Writing an
IB Economics
Commentary
5 Pro Tips
to ace your
commentaries
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#1 Choose a good article
“The choice of an appropriate article is the most
crucial aspect of writing a successful commentary.”
IBO, Economics Teacher Support Material
Indeed it is, so let’s look at why some articles are not suitable.
There are 2 main reasons:
1. inappropriate content
2. rubric requirements not met
Inappropriate content
Finding the right article is not an easy task. Many of my students also
struggle with finding suitable ones. Most of them have committed one or
more of the following mistakes:
✘ Writing commentaries on articles that already include a considerable
amount of economic analysis
While sources like The Economist or the Financial Times provide
extremely valuable articles and can enrich your understanding of
economics, it might also be true that they have done the job you’re
required to do in your Internal Assessment (analysis and evaluation).
Solution
✓ Choose articles which do not (heavily) analyse the economic
events that they describe.
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✘ Article does not contain enough information
Contrary to the previous mistake, some articles only vaguely mention
what some students then base their whole commentary on. In order to
effectively apply economic theory to real-life events, you need facts
about those events which you can then use. Your analysis will also be
a lot weaker if it’s not based on solid grounds.
Solution
✓ Always make sure that there is enough information in the article to
write a commentary of roughly 750-800 words.
✘ Article is not from the news media
You’re required to produce your commentary on current (real-life)
events. A post from your favourite lifestyle blog or social media
website won’t work.
Solution
✓ Choose articles from well-established news media organizations.
You can find a list of a few here.
✘ Too many topics included
Although it doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to choose another
article, but if the one you’ve picked is full of interesting topics to
discuss, don’t try to write a bit about each of them.
Solution
✓ Make sure you stick with one topic and only write about that one
highlighting the respective parts in the article.
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Not meeting rubric requirements
✘ Outdated articles
The article must not be older than a year. This means that the date of
publishing must be less than a year earlier than the date of the final
version of your commentary.
Solution
✓ Make sure the article was published within the last 9 months so
that you have plenty of time to write your commentary. The more
current the article, the better.
✘ Too long articles
Beware that articles shouldn’t be longer than 1-1.5 pages. If it’s longer
than that, do highlight all the parts that you’re writing your
commentary on - only these will be read by your teacher and the
external moderator. Moreover, articles which you can’t fit into two
pages (normal line spacing, 10-12 font size) should not be chosen as
teachers and external moderators aren’t going to read beyond that.
Solution
✓ Choose an article that fits into a page.
✘ Same source used more than once
The IB requires students to use different news sources for each of the
commentaries.
Solution
✓ Make sure that you have chosen articles from different sources.
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Where to find a good article?

Check out news.google.com
Instead of technical economic terms such as “negative
externalities,” try and search for simpler terms, like
“alcohol consumption” or “air pollution” or “income
inequality.”

I have a list of appropriate news sources on my website.

Check out my blog, where I post regularly about suitable
articles, categorized by the units of the syllabus.
Keep in mind

The less economic reference in the text, the better - you’ll
be able to show off your own analytic skills more freely.

Make sure that you have looked at a number of articles
before choosing the final one: take your time to look for
an article that describes an event that relates to your IB
Economics studies and that you can draw diagrams for.

