ESS IA structure: sections, criteria and word count

At a glance

The structure, section by section

1. Header block

Required by the IB · Outside the word count

Title; your candidate code; every group member's code if a method was shared; word count.

1. Enter the title.
2. Enter your candidate code and, if you shared a method, each group member's code.
3. Insert the live word count.

2. Research question and inquiry

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: A

A local or global environmental issue; background research (literature, theory or model) with traceable citations; one focused research question. Null and alternative hypotheses where they fit are convention: an inquiry skill no criterion rewards.

1. Identify the environmental issue and why it matters.
2. Summarize the background research, citing each source.
3. Narrow it to one focused research question tied to the issue.
4. State hypotheses where they suit the method.

3. Strategy and perspectives

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: B

An existing or developing strategy that addresses an issue clearly linked to the research question; one tension between economic, social, cultural, political or environmental perspectives that it raises. Placement is free; it usually follows the introduction (inference).

1. Identify a strategy that addresses an issue linked to your question.
2. Describe what it does and whom it affects.
3. Identify the perspectives involved.
4. Explain one specific tension between them and how it shapes the strategy's outcomes.
5. State the link back to your research question.

4. Method

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: C

Variables or survey population; sampling strategy and size; apparatus or questionnaire design with its pilot; a procedure a third party could repeat; your own part in any shared method. A risk, ethics and environmental-impact subsection is convention: expected in the skills list, marked by no criterion.

1. Identify the independent, dependent and controlled variables, or the survey population.
2. Describe and justify the sampling strategy and sample size against the planned statistics.
3. Describe the apparatus or questionnaire, including the pilot.
4. Write the procedure in enough detail for someone else to repeat it, marking your own contribution.
5. Record the risk assessment, consent, anonymity and environmental impact.
6. For database work, explain how you filtered and sampled the data.

5. Results: raw and processed data

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: D

Raw data, or a representative sample with the rest in an appendix; processed data with one worked example; graphs; statistical test output.

1. Show raw data in titled tables with units.
2. Show the processing (means, standard deviations, indices) with one worked example.
3. Graph the processed data in the form that best answers the question, with error bars where appropriate.
4. Run the chosen statistical test and tabulate its output.
5. Keep units, decimal places and significant figures consistent.

6. Analysis

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: E

Every relevant pattern, trend and test result explained; bias, reliability, validity and uncertainty assessed; results compared with reliable secondary sources.

1. Describe each pattern, trend and test result.
2. Explain them with ESS concepts and systems thinking.
3. Assess the data's bias, reliability, validity and uncertainty.
4. Compare your results with reliable secondary sources.

7. Conclusion

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: E

A direct answer supported by the analysis.

1. Answer the research question directly.
2. Support the answer with specific data and test results.
3. State how uncertainty limits your confidence.
4. Relate the answer back to the issue and the strategy (inference).

8. Evaluation

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: F

Specific methodological limitations, realistic improvements and unresolved questions, each tied to its effect on the conclusion; generic limitations score low.

1. Identify the limitations specific to this method: control of variables, precision, the range of the sample.
2. Explain how each affects the conclusion.
3. Propose a realistic improvement for each and judge its effect.
4. Describe the unresolved questions and how they bear on the conclusion.

9. References

Rewarded by a criterion · Criterion: A · Outside the word count

Every source cited in enough detail to be traced, as A requires; excluded from the count.

1. Build the list from your source entries.
2. Check every citation leads to its source.

10. Appendices

Common practice · Criterion: D · Outside the word count · Only when it applies

The remaining raw data; research instruments such as the questionnaire (inference).

1. Move the full raw data here once a sample sits in the results.
2. Point to each appendix from the body.

What counts toward the limit

Counts: all other prose in the report, from the research question to the evaluation, including explanatory footnotes. Does not count: the header block, headings, charts and diagrams with their text, data tables, equations and calculations, citations and references in any form, the bibliography and appendices.

The limit: 3,000 words. The 2024 guide states no consequence for passing the limit, and the 2017 guide told moderators to stop reading at it, so treat text past 3,000 as unread.

Graphs and visuals

• Raw and processed data tables Table, very common
  The guide's skills list asks for titled tables with headings and units, and criterion D assesses both raw and processed data. Left out of the word count. Keep decimal places and significant figures consistent.
• Bar chart with error bars Plotted, very common
  Descriptive title, axes labelled with units, and error bars from the standard deviation or the range.
• Scatter plot with line of best fit Plotted, common
  Independent variable on the x axis and dependent variable on the y axis. Show the trendline equation and R², and r with its sign and significance, using Pearson or Spearman.
• Line graph Plotted, common
  Point to point.
• Box-and-whisker plot; histogram Plotted, occasional
  Median, interquartile range and outliers for the box plot, and class intervals for the histogram.
• Pie chart of survey results Plotted, common
  Common in questionnaire investigations. State n.
• Likert-scale stacked or diverging bars Plotted, common
  Common in survey investigations. Use a single bar for each statement, with categories in scale order.
• Kite diagram Plotted, occasional
  Common in transect or zonation work. Abundance is mirrored about a centre line for each species along the transect distance, with a width scale.
• Rose diagram Plotted, rare
  Named in the guide's skills list.
• Statistical test output: t-test, ANOVA, chi-squared, Pearson, Spearman Table, common
  Give the test statistic, degrees of freedom, critical or p value and the decision. A standard deviation or variance needs at least 5 values.
• Simpson's reciprocal diversity index with a worked calculation Math, common
  Common in biodiversity work. Show the formula and one worked example.
• Lincoln index, biotic index (an HL skill), ecological footprint Math, occasional
  Show the formula.
• Systems diagram of stores and flows Drawn, occasional
  Boxes for stores, arrows for flows and transfers, and labels.
• Variables, sampling, and risk and ethics tables Table, common
  A row for each variable and how it is controlled, and the sampling strategy, size and justification.
• Perspectives table for the strategy Table, occasional
  A row for each perspective.
• Sampling-site or location map Map, common
  Common in field-based work. Add a scale, a key and a north arrow.
• Annotated photo of the site or apparatus; field sketch Image, occasional
  Caption and source.

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

Citations

The IB sets no style; the minimum is author, date, title and page numbers where they apply, used consistently. No ESS-specific evidence on common styles was found, so an author-date style such as APA is the default here.

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

Pitfalls

• An unfocused research question that cannot be answered in 3,000 words, or a literature-only study with no repeatable method.
• A strategy with no credible link to the research question, or perspectives listed without a real tension between them.
• A method too vague to repeat, too little data, or database work with no account of how the data were filtered and sampled.
• Group members who share a question or data, or a method written jointly.
• No treatment of bias, reliability, validity or uncertainty, a generic evaluation, or a standard deviation worked out on fewer than 5 values.
• Survey work without consent and anonymity.

The workspace is free with an account, and it never writes or rewrites your text. What we will and will not do with your coursework →

Sources

• IB, Environmental systems and societies guide, first assessment 2026 (published February 2024), full guide (the IB's university-admission copy)
• IB, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Environmental systems and societies, first assessment 2026 (© 2023)
• IB, "Environmental systems and societies updates" (page last updated 19 February 2026)
• IB, Environmental systems and societies guide, first assessment 2017 (published June 2015; updated August 2015, November 2016 and October 2017), full guide
• IB, "Read curriculum updates" (page last updated 24 March 2026)

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 →