What is the IOP all about?

The Individual Oral Presentation is a task completed at the end of your study of the three Part 4 'Options' works. It will be in the form of a 10-15 minute presentation in which you explore an issue that has arisen out of the works studied, and which you have taken a personal interest. The topic could be concerned with just one of the texts, or it could compare.

You can choose which topic you want to speak about, as well as the format in which you want to present your ideas (e.g.formal, critical or creative -- or mixture of both). It is important, however, to ensure that

• the topic is focused and specific, rather than general - and that you have an interest in it
• you think carefully about how to present in a way that engages the attention of your audience

How do I come up with a topic?

As mentioned above, it is vital that you have an interest in the aspect you choose. As soon as you begin your Part 4 studies, keep a record of potential ideas somewhere in your notes. Something interesting may emerge from your independent reading, from something your teacher or classmates say, or something that emerges naturally from class discussion.

What kind of topics might I choose?

Almost anything, as long as it allows you to fulfil the assessment criteria in as effective a way possible. Official suggestions from the IB are as follows:

• the cultural setting of the work(s) and related issues
• thematic focus
• characterization
• techniques and style
• the author's attitude to particular elements of the works (e.g. characters, subject matter)
• the interpretation of particular elements from different perspectives

In practice, this means you should choose a topic closely connected to one or more of the works studied, which allows you to demonstrate 'knowledge and understanding' in as detailed and interesting a way possible. Here are some examples from past students.

Work		Presentation focus
The Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan Poe		An assessment of the way typically gothic elements are revealed through the presentation of Usher’s house. The presentation made use of gothic architecture and painting.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou		An extract from the student’s autobiographical writing in which she explores the meaning of books in her life. This was used as a way to examine the importance of literature to the central character’s development in the text.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey		An exploration of the personality, role and significance of the character of Nurse Ratched in both the novel and the film adaptation.
Selected Poems by Tony Harrison		An investigation into the use of irony in Harrison’s poetry, including a pastiche of the author’s work.
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy		Question: In what ways is the natural setting important to the presentation of the relationship between the father and the son? Comparisons made with screen shots from the film version.
No Exit,  J.P. Sartre		Using three paintings as points of reference, a presentation that explored the importance of the motif of eyes to the play.
The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks		A performed monologue, written from the point of view of Frank’s father, in which he ‘explains’ his treatment of Frank. This was accompanied with an analysis of their relationship and its development in the novel.
Maus, Art Spiegelman		A defense of the novel against the charge that it is not a ‘literary’ work.
Short Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez		The evolution of Magic Realism as a genre, and its presentation in two of Marquez’s short stories. References made to both visual art and music.
Various Hypertext Novels		In what ways is the subject of time presented in the form of three hypertext novels? An ‘interactive’ presentation.

How should I prepare?

As with any extended piece of work, whether oral or written, it is crucial that you set about the process in a careful, methodical and detailed manner. Here's a suggested approach:

Stage 1: Choose a topic

As stated above, the topic must be one in which you feel personally engaged, not least because if it is interesting to you, then it will be to your audience. Make sure that the topic is associated directly with the text, even if you choose to talk about something biographical or contextual, because you will need to be able to demonstrate detailed 'knowledge and understanding' of the work in question - not only, for example, the period in which it was written.

Furthermore, make sure that the topic allows you to 'say' something about the work. It is important that skills of analysis, interpretation, and evaluation are present in the presentation. If it amounts to nothing more than a 'description' of a character or theme then you are obviously not going to do very well. Some students find it appropriate to set themselves a question, rather like for an essay, so that they have clear sense that they must argue a point

Stage 2: Research

Once you have decided on a topic, you need to set about making notes. This will involve

• re-reading the work, looking out for anything that is relevant to your chosen topic. You can pick out important events or moments, helpful quotations and write down points of analysis

• doing any necessary research, e.g. into the literary, historical or cultural context of the work

• reading book reviews or (perhaps) secondary criticism that provide you with alternative ways of seeing it

• (perhaps) exploring associated art work, or music

• (perhaps) exploring film, television or radio clips

Step 3: Decide on a format

As you make your notes on the topic, consider also the best way for presenting your ideas. PowerPoint may not be the most effective means of presenting your topic, nor of engaging your audience. Keep in mind that one third of the marks will be awarded for your presentation skills, so you want to give as much thought to the format as you do to the content.