Pro tip: go for articles that describe some kind of a
government intervention or solution to a
problem, because there will be a lot to say about it in
your evaluation.
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#2 Make an outline
The following outline is by no means the only one you can use as the
structure of your commentary largely depends on your article. So don’t feel
that if you don’t follow this one accurately, you’ll lose marks. You can
deviate from this – and perhaps, you should – if the article so dictates.
With all that said, let’s see what a great outline looks like, which will work
most of the time:
Introduction (with key concept)
Diagram 1
Analysis – part 1
Diagram 2
Analysis – part 2
Evaluation
Conclusion
Now let’s break this down a bit.
Introduction
- your intro should start with a sentence introducing the event described
in the article
- then you’ll connect it with the economic theory you’ll be using in the
commentary – up till now, it shouldn’t be more than 2-3 sentences
- next you should define the most relevant economic terms (note that
you’re not required to define all the economic terms used in your
commentary though)
- then comes your key concept (this can also be a separate paragraph)
o state explicitly what the key concept of the commentary is
o explain what it means (pro tip: open the IB Economics Guide at
p.12 to see the official detailed explanations of each of the key
concepts – this can also help determining which one is the most
relevant)
o explain why it is relevant to the article or the event described in the
article – building on your explanation of the key concept you’ve
just written in the previous sentence
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o note that you can also choose to introduce the key concept in the
evaluation towards the end of your commentary if it feels more
natural to do it there, explaining what it is and how it is linked to
your article
o finally, no matter where you choose to discuss the key concept in
depth, it is a good idea to refer back to it multiple times throughout
your commentary each time showing how it is connected to the
article
- make a one-sentence-long thesis statement, which explicitly states what
this commentary will do to arrive at judgments that are based on the
evaluation of the event from an economic perspective
o you can definitely connect this with your key concept
Diagram 1
- the first diagram is usually the one which describes the problem that the
article discusses
- make sure your diagram depicts economic theory relevant to the article
- make sure your diagram is adjusted to the article (i.e. don’t use readymade diagrams from books or the internet)
- include data from the article if you can
- check out the section below about diagrams
Analysis – part 1
- this is where you explain the theory that applies to the event described
in the article
- you must also give a full explanation of what is going on in your diagram
(which obviously illustrates the economic background of what the article
reports on)
- make the explanation very clear: someone who has never taken
economic should be able to understand what you’re talking about
- again, stay focused on the article and not on your textbook, even when
you’re explaining the economic concepts (e.g. you can use short
quotations)
Diagram 2
- the second diagram is usually the one which describes the solution to
the problem described earlier
- but in many cases it could be a completely different one (e.g.
Diagram 1: AD/AS model, Diagram 2: Lorenz curve in a
macroeconomics commentary if that’s relevant to the article)
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- points that apply to your first diagram, apply here too (see above)
- don’t draw diagrams about solutions that you make up; use the one(s) in
the article
- finally, it is not a must to have a 2nd diagram – you can still score 3/3 in
Criterion A even if it reads Diagrams – yet, if your teacher demands a
2nd diagram, it is always best to please them and have a 2nd one, but
make sure it’s relevant
- check out the section below about diagrams
Analysis – part 2
- show how the solution described in the article works – from an
economic perspective
- again, points that apply to your Analysis – part 1, apply here too (see
above)
- also, feel free to use quotations from the article to support your
explanation
Evaluation
- reasoning must be balanced
- this means that you show multiple perspectives, for example
o pros and cons
o effects on different stakeholders
o short-run vs. long-run effects
- go into details
- support your judgments with evidence
- use your key concept
- check out the section below about the evaluation
Conclusion
- this shouldn’t be very long
- 2-3 sentences are enough, which basically strengthen the main points of
your evaluation
- your final judgment should be included here, which must be in line with
your thesis and related to your key concept
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#3 Nail your diagrams
When it comes to diagrams, it’s needless to say that you need relevant
ones. So it’s absolutely vital that you choose articles that you can relate to
the economic concepts studied in the IB Economics course and that what
the article reports about can be shown in economic diagrams.
If you can apply relevant diagrams which you can then analyze, you’ll also
score well in Criterion C: application and analysis. With irrelevant diagrams
you’ll score weakly there too.
There are 4 different ways to lose marks with diagrams. Let’s look at each
so that you don’t make these mistakes but get full marks.
Irrelevant diagrams
Examples
Speaking about an increase in demand and
showing an increase in supply. True story…
OR
Analysing the effects of an expansionary monetary
policy and making the AS curve shift.
Always make sure that economic theory can be effectively applied to the
current event you’re writing about. Then carefully choose the diagrams
you’ll use and make them relevant (by adapting the textbook diagrams to
the real-life event, using data from the article). Try to use dynamic diagrams
to demonstrate changes that the article reports about (showing shifts).
Finally, give headings to your diagrams in order to clear to the reader how it
connects to the article.
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Inaccurate diagrams
Example
Inaccurate scaling and market equilibrium (left) vs accurate diagram (right)
Always make sure that the scaling of your diagram is accurate. Also, if
possible, ensure that your diagram uses data from the article correctly.
✘ Note, the labels are still not too nice in the second diagram… and
neither one has a title.
Incorrect labelling
Many students are negligent when labelling their axes.
 Instead of P, say Price of [good] ($/€/etc.)
 Instead of Q, say Quantity of [good] (units/kg/etc.)
And please, ALWAYS DOUBLE CHECK the label of EACH CURVE. Too
many times I have seen demand curves labelled as S and supply curves
labelled as D. Economics teachers really go mad if you do this… :)
Tip: you should also give a number and a title to each of your diagrams.
Let’s see how my initial diagram should look like:
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Figure 1
Final tip to diagrams: if you show shifts (which you should), make sure that
the new curve is correctly labelled (e.g. D1→ D2) and USE ARROWS if
possible. Teachers and examiners love them as they make it much easier
to understand your diagram. (btw, no need to make curves coloured)
No full explanation
Last but not least, perhaps the most important of all: you need to fully
explain your diagrams to score well. So it is not only about making your
diagrams relevant, accurate and correctly labelled, but you need to give a
very detailed explanation of what's going on in your diagram.
If you have a diagram which you don’t explain (in the worst cases students
don’t even mention them), then there is no sense in using them. The
diagram is there to help us better understand the event from an economic
perspective. And this is exactly why you have to explain it to the reader.
This explanation must be super clear to the reader, even if they have never
taken a single economics class in their lives. Explain what the curves stand
for, explain why they are shifting, explain the changes on the two axes, and
explain why it is relevant to the article. If you do all of these right, that will be
regarded as a full explanation.
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#4 Master your evaluation
Let’s first look at the most common problems with evaluations:
✘ No judgments are made
Since in your commentary you have to evaluate current events from an
economic perspective, no judgments made leads to zero marks earned for
this criteria.
✘Judgments are made, but reasoning is incorrect
For example, deducting from an article about a Eurozone country that its
politicians should introduce expansionary monetary policy is incorrect as
the ECB is in charge of monetary policy. I have seen a lot of students do
this… Make sure that what you say in your evaluation actually makes
sense.
✘Limited reasoning
This means that you’ve shown some appropriate reasoning, but it’s just not
enough. Usually it happens when you basically rephrase what has already
been said in the article.
A good way to think about how to evaluate your article is to look at some
older IB Markschemes of Paper 1 evaluative questions [part b) 15 marks].
Usually, at the end it has a small list similar to this one:




