IB World Religions 8.2.1. the Five-heading Format, References and the Word Count Notes

8.2.1. The Five-Heading Format, References and the Word Count

The written analysis

1. The investigative study is handed in as a single piece of writing called the written analysis, and it carries all 30 marks of the internal assessment. Everything a moderator will ever see of the investigation has to be inside it.
2. Its length is fixed at between 1,500 and 1,800 words, and the upper figure is a ceiling rather than a target.
3. The document opens with a coversheet giving the title of the study and the word count.
4. The body then runs under five compulsory headings in a set order. They are not optional, and they are not to be renamed into something livelier.
5. Citations and a full reference list follow the body, and any appendices come last.
6. Criterion E rewards precisely this outer shape. Format, references and word count together are worth 3 of the 30 marks, and they are the 3 marks most easily lost by accident.

The five compulsory headings

1. The first heading is Rationale and preliminary research, where the study says why this topic was chosen and what reading was done before any fieldwork began.
2. The second is Plan for study, which states the research question and sets out the scope of the investigation and the steps taken to answer it.
3. The third is Summary of significant findings, which reports what the visit, observation, interview or source study actually produced.
4. The fourth is Critical reflection and evaluation. It is the heaviest section of the study, worth 10 marks on its own, and it is where findings are weighed against the question and the method is judged.
5. The fifth is References and compliance with format, which holds the reference list and shows that the formal requirements have been met.
6. The order is fixed because each heading feeds the next. The rationale justifies the question, the question drives the plan, the plan produces the findings, and the findings are the raw material reflection works on.
7. Using the guide's exact wording as the section titles is the simplest way to secure the format half of criterion E.

The word count

1. The count runs from 1,500 to 1,800 words. Work that falls well short of 1,500 words rarely scores highly, because there is not enough text for the criteria to find anything to reward.
2. Assessment stops at 1,800 words. Whatever is written after that point is not read, so a conclusion that arrives late earns nothing under criteria A to D.
3. Over-length work is then penalized a second time under criterion E, which means the same excess costs marks twice.
4. Four things sit outside the count: the title, citations, the reference list and any appendices.
5. Those exclusions cover the apparatus of referencing rather than the argument. Moving a paragraph of analysis into an appendix to save words does not work, because material in an appendix is not assessed in its own right.
6. The word count is declared on the coversheet and is expected to be accurate.
7. Because 1,800 words is not much, most redrafting is cutting. Description is what gets cut, so that reflection keeps the space its 10 marks deserve.

References and citation

1. The guide asks for comprehensive references reflecting wide preliminary reading. The reference list therefore does double duty, as evidence for criterion A as much as for criterion E.
2. Any consistent referencing system is acceptable. The IB does not prescribe one, and the marks come from using a single standard system throughout rather than from picking a particular one.
3. Consistency has two halves. An in-text citation appears wherever a source is used, and a matching entry appears in the reference list at the end.
4. Sources include the ones the study generates itself. Interviews, acts of worship observed, buildings visited and photographs taken are all cited, alongside books, articles and websites.
5. Where an interviewee has not given permission to be named, the entry identifies them by role and date instead of by name. That keeps the reference honest and the promise of confidentiality intact at the same time.
6. A list made only of general websites is unlikely to read as the wide preliminary reading criterion A is looking for, whatever the rest of the study says.

Appendices and criterion E

1. Appendices hold supporting material that would otherwise eat the word count, such as interview questions, transcripts, photographs of a building, an order of service or a plan of a sacred space.
2. They are evidence, not a second essay. Any point that matters to the argument has to be made inside the analysis itself.
3. Criterion E is worth 3 marks and is the one criterion a student can secure entirely by checking rather than by thinking.
4. One mark is awarded where the word limit is respected.
5. Two marks are awarded where the word limit is respected and one other formal requirement is met as well.
6. Three marks are awarded where everything holds together: the word limit, a consistent standard system of references, and the five-heading format.
7. Criterion E is assessed under AO4, the skills objective, which it shares with the plan in criterion B. Both are marks for organizing the work rather than for knowing the religion.