Consider, for instance

• use of drama / dramatization - dramatic monologue, role-play, costume, symbolic props
• using images - your own or otherwise
• giving a speech or using speeches
• drawing on your own creative writing
• referring to film or television clips
• using music - your own production or from other sources

Think of the topic first, then the format. You may, for example, be a good actor but this does not necessarily mean that a dramatic performance will be the best means of exploring your topic. Nor should you rush into PowerPoint, unless you are confident that you can use it in an appropriate and effective manner. This means using it as a visual aid to support your talk, not the other way around. The focal point for the presentation should be you, not the screen.

Remember that if you choose a creative option (rather than a formal presentation), make sure to accompany it with a more formal analysis that explores, among other things, the intention behind the creative choice.


Stage 4: Develop a plan

Once you have decided on a topic and the way you intend to present it, you will need to devote sufficient time to organizing and developing your ideas. With 10-15 minutes for the IOP, you need to ensure

•  that there is a sense of development, not just repetition of one or two core ideas
• that the time allocated to each section takes into account the most effective way to engage and sustain the interest of the audience

It is also important to make clear the point(s) you want to make in each section. This means your points amount to more than just description or explanation. You must show ample evidence of your analysis, interpretation and evaluation of the material.  If you are uncertain how to organize your oral presentation, contact us.

Stage 5: Delivery

You will recognise the hallmarks of successful presentations because you have encountered them before, many times.  For this reason, you will know that good presentation technique comprises of the following kinds of elements:

• maintaining eye contact: there are few things less engaging than a talk given by someone who does not look at you 

• knowing your material: if you read verbatim from a sheet or if you learn your talk off by heart, you will automatically adopt a rather artificial register that, once again, will detach you from your audience. Know your material well, but use notes that keep you on track. When in doubt, turn your speech into bullet points, rather than complete sentences. This will make you do a little more work on the day, but will almost certainly improve the sense of engagement with your audience. 

• talking at an appropriate pace: nerves often result in people speeding up and sometimes being hard to follow. Take deep breaths before you start to talk, take time to let points sink in with your audience by including judicious pauses, and above all, ensure that what you are saying makes sense.

How will I be marked?

There are three bands in the marking criteria, each marked out of 10:


A: Knowledge and Understanding

•  How much knowledge and understanding does the student show of the work(s) used in the presentation?

Have you referred in detail to the text - both to particular moments, scenes or events, as well as to quotations? Make sure that all of your points are rooted in evidence. In addition, try to make sure that your presentation demonstrates a variety of ways of thinking about those texts - e.g. elements of description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation.

B: Presentation

• How much attention has been given to making the delivery effective and appropriate to the presentation? To what extent are strategies used to interest the audience (for example, audibility, eye contact, gesture, effective use of supporting material)?

Keep in mind the points made above about successful presentations i.e. make sure that both what you present and how you present are going to engage and sustain your audience's interest. Try to be varied, clear and confident.


C: Language

• How clear and appropriate is the language? 
• How well is the register and style suited to the choice of presentation? (“Register” refers, in this context, to the student’s use of elements such as vocabulary, tone, sentence structure and terminology appropriate to the presentation.) 

Have you referred in detail to the text - both to particular moments, scenes or events, as well as to quotations?  Make sure that all of your points are rooted in evidence. In addition, try to make sure that your presentation demonstrates a variety of ways of thinking about those texts - e.g. elements of description, analysis, interpretation and evaluation. Keep in mind the points made above about successful presentations i.e. make sure that both what you present and how you present are going to engage and sustain your audience's interest. Try to be varied, clear and confident. Make sure that your language is appropriately formal unless you are adopting an informal register in, for example, a character monologue. To score well in language you do not need to be overly sophisticated; you do need to be clear, precise and consistent.

If you'd like advice about any aspect of the IOP, contact us. New? Use our free trial session to start.

More Paper 2 Questions (English A: Literature)

Many of our students ask us for help with writing high-scoring Paper 2 exams.   An essential first step is becoming aware of the range of questions that can be asked. The second is knowing how they can be applied to your works.  Ask us for guidance.

Answer one essay question only. You must base your answer on at least two of the Part 3 works you have studied and compare and contrast these works in response to the question. Answers which are not based on a discussion of at least two Part 3 works will not score high marks.



Drama 

1. Extended speeches by individual characters, either alone on the stage or with others present, are used in plays with various purposes and outcomes. Using at least two plays you have studied, show how playwrights use such speeches to achieve purposes particular to their plays.

