Reflection sample 1 - History

1st reflection:
In my first formal reflection meeting, I have discussed with my supervisor about my final topic I will be
writing, areas to research, and the strategy/place to research. I took Mr. X’ (my supervisor) advice and
chose my topic related to the course. In the course, I found the ‘rise of Hitler’ the most interesting.
Moreover, I thought it would be interesting to relate it to Japan so after sharing my thoughts to Mr. X, I
have decided to write about “How Nazism and Hitler had affected Japan”. For research, I will need specific
information since my topic is narrow. I will first list all the details I need to research as much as I can. Then, I
will use my list as a guide to research in the internet. Nonetheless, I will also use the internet to search for
any decent books that matches my topic. Mr. X wants me to do some research during the summer break.
Although I will be attending to camp rising sun and won’t have time to do a lot of research, I will do my
best.

2nd reflection
In my second formal reflection meeting, my supervisor had checked the 3000 word draft that I have
submitted to him earlier. He suggested general corrections that I have to make. The comments I received
are what said in the following. One, to make my first body paragraph clear and use sentences that
communicate directly to what I am trying to tell. Secondly, the grouping of body paragraph should be
changed. I should change it to foreign policy reason, domestic policy reason, and Matsuoka’s personal
reasons. Moreover, the same background information needs to be sorted out as there are some
information that should rather go into the body and not in the background. Also, there are information in
the background that are not necessary so organize whats required and not. He also advised me to make it
really distinct. Lastly, he told me to write the body paragraph first and go back to the background. I will take
his advice and resubmitted as soon as possible.

3rd reflection
In my last formal reflection, viva voce, my supervisor and I went through the checklist. I first checked
through the checklist of how much time I have put into my Extended Essay and then, checked if I have all
my sources cited. After I have gone through the checklist, my supervisor had checked it as well. In addition,
my supervisor checked my formatting and referencing issues I had.
 Reflection Sample 2 - Language A
1st Reflection:
As I like to ‘decipher’ literary texts, Kafka’s “Der Prozess” seems perfect for my EE: it offers many
possibilities for interpretation, so that I hopefully find the right one for me. This will be the biggest
challenge for my essay. After I had read the literary work, I was confused as it did not mention what K. has
been accused of. A possible RQ would be to find that out. In order to understand the prose better, I read
secondary literature and watched the film by Orson Wells. This lead me to a different research: the
investigation of Kafka’s criticism of society. For that, I need more information about Kafka, why I will read
Reiner Stach’s biography of Kafka.

2nd Reflection
To read Kafka’s biography, was the highlight of the EE so far. I am fascinated by the importance of writing
for Kafka’s identity. As he wrote in order to work on his personal issues, I think that criticism of society was
not his main focus. That’s why I change my research focus from criticism of society to Kafka’s life.
Therefore, the role which K. takes in his law suit, is central. That’s why I changed my RQ: instead of
investigating the reason for the accusation, I will research how K. deals with it. As this is the objective of the
prose, this seems the right thing to do.
At the moment I find it difficult to prove K.’s behaviour of the court process and his resulting loss of identity
on the text. Due to the ambivalent narrative language, the plot is not clear. I will therefore spend more time
on the interpretation of individual scenes of the prose. In addition, I will look into Freud’s psychoanalysis in
order to get a better understanding of the biographical background of Kafka. The problem will be to stay
within the word count of the EE.

3rd Reflection
I think I went through a big writing progress during my work on the EE. In the beginning, I got trapped in the
court process as a real law suit and regarded K. as innocent. Through the deeper analysis of Kafka’s
language, which I found the most difficult but also the most interesting part, K.’s involvement and guild
became apparent. The intensive research of Kafka’s life and literature offered me a complex insight: I
understood Freud’s psychoanalysis and the insecurity of modern life and its expression in language. By
redrafting my EE, I learnt how to write in an academic way; never before I had to do correct citations and I
learnt to express myself more clearly and concise. My interpretation of Kafka’s “Der Prozess” is not the
only answer to my RQ and my conclusions have been drawn before. But I am convinced that I found an
understanding of that novel, which seems logical to me and therefore, I have achieved my personal goal.