IB History HL Extended Essay Example

The student communicates a recognizable and sustained historical investigation with a clear comparative purpose.

The student's question is focused on an important problem: what the Homeric epics can reveal about Mycenaean political and social realities.

The student maintains a consistent thematic structure across the essay, which helps the reader follow their line of inquiry.

The student's topic is very broad for the length of the essay, which makes the enquiry less precise than it could be.

The comparison sometimes moves too directly from Homeric text to Mycenaean history without enough attention to methodological limits.

The student would benefit from a clearer explanation of how they decide whether a feature is Mycenaean, Homeric, or later Greek.

The student uses relevant material drawn from both the epics and Mycenaean historical evidence.

The student shows good familiarity with key terms and figures such as wanax, basileus, Linear B, kleos, and xenia.

The student makes a genuine effort to connect evidence to the historical question rather than simply retelling narrative events.

Some evidence is used too directly as proof of Mycenaean practice when it should be treated more cautiously.

Several historical claims are stronger than the sources presented can comfortably support.

The student would improve their work by distinguishing more carefully between literary representation and historical reconstruction.