2. Plays employ various kinds of structural divisions such as prologues and epilogues, act and scene divisions, even carefully placed intermissions. In at least two plays in your study, discuss how some of these divisions have been used to underscore or complement the materials of the plays.


3. Dramatic tension in many plays arises from the conflicting goals of a protagonist and those of an antagonist. Using at least two plays you have studied, show how such fully apparent or subtle conflicts provide the foundation and interest of the plays.




Poetry

4. Poems are often meant to be heard, not just seen. In the work of two poets you have studied, consider those aspects of the poems that appeal to the ear in addition to other aspects of reader pleasure.

5. The metaphor, based on analogies between things, is a common and expected element of poetry. Show how at least two poets in your study have heightened meaning or interest in their poems by the use of metaphor.

6. Contrasts of many kinds are used by poets to sharpen their expression of ideas or feelings or both. In the work of at least two poets you have studied, explore the ways contrasts have been used to achieve particular effects.




The Novel and Short Story

7. Writers of fiction do not always relate events in the order in which they seem to occur in the worlds of their novels or short stories. Choosing two works by writers you have studied, show how variations of chronological order can be seen to serve the purposes of the stories.

8. Often, the memorable impact of short stories and novels arises from the careful and often brilliant creation of detail by their writers. Using two writers you have studied, explore the role and impact of some significant details in the narratives.

9. Who tells the story is often an essential feature in how far a reader finds a novel or short story credible, but sometimes it seems not to matter at all. Using two works you have studied, say how far the impact of the voice which tells the story is important to the success of the work.




Prose other than Fiction

10. Separating various stages of an autobiography or travel narrative is a challenge for writers in these forms. Choosing two works you have studied, discuss the way the writers have structured their works to make their material clear and interesting to their audiences.


11. Personal history as well as the backdrop of events surrounding that personal history are both significant to many works of prose other than fiction. In two works of this kind, discuss the handling of these two realms of existence.


12. Sometimes what is implied in a work of prose other than fiction is very important. Considering the work of two writers you have studied, explore the treatment of some issues and agendas that are only implied or treated briefly, but are, nevertheless, important aspects of the works.

Extended Essays in Cat. 3 (Eng A)

In theory, students of English A can do an EE in any category. However, if you are studying English A: literature, you may not be well placed to study a category 3 EE. If, on the other hand, you are studying language and literature at Standard Level you may find the demands of a category 3 essay challenging. 

For categories 1 and 2—focus on literature, click here.

Category 3—focus on language

A category 3 EE emphasizes the production and reception of texts in social, historical and/or cultural contexts. You should give focused and critical attention to the text or texts you are dealing with and your analysis must include a wider discussion of the contexts in which the text(s) are produced and understood.

In addition, examiners encourage you to:

• adopt an analytical, critical position
• show awareness of potentially conflicting viewpoints on the text(s) and their meaning in a wider social context.
• adopt an approach that is balanced, coherently argued, and illustrated by relevant supporting examples.

Note:

Essays that attempt to interpret the text(s) without considering the original audience and context are unlikely to offer a fully successful discussion. Essays that simply offer a general overview of a topic are not appropriate.

Your text or texts must have been originally produced in the language of your essay.

What counts as "text" for category 3?

The widest range of oral, written and visual materials present in society:

• single and multiple images with or without written text
• literary written texts and text extracts
• media texts, eg advertising campaigns; films, radio and television programmes and their scripts
• electronic texts that share aspects of a number of media texts, eg video-sharing websites, web pages, SMS messages, blogs, wikis and tweets
• oral texts, eg readings, speeches, broadcasts and transcripts of recorded conversation.

Please do keep in mind that any narrative and/or descriptive material included in your essay should be directly relevant to the critical analysis. A summary of your reading is not sufficient.

You can, where relevant to the topic, compare and contrast different languages and cultures. However, the essay’s main focus should be the language and culture(s) of the language in which you are writing.

Examples of topics and research questions—category 3

The examples are just for guidance. Apart from examples 1 and 7, each specifies a particular language so that the research question is precise. However, they may also work in another language and context.

Language in a cultural context

Students can explore how language develops in specific cultural contexts, how it impacts on the world, and the ways in which language shapes both individual and group identity.

Topic:  Gender

Research question: How has the portrayal of men in male grooming products changed from the 1980s to date?

Approach: A careful analysis of the contexts and the devices employed in at least two specific advertising campaigns in the target language culture, with some comparative element to the discussion.

