Extended Essay Topics: Unique Ideas from Specialists

In recent years, the genre of essays has become very popular. Today it is offered as a task in various disciplines. This is one of the main components in the package of documents for admission to any educational institution, as well as employment. The essay that is proposed to write helps to make the best choice out of all the variety of applicants!

In fact, writing an essay is very useful because it allows the author to learn to express his thoughts clearly and accurately, as well as to structure data and describe experiences with relevant examples, and, importantly, to think based on personal conclusions. In general, writing an essay is a very important skill. For example: based on how a young professional or entrant will be able to present himself, how he describes his achievements and failures, the employer or the selection committee can determine whether a person is sufficiently suitable, experienced. This task is given to facilitate the assessment of uniqueness, thinking ability, creativity, enthusiasm, and human potential. And the best way to get this result is to write openly and directly, so a person needs to be honest with himself/herself. If a person is not like that, there is every chance that the written work will be unnatural or irrelevant.

Therefore, in order to get a good result and write a really good paper, you need to work hard. Try to pay close attention to choosing an interesting theme among a large number of extended essay topics. Below are general guidelines for choosing a topic.

Tips for Choosing Extended Essay Topics

Extended essay topics should not initiate the presentation of only the definitions of concepts; their purpose is to induce thought. The theme should contain a question, a problem, motivate to think. The development of creative thinking and argumentation is facilitated, for example, by the topics proposed in the program of the discipline “Institutional Economics”:

• firm and contract. How to protect oneself from opportunistic behavior of a manager;
• the specificity of problems in contractual relations;
• post-contract opportunism and how to deal with it (moral hazard and moral threat).

And in the discipline “History of Economic Thought,” the essay topics can be formulated as follows:

• the quantitative theory of money by Fisher and Friedman: general and differences;
• the quantitative theory of money: a new formulation;
• economic thought in retrospect.

Therefore, the quality of the essay depends on the wording of the proposed topic.

Extended Essay Topics: Ideas for Students

Let’s go directly to the consideration of the extended essay topics. We decided to divide them into groups according to their belonging to a particular discipline so that it would be easier for you to make a choice.

Philosophy

Pay attention to these extended essay topics in philosophy:

• philosophy of life (V. Dilthey, G. Simmel, A. Bergson);
• basic schools of neo-Marxism;
• the phenomenon of ‘psychological turn.’ The main trends in the development of Western postclassical philosophy in the second half of XIX – early XX century;
• the problem of the ‘crisis of reason’ and the emergence of irrationalism in philosophy. S. Kierkegaard, A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche;
• the positivism of knowledge through experience;
• the anthropological direction in European philosophy of the second half of XIX – early XX century. A. Bergson’s intuitionism, the philosophy of life of W. Dilthey and G. Simmel, the phenomenology of E. Husserl, Freud’s psychophysiology;
• the scientific direction in the philosophy of the twentieth century. Neo-positivism and post-positivism;
• general trends in the development of anthropological direction in the philosophy of the XX century. Existentialism, neo-Freudianism, philosophical anthropology;
• ‘linguistic turn’ in the philosophy of the twentieth century. Philosophical structuralism and poststructuralism. Philosophical hermeneutics;
• the main trends in the development of Western religious philosophy of the twentieth century. Neotomism, personalism, dialectical theology, Christian evolutionism;
• postmodern philosophy. Baudrillard, Lyotard, Derrida, Deleuze.

Economy

The list of extended essay topics in the economy is represented below:

• economic theory: subject, functions, tasks. Positive and normative components of economic theory;
• economic laws. Neoclassical approaches to the optimal choice in conditions of limited resources. Factors shifting the production capacity curve and management efficiency;
• factors of market economy formation. The essence of the market as an economical fabric (neoclassical and institutional approaches);
• functional economic systems as self-regulatory structures;
• basic theories of money and their evolution (metallic, nominalist, commodity, quantitative, institutional). Contemporary discussions about endogenous and exogenous money;
• the concept of price in classical political economy. Neoclassical theories of price and pricing (A. Menger, E. Bem-Bawerk, L. Walras, A. Marshall, M. Friedman);
• the essence of entrepreneurship: economic content, principles, and conditions of implementation, functions, models, types;
• characteristics of the main market models: perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, pure monopoly. Theories of imperfect and monopolistic competition markets: retrospective (J. Robinson) and modern interpretation;
• imbalance of labor markets and the emergence of unemployment according to different concepts;
• credit and its forms. Characteristics of the bank form of credit;
• economic efficiency and prices for natural resources. Technological factors of overcoming the limitations of natural resources.

