Spend some time to choose a good news article as it is the starting point for a good commentary. A good article is not too long (usually not more than 1 page) and without too much economic analysis. This gives students the scope to demonstrate their understanding of economic theory in the IB Economics Internal Assessment.
The issues discussed in the news article should not be too complicated and has to be be found within the IB syllabus.
Some students use diagrams found on the internet. These diagrams may not be suitable for the news articles they have selected. It will be best to create your own diagrams as they can be customized accordingly. In fact, Economics diagrams can be easily made using Microsoft drawing tools. Do try it out, it is not difficult.
Example: How can we use the demand – supply diagram to explain the effects of a fall in price of burgers on the equilibrium price and quantity of pizzas?
Burgers and pizzas are substitutes
A fall in price of burgers will decrease the demand for pizzas as consumers will switch to eating burgers.
The demand curve for pizzas shift to the left to D2 while the supply curve, S1 is unchanged. At price P1, there is now a surplus of pizzas shown by Q1 – Q3. The surplus causes equilibrium price to fall to P2. The new equilibrium quantity is at Q2.
Do not just reword the statements in the articles. Link the economic theories you have learned to the article. Consider any long term consequences, advantages and disadvantages of a policy.
You do not have to state the meaning of every single economic term. It will be hard to keep with in the word limit if you define every term. For all definitions taken from textbooks, please use quotation marks and credit the source.