Topic:  Language and communities

Research question: How do the Spanish press present controversies that happen during the Real Madrid and Barcelona derbies?

Approach: A careful analysis of the emotive language used to describe the controversial moments from the Barcelona and Madrid press (El País, El Periódico de Catalunya, Marca, As, El Mundo) focusing on a particular season. There will be an evaluation of the social and political stances taken by the different newspapers and an analysis of bias.

Topic: Language and communities (nation/region, subcultures)

Research question:  How are second and third generation Turkish young people portrayed in the German media?

Approach: A careful analysis of and comparison between three different media forms from a variety of viewpoints. There will be a focus on the nature of the language used to portray second and third generation Turkish youth (15–25 years old).

Language and mass communication

Students can consider the way language is used in the media, and may address how the production and reception of texts is influenced by the medium in which they are written.

Topic:  Language and presentation of speeches

Research question:  To what extent does Cristina Fernández de Kirchner use rhetorical devices to criticize international vulture funds?

Approach:  A careful analysis of the contexts and the rhetorical devices used by Fernández de Kirchner in a select handful of speeches in which she criticizes international vulture funds, with some comparative element to the discussion.

Topic:  The use of persuasive language in motivational speeches

Research question:   By what means do Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King seek to inspire their particular audiences?

Approach:   A careful analysis of the contexts and the rhetorical and emotive devices employed in Steve Jobs’ Stanford University graduation commencement ceremony speech (2005) and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” discourse (1963), with some comparative element to the discussion.

Topic: News coverage

Research question:   How do different newspapers vary in their reporting methods of racist incidents in English league football?

Approach:   A careful analysis of the emotive language used to describe specific incidents of racism in football as reported in daily newspapers (eg The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror and a sports publication) and an evaluation of how far the stance taken on this issue is representative of each newspaper’s social, political and class bias.

Topic:  Textual bias

Research question:   How do different newspapers vary the way they convey their political views in their editorials?

Approach:   A careful analysis of the contexts and the language (choice of key words, rhetorical devices) used by two leading newspapers Asahi and Yomiuri issued on the 3rd of May, The Institutional Day (Japanese national holiday to commemorate their peaceful post-war Constitutional Law) for the past five years, with comparative elements to the discussion.

 More topics 

Topic: language and computer-mediated communication
Research question: How do readers recognize inauthenticity in email phishing spam?


Topic: language, age, and computer-mediated communication
Research question: How and why do different generations use language differently in email correspondence?


Topic: language, gaming, and computer-mediated communication
Research question: In Minecraft, which features of language are determined by the activity, and which by the fact that the game is played on-line?


Topic: media, language, ideology, and power
Research question: How are environmental issues represented in The Straits Times and New Internationalist (magazine)?

Topic: language, media, and persuasion
Research question: What rhetorical and stylistic strategies do estate agents use to persuade their readers in Singapore and the USA?

Topic: language, newspapers, culture and society
Research question: How similar and different was the reporting of school shootings in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, and Columbine High School in the USA in 1999?

Need help with formulating an appropriate research topic? Contact us.

From the Horse's Mouth

English A: Extended Essay

Every year, the IBO releases examiner reports which offer valuable insights for teachers and students for each type of assessment. Please note that this report is specific to essays written in English A; essays in English B are discussed elsewhere.

Note: Although this report is from the M15 publication, all points are immediately relevant to students writing in 2018

The range and suitability of the work submitted

The large majority of the essays were submitted in Category 1 and thus comprised a straightforward analysis of a literary text or texts. Category 2 essays were less popular.

Category 3 essays are slowly growing in popularity and schools could usefully revisit the possibilities with this option, especially for students studying the Language and Literature course.

This year in all three categories examiners saw a number of outstanding essays from students who had made fresh and original choices of texts and topic. However, there are still a very large number of essays on ‘well-worn’ themes: Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ (American Dream); Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ (adolescence/character-based), Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (dystopian/feminist); Orwell’s ‘1984’/ Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (dystopian), and Khomeini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ (cultural/feminist.)

In such cases, as many examiners pointed out, an innovative approach and some recourse to secondary sources, as well as a genuine attempt to set the work in its literary context, is required to offer something beyond the ordinary.

There is also a trend towards a set of favourite topics emerging for Category 3 essays, (perhaps influenced by course units in textbooks?) e.g. the “Dove for Real Beauty” and Benetton campaigns.

