Arts Extended Essay structure: sections, criteria and word count

At a glance

The structure, section by section

1. Title page

Required by the IB · Criterion: A (structure) · Outside the word count

Your personal code, the research question, the subject and the word count, plus a statement when explanatory footnotes are counted.

1. Enter your IB personal code.
2. Leave out your name, your supervisor's name, your session number and your school.
3. Paste the research question exactly as it stands in the introduction.
4. Name your art form: Visual arts, Film, Music, Theatre or Dance.
5. Insert the word count from the counter.
6. Add the footnote statement if you used explanatory notes.

2. Acknowledgements or dedication

Common practice (Optional, uncounted and unassessed) · Outside the word count · Only when it applies

Thanks or a dedication with no identifying names.

1. Decide whether you need it.
2. Remove any name that identifies you, your supervisor or your school.
3. Keep it to a few lines.

3. Contents page

Required by the IB · Criterion: A (structure) · Outside the word count

Headings with page numbers.

1. Generate it from your headings.
2. Start page numbers on the page after it.
3. Regenerate it after your last edit.

4. Introduction

Required by the IB · Criterion: A, B, C

The topic and why it matters, the focus and scope, your approach and sources, the research question and a preview of the argument.

1. State the topic and why it is worth investigating, keeping it within your art form.
2. Treat any social, political or gender issue through the works, never using the works as documentary evidence.
3. Give only the background a reader needs.
4. Write the research question as a question.
5. Set out your approach and main sources; methods are typically qualitative.
6. Preview the line of argument.
7. Revise this section once the body is done.

5. Selected works

Rewarded by a criterion (Part of the introduction) · Criterion: A

A limited number of works, chosen after a literature review.

1. Review the literature before you fix your question.
2. Choose a small set of works that can sustain 4,000 words; the guide suggests 3 or 4 complementary works by 1 artist or composer.
3. Name each work with its maker and date.
4. Where you cannot see a work in person, use high-quality reproductions, videos and images, selectively.
5. In Film, choose films other than the one in your textual analysis and the 2 in your comparative study.

6. Literature review and context

Rewarded by a criterion (The review itself is required in every EE; this section also holds the context) · Criterion: A (methods), B

What existing scholarship establishes, and at least 1 context that matters for the works.

1. Summarise the scholarship on your works and on your artist or composer.
2. Relate each source to your question.
3. Choose at least 1 context that your argument needs.
4. Use the art form's periods, movements and styles.

7. Analysis of the works

Rewarded by a criterion (This is the body, which the IB requires; its form follows the criterion notes) · Criterion: C

Formal and contextual analysis, with examples from the works.

1. Analyse each work with precise examples.
2. Use the art form's terminology.
3. Explain the point of every comparison.
4. For an influence claim, pair rigorous formal analysis with documents such as letters, diaries, interviews or press.
5. Use secondary sources as evidence for your analysis.

8. Images in the body

Required by the IB (Required in Visual arts; the other arts are advised to include carefully chosen visuals) · Criterion: A

In Visual arts, images of the works next to the text that discusses them, at a reasonable size and high resolution.

1. Place each image next to the text that discusses it.
2. Label it with maker, title and date.
3. Cite it in the text and in the list of sources.
4. Keep each image at a reasonable size and high resolution.

9. Evaluation of the research

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: D

The strengths and limitations of the research and the sources.

1. State what your sources could and could not show.
2. Weigh other readings.
3. State the strengths and limitations of your own research.

10. Conclusion

Required by the IB · Criterion: C, D

The answer to the research question, a synthesis, the limitations, the questions left open and no new material.

1. Answer the research question directly.
2. Draw the main findings together.
3. State the limitations.
4. Name questions that remain open.
5. Check that it matches the body and adds nothing new.

11. List of sources, including every image

Required by the IB (Also an academic integrity rule: every source must be acknowledged) · Criterion: A (structure) · Outside the word count

Every source and every image, in 1 standard style, at the end.

1. Log each source and image when you first use it.
2. Use 1 citation style throughout.
3. List every source you cited, including every image, data and AI output.
4. Add a filmography or discography where it helps.
5. Add URLs and access dates for online sources.
6. Check that each in-text citation has an entry.

12. Appendices

Common practice (Optional, and examiners need not read appendices; the signed external mentor form is the one required item) · Outside the word count · Only when it applies

Supporting material only: raw data, full texts and the mentor form.

