strongly recommends that you already study that subject in the DP.
- Interdisciplinary (new guide): combines two DP subjects so that, together, they give insights neither could alone. It is strongly recommended that you study at least one of the two, and the balance between them does not need to be even.
- Interdisciplinary frameworks: you register the essay under one of five frameworks: power, equality, justice; culture, identity, expression; movement, time, space; evidence, measurement, innovation; or sustainability, development, change. The framework guides your inquiry but is not directly assessed.
- Restrictions: environmental systems and societies (ESS) and literature and performance can only be used on the subject-focused pathway, and interdisciplinary essays must currently be written in English, French or Spanish.
1Step 1: Choose Your Subject
Your essay must be in a subject on the list available for your exam session, which your coordinator can show you. Writing in a subject you study gives you the concepts, methods and terminology the criteria reward, and usually a supervisor with relevant expertise. You can write in a subject you do not take, but you then need to understand it from a DP perspective, which is a significant extra load.
- Pick a subject where you enjoy the content and do well, not one chosen because it sounds impressive.
- Think about method: literature essays need close reading, science essays need data you can collect or reliable secondary data, history essays need sources you can analyse.
- Check subject rules early. Under the new guide, psychology essays must use secondary sources only, and social and cultural anthropology essays must be based on existing ethnographic material.
- A language A essay must be written in the language it is registered in and, under the new guide, cannot be based on a text you studied as part of your DP language A course.
- Your supervisor must be a member of staff at your school, so find out who can supervise your subject.
Watch Out
Your EE must not duplicate your IA or any other work submitted for the diploma. If your topic is close to an IA, the EE needs a substantially different angle and focus.
2Step 2: Find Ideas Worth Researching
The new guide suggests a four-part start: brainstorm broad topics that connect with your DP studies; pick the most interesting and break them into smaller, more focused topics; settle on one, align it with a subject and map what you know and want to know; then do preliminary research to confirm your interest and check that enough resources exist. Good places to start include:
- A class topic you wanted to explore further, including a higher level topic you enjoyed
- A current issue in the news that your subject can help explain
- A local case: a business, place, data set, building or community near you
- A book, film, artwork or piece of music that raised a question for you
- A question your teacher could not fully answer in class
- A debate where experts or sources disagree
Pro Tip
Keep a running list of questions in your researcher's reflection space (RRS) as they occur to you. It becomes your pool of potential topics and later supports your reflection.
3Step 3: Narrow Your Focus
The most common mistake is a topic that is too broad. Narrow it by adding limits, such as a place, period, text, case or variable, until you could cover it in depth in 4,000 words. This illustrative example shows each level getting narrower.
- 1Broad area: climate change.
- 2Aspect: carbon pricing as a climate policy.
- 3Specific case: the carbon tax in one named country.
- 4Researchable focus: its effect on one sector over a period for which data is available.
- 5Research question: 'To what extent has [country]'s carbon tax reduced emissions from electricity generation since [year]?'
4Step 4: Check Your Topic Is Viable
Before you commit, do some preliminary research and test the topic against these questions. If the answers are weak, amend or change the topic now. The guide is clear that changing direction is acceptable and that your supervisor will support it, but it is far easier early on.
- What has already been written about it, and can you get hold of it through library databases, not just a search engine?
- Is there a range of views or perspectives, so that you can build an argument?
- Can you collect any primary data you need safely, ethically and in time?
- Do you need equipment, archives or access to people that you cannot guarantee?
- Does the topic fit your subject's methods and the assessment criteria?
- Could you answer it in depth within 4,000 words, or only skim it?
Watch Out
Research involving people, animals, sensitive topics or fieldwork needs careful ethical and safety planning. Talk to your supervisor and follow the IB's ethical guidelines for EE research before you collect any data.
Example EE Topics That Work
These illustrative examples show the level of focus that works. Each is narrow, tied to a subject's methods and open to argument. Use them as models for shaping your own idea, not as topics to copy.
- Biology: the effect of temperature on catalase activity in a named plant extract. It works because the variables can be measured with school equipment and the results can be explained using enzyme kinetics.
- Chemistry: how storage time and temperature affect the vitamin C content of fruit juice, measured by titration. It works because the method is standard and repeatable and produces data with clear uncertainties.
- Physics: how the surface material affects the coefficient of restitution of a bouncing ball. It works because it is cheap, controllable and grounded in energy and momentum theory.
- Economics: the impact of a sugar tax on soft drink prices or sugar content in one country. It works because it applies elasticity and tax theory to a specific, data-rich case.
- History: why one particular strike or protest succeeded or failed. It works because primary sources can be weighed against historians' interpretations.
- English A: how a novelist uses an unreliable narrator to shape the reader's judgement of a character. It works because it focuses on one technique and its effect in a defined text.
- Business management: how a named company's organisational culture affects its ability to innovate. It works because it applies a course concept to a real case with accessible evidence.
- Psychology: how far published research supports a link between sleep loss and memory in adolescents. It works because there is a body of peer-reviewed studies to evaluate, and under the new guide psychology essays use secondary research only.
- Mathematics: how accurately mathematical models describe the spread of an infectious disease in one outbreak. It works because the mathematics can be explained and tested against real data.
- Interdisciplinary (from May 2027): whether a city's low-emission zone has shifted air pollution towards lower-income neighbourhoods, combining geography and economics under the framework power, equality, justice. It works because the question genuinely needs both subjects' tools.
5Step 5: Turn Your Topic Into a Research Question
Once the topic is settled, frame it as a single, focused question. Both the 2018 guide and the new guide say it must be a question, not a hypothesis or a statement of intent. Wording such as 'to what extent', 'how significant' or 'how effective' invites analysis. Treat the question as provisional: refining it as your research develops is normal. Discussing ideas with others is allowed, so our Extended Essay support can help you talk through possible topics before you agree one with your supervisor.
- Name the specific case, text, period, place or variable.
- Ask one thing only, not two questions joined together.
- Make sure the answer is not obvious from the question.
- Check you could reach a reasoned conclusion with the evidence available.
Topic Traps to Avoid
These topics often look appealing but lead to weak essays.
- Topics that can only be answered by description, such as the history of an organisation or the plot of a novel
- Questions with an obvious or already settled answer
- Very recent works or events with little reliable analysis written about them yet
- Experiments that need equipment your school does not have, or that would be unsafe or unethical
- Topics that really belong to a different subject from the one you register in
- Your IA topic with minor changes