Topics based on young adult fiction, or fiction which has been adapted for film or television, remain popular (George RR Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’; Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Twilight’ series) but here, as always, students need to be circumspect about the literary merit of the works.

Other texts in this category included ‘Matched’ by Ally Condie (the Matched trilogy), ‘Rapture’ by Lauren Kate (the ‘Fallen’ series), ‘Beautiful Disaster’ by Jamie McGuire and ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry, where the novels simply did not support a discussion of a sufficiently academic nature.

Some texts chosen for comparison in Category 2 were too disparate and again, the discussion did not work (e.g. ‘The Great Gatsby’ with ‘Gilgamesh’).

However, it was refreshing to see some new texts, or a popular text viewed from a fresh perspective or compared with a ‘new’ text.

Examples of research questions which lead to successful analysis included ‘How does Eliza Haywood represent female voice and agency in her books ‘Love in Excess’ and ‘Fantomina’?’; ‘How, in similar and different ways, do the two poets Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Joy Harjo present the motif of the divine in their poems?’; ‘How is a nature / nurture tension used to create a complex characterisation of the protagonist in the novel ‘Ed King’ by David Guterson?’ and ‘How are the protagonists from ‘Wit’ by Margaret Edson and ‘Proof’ by David Auburn analogous in the challenges they face?’

Other titles and topics which examiners particularly enjoyed included the use of outside works in John Green’s ‘Paper Towns’ and ‘The Fault in our Stars’ (focusing on ‘Leaves of Grass’ and ‘An Imperial Affliction’ by Peter van Houten); the intrusive narrative voice in E.M. Forster; ; an exploration of racial identity in Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing’, Vikas Swarup’s employment of structure in ‘Q & A’, and essays on ‘Love and Information’ by Caryl Churchill and ‘Americanah’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

For category 3 essays, there needs to be a clear sense of a “text” and a discussion of the language elements at play in the “text”. Three titles which offered the scope to do this are offered as examples: ‘How do Margaret Thatcher and Barack Obama use pathos, ethos and logos to reach out to their audiences?’ (Using ‘This lady’s not for turning’ from 1980 and Obama’s 2009 inauguration speech); ‘To what extent do the language choices in the Nike World Cup TV advertisement appeal to the target audience?’ and ‘How has the portrayal of the LGBT community in stand-up comedy evolved from late 80s to the present day?’

Category 3 essays should be based on primary material that the candidates have had to analyse themselves. Essays where the candidates have merely gathered information from secondary sources and ‘patched it together’, so to speak, are not successful. Basing Category 3 essays only on questionnaires which have been completed by fellow students at the school is also inadvisable; as one examiner pointed out, creating a suitable questionnaire is a skilled task for which the candidate needs training.

As always, a few essays exceeded the word limit or dealt only with works in translation and candidates need to be aware of the penalties incurred in these cases.

It should be noted that for Category 3 essays also, texts chosen should be originally written in English.

Candidate performance against each criterion

Criterion A: research question

The new Extended Essay Guide will place increased emphasis on the selection of a research question; and after 2016, the research question is required to be posed as a question, rather than expressed as a title or statement. This is a strategy which candidates could usefully adopt with immediate effect: as the draft TSM points out, “a properly-formulated research question enables students to maintain their focus more easily throughout the essay and to make a judgment as to whether they have responded to the research question.” It is also evident that the most successfully focused work invariably has a simply worded and tightly focused question as its starting-point.

Candidates should be reminded that overly broad topics (such as how different authors deal with the topic of racism in literature) rarely work because of a lack of focus and a lack of detailed treatment within the confines of the word count.

Very obvious or ‘well-worn’ topics (such as the portrayal of war in Owen’s poetry or Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, or the social background in ‘Pride & Prejudice’) rarely offer new insights.

Other essays omitted to frame the research question to give the investigation a literary focus rather than one which was sociological, psychological, or historical in nature.

It is important to stress the importance of a closely-studied text or texts at the heart of a Category 3 essay, and in this category also, some research questions, and responses, were overly general and uncritical in focus. As mentioned again below, these tended to encourage students to simply write about their ideas and opinions without doing research or providing evidence for their statements.

Research questions often varied between the cover, the title page, the abstract and the introduction; consistency is required here.

Criterion B: introduction

Introductions often included irrelevant biographical material but failed to deal with the context and significance of the chosen topic.

Some candidates still needed to delineate the introduction more clearly.