1. Include only material the argument can stand without.
2. Refer to each appendix from the body.
3. Insert the signed mentor form if you had a mentor.

13. Reflection sessions log

Required by the IB (The 3 sessions are mandatory and are recorded on the RPF, which is uploaded separately from the essay) · Outside the word count · Submitted separately

The 3 formal reflection sessions, each with its month, your DP year (1 or 2) and your supervisor's initials.

1. After the first reflection session, log its month and your DP year.
2. Log the interim session the same way.
3. Log the viva voce as the third session; it runs 20 to 30 minutes, after your supervisor has read the final version.
4. Ask your supervisor to initial each row; the form carries initials only.
5. If you are retaking, record the current year as DP year 2.
6. Leave informal check-ins off the log.
7. Check that all 3 rows are complete before your supervisor initials and dates the form.

14. RPF reflective statement

Required by the IB (A mandated form, uploaded separately from the essay and marked under criterion E) · Criterion: E · Outside the word count · Submitted separately

Up to 500 words, written after the viva voce, evaluating how the EE shaped you as a learner and which skills you will carry forward.

1. Keep dated notes after each session, ideally in a researcher's reflection space.
2. Reread them after the viva.
3. Evaluate specific decisions and turning points, and keep any account of the process brief.
4. Show how you grew and where you will use the skills.
5. Write every word yourself; an AI-written reflection counts as fabrication.
6. Write in the essay's language and stop at 500 words.

What counts toward the limit

Counted: the introduction, body and conclusion, including quotations and explanatory footnotes or endnotes. Left out: the title page, acknowledgements, contents, page headers, maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations, tables, equations, calculations, citations, reference notes, the bibliography, appendices, the RPF statement and a footnote that gives a quotation's original-language text. The guide does not mention section headings, captions or table titles, so the counter leaves them out as well.

The limit: 4,000 words, plus a 500-word RPF statement. Examiners stop reading at the limit. RPF statement: up to 500 words, counted apart from the rest.

Graphs and visuals

• Artwork reproductions (Visual arts) Image, very common
  Mandatory in the body for Visual arts, at a reasonable size and high resolution. Identify and cite each one in the text and in the list of sources.
• Film screen captures Image, common
  Identify and cite each one. Outside Visual arts this frequency rests on the guide's recommendation, with no exemplar counts.
• Score excerpts Drawn, common
  Notation, reproduced as an image. Identify and cite each one.
• Set designs and production photos Image, common
  Identify and cite each one.
• Diagrams of structure, space or movement Drawn, occasional
  Maps, charts, diagrams, annotated illustrations and tables sit outside the 4,000 words.

The frequencies are our estimates, from what the IB guide expects and what teachers advise. We did not count them in marked work.

Citations

Every image is identified and cited in the text and in the separate list of sources at the end. No subject style is prescribed; a filmography for Film is a convention.

The workspace keeps your sources and writes the bibliography in Harvard to start with. You can switch to APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago author-date or Chicago notes (footnotes) at any point.

Pitfalls

• Choosing a peripheral topic, such as the industry around an art form, or using artworks as documentary evidence.
• Making influence claims with no documents behind them.
• Building the essay from summarised secondary sources, or choosing too many works for 4,000 words.
• In Visual arts, leaving images out of the body; in any arts essay, using low-resolution or uncited images.
• Writing past 4,000 words, or past 500 in the RPF statement: examiners read no further.

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Sources

• Extended essay guide, first assessment 2027 (IB; published Feb 2025, updated May, Aug, Nov 2025)
• IB, Extended essay guide, first assessment 2027 (published Feb 2025; updated May, Aug, Nov 2025)
• IB, Extended essay guide, first assessment 2018 (published Feb 2016, updated May 2019), including subject-specific guidance
• IB, Film guide, second edition, first assessment 2023 (published April 2021; PDF last modified June 2022)
• Extended essay guide, first assessment 2018 (published Feb 2016, updated May 2019), including subject-specific guidance

The IB documents behind this page, checked 29 October 2026. The linked ones are on ibo.org; the others are IB documents we read in copies hosted elsewhere, so we name them without a link. Everything above is in our own words: the official wording is in your subject guide, which your coordinator can give you. LimeAdmissions is independent of the International Baccalaureate Organization, which has not endorsed this page. Every coursework structure →