consideration of short-run versus long-run
impact on different stakeholders
pros and cons
efficiency
A few more things to do:
Prioritize your arguments
 rank your evaluation points according to importance
 the most important one should be connected to the key concept
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Assumptions - question them
Make sure to point out the limitations of the assumptions that you’ve made,
perhaps the ones that your diagrams are based on. Maybe you need to
question the validity of those assumptions when comparing economic
theory to what happened in reality – as described by the article. The best
evaluations do refer to such limitations of the economic theory applied to
the article.
For example, when it comes to negative consumption externalities, it is
a good idea to state that while the diagram and the related economic
theory states that
- the socially optimal quantity is known (you indicated it on the
Quantity axis),
- the true costs of the negative externality are accurately estimated
(shown by the vertical difference between MSB and MSC),
- the tax (or tax increase) applied by the government is exactly as
much as needed to shift the market equilibrium down to the socially
optimal level,
these might not actually be true in real life, perhaps making the policy in
question less effective.
Focus
The key here is that while you are looking at these aspects of the event that
you’re commenting on, do not lose your focus on the article. In order for
your evaluation to go beyond simply being “appropriate” - 2 marks, but
effective and balanced, you have to keep a close focus on your article.
How do you do that?
Frequent references back to the article, and using at least 3 short quotes as
this way you can make your evaluation effective rather than textbook-like,
dry and descriptive in nature. The reason why you would have 2
paragraphs here - as I told you in the video about the outline - is to make
your evaluation balanced; that is, showing multiple perspectives of the
matter using the list I’ve just shown you.
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Finally, make sure that your evaluation is fully developed. This should be
the longest part of your commentary so don’t be afraid of allocating at least
300 words to your evaluation.
Judgments needed
So to wrap up, make judgments! But only if you can support them with
evidence and economic theory. Your task was to apply economic theory in
your analysis part, so you should be able to make judgments based on your
analysis. You see, there is a need for normative economics; the world
needs opinions and judgments. But only if they are well-established and
balanced. If you do that, you should be getting those 3 marks for criterion E.
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#5 Avoid technical mistakes
If you got this far, you’ve already read over 2500 words, so I’ll be easy on
you. Here are the most common technical mistakes:
✘Article is not attached to the commentary
✘Important parts are not highlighted in a longer article
✘Cover sheet not attached or missing data - check this with your
teacher and IB coordinator. Each commentary must show:
 the article’s title
 its source (and when you accessed it)
 the date of publishing (of the article)
 the date of writing your final version of the commentary
 the word count (don’t go above 800)
 the syllabus unit which the article connects to (Microeconomics,
Macroeconomics, or The Global Economy)
 the key concept that you use (check pages 12-14 of the IB
Economics Guide)
✘No or limited bibliography
Especially if you have used sources other than the article.
✘Going above 800 words
External moderators will not read beyond 800 words. Writing in boxes
next to diagrams do count in the word count.
OK, so what does not count?
 diagram headings (up to 10 words) and
 labels (up to 5 words)
 tables of statistical data, calculations, formulae, equations
 citations: this is when you refer to an external source detailed in
your footnotes or bibliography. Quotations from the article are
part of the word count.
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 references (in footnotes/endnotes)
 table of contents
 acknowledgements
✘Same source used for more than one commentary
Always use different sources for each. This is a silly way to lose
marks…
✘Same key concept used multiple time
Make sure that for each commentary you have a different key
concept, otherwise you’ll use all 3 marks for Criterion D: Key concept
for any commentary which is using a key concept already used in
another one. So altogether, you can lose 3+3=6 marks if you have the
same key concept in all 3 commentaries.
✘Article is not in English and no accurate translation provided
✘Printed/scanned version is not readable
✘Printed/scanned version is black & white, and you’re referring to
coloured areas/curves (which, originally were obviously coloured, but
not any longer)
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Need help with revision?
Check out my IB Economics Revision Notes!
Everything you need to know and nothing that you don’t – put together
by an IB Economics examiner.
For more information, click the picture below, or click here.
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Thanks for reading and
I’m wishing you all the
very best for your IB
Economics studies!
af
EconDaddy - Daniel Szekely
IB Economics examiner, teacher & tutor
Do you feel lost in IB Economics?
I’m here to help.
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