Criterion C: investigation

Candidates need to consider the quality of secondary sources versus the quantity of sources chosen to support their treatment of the topic, and how these sources can be used to further the discussion and analysis in the essay. As one examiner pointed out, “many candidates appeared not to have really understood why they are used and what they might be able to do – and indeed how they might harm a personal perspective”.

Advice was almost unanimous: students need to get to grips with the primary source and use secondary sources (if any) of high quality, offering their own response to those sources.

Students need to be able to evaluate internet sources (see further comments below). Reliance on Schmoop. Wikipedia, Sparknotes etc. should be avoided. At the same time, candidates writing on established authors such as Bronte, Poe or Shakespeare should be expected to be familiar with, and make some use of, the volume of secondary criticism available.

Criterion D: knowledge and understanding of the topic studied

While most examiners felt that there was good knowledge and reasonable understanding, some essays lacked sufficient use of material from the texts (along with analysis and interpretation).

In Categories 1 and 2 there were many essays in which candidates clearly found difficulty in moving much beyond paraphrase/narrative, with a good deal of secondary material, often simply added for extra “weight” and rarely explored or considered in any meaningful way. Those candidates who chose more demanding texts tended to write with greater critical confidence.

Essays where candidates compared very disparate texts, those with vague topics, and those where there was no real comparison of the two texts, were also of poor quality.

Category 3 essays, also, had a tendency for the discussion of the text to lead to generalizations, assumptions and stereotypes resulting in fairly shallow understanding and analysis.

Students who scored highly on this criterion were able to demonstrate a confident knowledge of their text(s) and a genuine engagement with their chosen topic.

Criterion E: reasoned argument

In many essays, plot narration, descriptions, or mere biographical or contextual information remained the primary focus of the essay. Candidates often found it difficult to remain strictly relevant to the research question. Many candidates simply repeated the views found in secondary sources, as a substitute for their own analysis; few were able to use this critical reading to challenge, or to support their own argument in the essay.

Weaker candidates did not use the primary text at all but merely retold the story in a very general manner; as one examiner pointed out, “plot paraphrase does not demonstrate understanding and insight.”

A coherent and convincing argument was also hampered in some cases when candidates opted to discuss only a limited selection of examples from their texts, or to provide quotations without giving any background or context.


Where Category 3 essays took their examples out of textbooks or from a website, these were often less effective because of a failure to investigate and provide the original context necessary for the serious study of the word and/or image.

Criterion F: application of analytical and evaluative skills

This seemed to be a key discriminator.

Once again the single most important failing under this criterion was the tendency for candidates to describe, narrate, summarize, or explain instead of analysing.

Criterion G: use of language appropriate to the subject:

Candidates should aim at least to express themselves in language which is “sometimes clear and appropriate”. They literary terminology for Category 1 and 2 essays and appropriate media terminology for Category 3.

Criterion H: conclusion

The conclusion should offer a new synthesis in response to the research question and not merely summarise what has been said in the essay.

Criterion I: formal presentation

Candidates are strongly advised to consult the IB document ‘Effective citing and referencing’ for guidance.

URL addresses for websites, dates of accessing, etc., were often insufficiently cited in bibliographies and/or footnotes. More than a few examiners pointed out that footnote references tended to be unwieldy, with complete provenance stated every time, instead of ‘ibid’ or ‘op.cit.’

Marks were also lost for omitting citations, the table of contents or page numbers for the essay.
It would be helpful if students could include copies of the work(s) as an appendix if they are writing about poetry or unusual short stories. This would also be useful in many Category 3 essays where advertisements or speeches are taken from unusual sources, especially those not available on the internet.

As stated in the DPCNs, schools are also reminded that “footnotes and endnotes are not an essential part of the extended essay and examiners will not read them, or use any information contained within in the assessment of the essay. Students must take care to ensure that all information with direct relevance to the analysis, discussion and evaluation of their essay is contained in the main body of it. An essay that attempts to evade the word limit by including important material in footnotes or endnotes risks losing marks under several criteria.”

The organisation of the essay should also be given careful thought. For many literary topics, sub-headings can enhance, but more often detract from, the fluency of the essay.

A final proof-read is essential.

Criterion J: abstract

There is still a tendency for candidates to write the abstract as though it is some sort of introduction. It should be written after the completion of the essay and written in the past tense

Criterion K: holistic judgement
Demonstrated a sophisticated level of understanding and research and genuine engagement with the topic.