History

Consider the following extended essay topics in history:

• Europe: policy of economy and protectionism, the introduction of state control over the economy;
• totalitarian regimes: state control over public life and public consciousness;
• communist totalitarianism: worldview and orientation;
• the geopolitical situation in Europe in the period between world wars;
• the social life of interwar Europe and it’s understanding of scientific works and works of art;
• Central and Eastern Europe: the choice between democracy and authoritarianism;
• international relations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe;
• Asia and Latin America: the confrontation of democratic forces and dictatorial regimes;
• philosophy of nonviolence in the liberation movements of the twentieth century (experience of Mahatma Gandhi in the activities of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Soviet dissidents);
• portrait of a national leader against the background of the era: Kemal Ataturk, Mahatma Gandhi, Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek;
• liberation movements of the first half of the twentieth century before the choice: radicalism or nonviolent resistance.

Psychology

Here also are some interesting extended essay topics in psychology:

• stages of formation of psychological science;
• the relationship of psychology with other sciences, especially social sciences;
• manifestations of the unconscious in the behavior, mental processes, properties, and states of a person;
• thinking, emotions and motivation: problems of connection of thinking, its products with reality;
• types of communication and the role of communication in the psychological development of a person;
• abilities, and talents: the relationship and differences in these phenomena;
• the nature of individual differences in human abilities, the development of human abilities;
• the concept of small group and team;
• the concept of conflict and its varieties.

Physics

The following extended essay topics can be the basis for creating a good paper in physics:

• kinematics of a material point;
• acceleration in curvilinear motion;
• classical mechanics. Newton’s law;
• the law of conservation of total mechanical energy;
• the relationship between potential energy and strength;
• angular velocity. Angular acceleration;
• relationship between linear and angular quantities;
• the basic equation of the dynamics of rotational motion;
• problems of molecular physics and thermodynamics;
• distribution of molecules by velocities (Maxwell distribution);
• the average free path length of molecules;
• thermal conductivity of gases;
• inequality of Klazius;
• free and bound energy system;
• pressure under the curved surface of the liquid;
• phenomena at the boundary of liquid and solid;
• the electric field in a vacuum;
• the electric field in dielectrics;
• ohm’s law for an inhomogeneous section of a circle;
• branched electrical circuits. Kirchhoff’s rules;
• interaction of currents and particles with a magnetic field.

Geography

We propose you to choose a theme for creating a paper in geography from the following extended essay topics:

• human impact on nature. Anthropogenic impact on the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere;
• climatic and recreational resources – resources of the future;
• components of bioresources: biomass of the World Ocean, land biomass;
• forests are the lungs of the planet. Functions of the forest. The value of forests: ecological, economic, aesthetic, recreational;
• water is a unique natural formation. The concept of ‘water resources.’ The water supply of regions and countries;
• fuel and energy mineral resources;
• the essence and components of the political map of the world. Stages of formation of a modern political map of the world;
• capitals and their role in the life of countries. Typology of capitals. Multitasking. Hypertrophy and malnutrition of capitals. Transfer of capitals;
• modern geopolitical changes on the political map. Phenomena of separatism, unrecognized countries. Armed conflicts, the reasons for their occurrence.

Archeology

If you want to find a relevant topic for the paper in archeology, choose one of the following extended essay topics:

• development of a search strategy as an integral part of a research project. Permits for field research, qualification requirements, and the procedure for obtaining an Open Letter and permits for excavations;
• field research methods. Choice of excavation place, types of excavations, organization of excavation. Earthworks, their organization, and safety;
• trasological research in archeology;
• registration of archeological collections and transfer for storage;
• research plan: components;
• special conditions of excavations: excessive moisture, work in caves, underwater archeology;
• stages of search of archeological monuments: work with literature, archives, museum and stock collections, systematization of information on explorations and excavations, information from the population;
• preparation of digitized materials on electronic media: data formats and systematization.

Rules for Writing an Essay

We hope you can really find a good theme for an essay on this site. You should start the text with a basic idea or a bright phrase. Your task is to immediately capture the attention of the reader or listener. Often use comparative forms when unexpected facts or events relate to the main topic of the essay. There is only one formal rule for writing an essay – the presence of a title. The internal structure of the essay can be arbitrary. As this is a small form of written work, there is no need to repeat the conclusions at the end; they can be included in the main text. The reasoning may precede the construction of the problem, and it may coincide with the final conclusion.

The most important thing when writing an essay is to check the completed paper. When designing a project, your main task is to adhere to the main ideas and organize them in strict order, including illustrated materials or data, and so on. After writing the first version, give it a rest for a day or two, and then return to the testing and correction.

When studying an essay, first of all, make sure that you are satisfied with the important points: it is also important to remember that this is a personal genre, so the assessment of its meaning can be subjective.

No matter what you answer, you need to set goals. When writing an essay, keep the following in mind:

• did I reveal the content of the question?
• did I express my views clearly and precisely?
• does what I wrote seem natural, or are there mistakes?

You also need to make sure that you demonstrate your philosophy; your text is aimed at the emotional impact, so you have to present at least one strong argument.

Be determined, and you will create a unique paper! Our extended essay topics will certainly create a good basis for your work!