Time To Get Out the Ol' Thinking Cap!

Last year at South about 30 of my classmates wrote an extended essay to earn their IB diploma. For a variety of reasons, I didn't participate in this IB rite of passage, but it looks like I'm getting a second chance this year-- only this time in German! 

In History class we got to try out an authentic Prussian Pickelhaube. 

It's called a Facharbeit and is intended to teach all eleventh graders in Gymnasium how to write a scholarly essay. The whole thing is supposed to be about eight to ten pages and half of the total score is judged based on conventions and formatting. So although the content is important, man oh man are they picky about the little stylistic things. Uniformity is perfection in this arena. 

I've got the script format down in German... but for some reason they don't consider it "scholarly."

I'll be writing about genetically modified organisms, more specifically the public opinion in the EU towards genetically modified foods. The laws and general feelings about GMOs are quite a bit different here compared to across the pond. After Oregon voters rejected the bill back in November that would require genetically modified foods to be labeled, I became very interested in why that happened. But I think before anything Facharbeit-related happens, I'll be hitting the GMO vocab list (in English and German).

Hopefully all my research books will have as many pictures as our textbooks!

I found it interesting that in our Facharbeitreader, which is a stylistic guide and overview of the criterion for the paper, there was a whole section dedicated to "American citing." Apparently us American scholars do the footnotes and ending bibliography differently and it's important to take note of it, especially for those who chose English as their general category for the assignment (to be written in American English nonetheless). 

Well, according to my last Social Studies written exam, I've got a ways to go with my conventions.

And on a final note, German and American high schoolers aren't that different when they're faced with a monster essay. I compared the #facharbeit and #extendedessay Twitter results. Both consisted of panic-/lack of motivation-based memes, "hallelujah I'm done" tweets, and social commentary on how little sleep everybody got in the 72 hours leading up to the final draft due date. I guess some things'll never change...