Many candidates write this as a separate section, but it really does not need to be. It is marked on the essay as a whole not based upon an invented story. The examiner is unlikely to believe if your IA is sent off as as part of the sample. It is better to use this valuable space to instead focus on the report. Personal engagement may sometimes be reflected as your rationale or how you have designed the experiment. The danger is personal engagement can be presented as a separate section which is a waste of time and space as it is irrelevant.

Setting out a clear and well thought through research question is vital for setting the entire report. State the research question (RQ) early and justify why it is suitable.

Use plenty of sources in writing your background information and refer back to them later when supporting any conclusions you draw. These sources can be textbooks, journals, websites, interviews etc. Ensure that they are properly referenced according to which ever referencing system you are using. This is not stipulated by the IB as they just state a system is used consistently, but most schools will have one they follow and insist you use. If you have a librarian, they can be invaluable in supporting you to reference correctly.

Always avoid the word amount. It is a vague word with little place in scientific writing. Be more specific, use words such as volume or mass in place of amount.

Think about your method like a recipe. It should be easy to follow. Hence numbered steps, all values for measurements and pieces of equipment are clearly stated to the reader. For example, if baking the first couple of steps may read:

1. 1. 1. 1. Weigh out 200g of plain flour using a scale. Add into a bowl.
         2. Add 200ml of milk measured using a 1000ml measuring jug.

A good method can be followed from start to finish simply and result in similar outcomes to those that you obtained when doing it. Make sure you also plan to collect qualitative data as well as quantitative.

There must be consideration of safety, ethical and environmental issues. All three of these must be shown to have been explored. This may just be that it is stated there are no major issues, this still shows these areas have been considered to fulfil the criteria. Remember a hazard is what could cause a problem and the risk is the probability of that happening. Do not confuse the two. If you do any sort of microbiological investigation the risk assessment will need to be carefully carried out and presented.

If you are not proficient in drawing a graph with excel or other graphing software, then it is best to hand draw them on graph paper. This will result in it taking longer to produce but is likely to result in a much clearer graph which includes all the components that would be expected of a high-quality graph. Common errors include issues such as gridlines being too widely spaced, missing axis labels or uncertainties and inappropriate lines to represent trends.

If you are doing calculations, you need not show all of them. One as an example is sufficient. Some calculations such as standard deviation may have been done using excel or other software. In this case the calculation need not be shown but it can be stated they were calculated on excel and the formula provided.

In this section further research should be used to support the explanations given behind conclusions and explore the hypothesis.

Ensure you refer back to your research question and hypothesis in the conclusion. You can not accept a hypothesis only support or reject it. The limited data you have can’t prove anything so as with amount earlier – avoid this word at all costs. If you have done statistics and have a null hypothesis also clearly comment on if this is accepted or rejected.

In this section further research should be used to support the explanations given behind conclusions and explore the hypothesis. Data from other scientific experiments or published theory around the topic will support findings well and link your research to the scientific context.

In concluding also mention any qualitative data you obtained and how it supports your overall conclusions. This is often overlooked.

Do not forget to also include strengths in your evaluation. They are clearly stated in the criteria and thus must be addressed.

It is generally a good point to say that the number of repeats could have been increased to increase reliability. In addition, explore the intervals between values or intervals for your independent variable it often could have been smaller increments.

You may find it more suitable to write conclusions after the evaluation have considered what the major areas of weakness were and how this may affect the conclusion that can be drawn.

This certainly should not be a section and is based holistically on the report written. The structuring is a large part of this. The criteria can be easily fulfilled by simply following a structure that cover the areas in the way they are set out by the IA criteria. You may find it more suitable to write conclusions after the evaluation have considered what the major areas of weakness were and how this may affect the conclusion that can be drawn. The IB has not dictated a set structure for this but states that is should be well structured and clear. In the subject guide the section for internal assessment useful for students can be found from pages 154 – 158, with communication being on page 158.

Learn how to subscript and superscript in whatever word processor you use. Symbols such as O₂ and Cu²⁺ are often not properly formatted and so do not meet the accepted scientific conventions. The same goes for ^oC. This often is written as degrees Celsius or even worse as just degrees. This is very poor scientific writing and done repeatedly will result in the loss of communication marks.

Consistency in decimal places is important. All results should be to the same number of decimal places and the mean of them only to one more decimal place if suitable. Whole numbers such as, for example a number of leaves should not have decimal places in the mean but be rounded to the nearest whole number.

The guidance is 6 to 12 pages not including any appendices. This however does not mean that you can just put all tables etc as an appendix. You could run the risk of these being excluded from marking if you do so. Try to be concise in your writing only including relevant information to support the research question you have devised. The 6 to 12 pages does also not mean it can be font size 8. Generally, go for a font size of 11 as suitable size that would be readable for teachers and examiners if your work is included in the sample sent to the IB.