It was difficult to award more than a “2” for essays on ‘well-worn’ topics, particularly those which did not acknowledge established criticism.

For help and guidance with any aspect of your extended essay, contact us.

P1 English A: Literature (SL) "Ballad of Birmingham"

Learning to do commentary is like riding a bike—even if someone repeatedly tells you how to ride, you will never manage it until you climb on and try to do it for yourself. This means that the primary method of learning commentary is through practice, discussion and feedback.

Don't wait any longer. Contact us for your trial session.

Write a guided literary analysis on the passage below. In your answer you must address both of the guiding questions provided.

                Ballad of Birmingham

(On the Bombing of a Church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)

“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jail
Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”

                        Dudley Randall, The Ballad of Birmingham (1969)

      - Describe the irony of the situation in the poem.

      - How effectively do you see the form of the poem as heightening its meaning?

English A Literature (HL) (Square)

I used to watch the storm coming up over the baker's house. Not that the house was lower than all those which were crowded around the little square, but it stood on the west side and its roof of round, sun-bleached tiles mirrored the sky.
       On the calmest of days, when the wind scarcely swayed the smoke from the oven chimney, I saw, slowly rising above the top of the bakery, big white clouds which only darkened much later and stayed for a long time fringed with light. The storm anticipated the evening, growing heavy with the sunset shadows, and drawing a deeper night over the world.
       The baker's house, with its bakery looking out on the little square, withstood the daylight, at first constant, then slowly fading, then the darkening of the clouds, and finally the first gusts of the storm, which beat the smoke onto the roof and into the square in a fiery swirl.
        Batches of bread followed one another, the glow of the oven flickering at intervals in the room where two men were working, their bare backs white and emancipated from the fire. When the oven was red hot, they poured the embers to deaden them into large metal drums, as tall as the child of ten that I was then, and they put them outside the bakery door to cool.
        Then the square, in the blazing heat that goes before a storm, seemed to catch fire. It was a sultry heat, a stifling inferno, a sightless summer added to summer. When I went up to the drums I heard the crackling of wood charcoal being formed. Later in the bakery, which the two bakers had just left to have a drink, rows of hot bread were crackling too, like a sunny field with the sound of grasshoppers.
       When I closed my eyes, the smell of bread was like the sighing of a fire-ravaged land which was flaking in its wait for the rain. You would have said that with the oncoming storm some of the darkness, still glowing from the empty oven, now appeared in the sky. A draught from the open door of the bakery sent wood ash scurrying to the middle of the square, a little slack grey trail, soon lost in the dust where a black hen was scratching.
       The first drops of rain sometimes fell before the great drums filled with embers were cold, and sputtered on their lids where I vainly tried to cook little cakes made of bread dough stolen from the bakery.
       I went back to our house on the other side of the square and stayed under the porch watching the rain come down and the clouds scudding by. Opposite the bakery was glowing for a new batch of bread. The smoke from the oven struggled against the wind and sometimes loosed a handful of sparks into the storm-blue evening.

      Pierre Gascar: The Little Square (transl. by Val Cohen)

P2 (HL) Specimen response

The response below is in answer to the exam question Context –‘historical, cultural, or social – can have an influence on the way literary works are written or received. Discuss with reference to at least two of the works you have studied.

To what extent has this candidate explored the implications of the exam question and produced a relevant response?

Sample student response

The novel, The Bell Jar, is a semi-autobiographical novel, written by Sylvia Plath, and set in 1950s America. The play, A Doll’s House, is written (originally in Norwegian) by Henrik Ibsen, and set in late 1800s Norway. Both texts explore the marginalization of women in the social contexts of the period and place in which they are set. And, both texts are strongly influenced by their social context, exploring gender inequality and attitudes of social conformism. Plath and Ibsen essentially explore the inferiority of women – their restricted and sacrificial social role – through the character development of their female protagonists, Esther Greenwood and Nora Helmer, respectively, who struggle in their search for an authentic, individual identity, rather than obediently succumb to a socially pleasing façade. Hence, it can be said that both Plath and Ibsen are challenging the gender inequality and conformist attitudes dominant in the societies in which these works are set by representing the struggle and suffering of the protagonists.
             Both The Bell Jar and A Doll’s House explore the theme of the inferiority of women in society through either their restricted possibilities, or the sacrificial role patriarchal society expects them to take. In The Bell Jar, Plath makes it clear that part of the prevailing social expectation is that women should remain virgins until marriage. The article ‘In Defence of Chastity’, “gave all the reasons why women should not sleep with anybody apart from her husband and then only after they were married.” Esther Greenwood, the novel’s protagonist, recognizes the hypocrisy of this social convention after discovering that Buddy Willard, her college boyfriend, has had an affair and lost his virginity, yet still expecting Esther to retain her “purity” for him. Buddy Willard symbolizes a perfect male specimen in 1950s American society – he is intelligent, hardworking, athletic, and studying to become a doctor. In the androcentric society in which Esther lives, he is the type of man that Esther should want to remain a virgin for. However, recognizing the socially imposed sexual double-standard regarding sex and virginity – that is, women should remain virgins, but men should not – Esther feels that the article ‘In Defence of Chastity’ fails to consider “how a girl felt”. That Buddy Willard could live a life in which he could both lose his virginity, and at the same time be regarded as pure and perfect, makes no sense to Esther. As a result, Esther recognizing the injustice and ambiguity in this, goes all out to lose her virginity with men like Constantin, in order to relieve herself of this social pressure. Eventually, Esther loses her virginity with Irwin, a maths professor. This could be regarded as scandalous to readers first encountering the book in the 1960s, as it is behaviour that is contrary to the beliefs and norms of the period. Given this, it suggests that Plath’s novel can be read as an attempt to challenge the injustice of unequal gender expectations.
              Similarly, in A Doll’s House, it is expected that men take on the dominant, authoritative role in marriage and that women take on a sacrificial, largely passive role. Ibsen portrays this through the sacrifices that all his female characters, representing different social classes (and therefore literary foils of a kind), make for themselves and their families. Mrs Linde is a working-class woman who gives up her true but poor love, Krogstad, in order to marry a man of wealth in order to support her sick mother and two brothers. Nurse, caretaker to Nora’s children, has had to give up her daughter in order to become Nora’s nanny and support herself. Nora, an upper-class woman in the Norwegian social hierarchy, also reveals that she is willing to support herself in order to save Torvald’s honour. The women of Ibsen’s play exemplify Nora’s assertion later in Act III after Torvald states that “no men can be expected to sacrifice their honour, even for the person they love, while millions of women have.” Ibsen, it seems, may be challenging the injustice, apparent in Norwegian society of the period, that only women, not men, are expected to make sacrifices.
              Furthermore, in The Bell Jar, inferiority and restriction of women is as women are expected to merely and solely take the role of wife and mother. Esther’s mother and Mrs Willard are female characters which Plath creates showing how society has internalized in these women the morals and beliefs that men and women have specific and different roles to play and that they must be followed. Mrs Willard strongly believes that “what a man is is an arrow into the future and what a women is is the place the arrow shoots off from.” When Esther tells Buddy that she does not intend to get married, Buddy responds as if this is impossible and that Esther is absurd. Buddy tells Esther, “you’re crazy…you’ll change your mind”, showing how society does indeed dictate that women’s key social role is to be a dutiful wife and a good mother, and anything else is considered ridiculous or inferior. Esther rejects this belief and disagrees with her mother who insists that she learn short hand as this would enable Esther to take on a secretarial job and find a wealthy man to marry. Esther’s mother states that “she would be in demand amongst all the up-and-coming young men”, just like the young women who stay at the ironically named Amazon Hotel. However, instead of epitomizing glamour and fortune, Esther finds these young women spoilt and, as she describes in her ‘skaz-like narrative voice, “bored as hell”. It can be suggested that, through Esther, Plath challenges the stipulated pathways that male society crafts for women.
              A further main contextual theme that results from challenging the male-centric society, as Plath and Ibsen evidently do, is the idea of searching for an authentic, individual identity, rather than succumbing to a socially pleasing façade. Ibsen does this through the construction of his protagonist Nora. As Ibsen’s realist drama opens, the audience see Nora enter the stage, bringing home a Christmas tree, symbolically suggesting affluence and a socially constructed view of female domesticity. However, over the three Act play, Nora’s character develops, as she goes through a transformative, life-changing event that threatens her marriage and her relationship to her children, as she realises the importance of establishing her own self-identity. At the beginning of the play, the audience recognize Nora as an amalgamation of 19th century generalizations of women – she is only concerned with her husband’s needs and the material aspects of domesticity at home. However, as the play progresses and Krogstad threatens to expose Nora’s ‘crime’ and challenge the stability of her marriage to Torvald, Nora undergoes a change. Increasingly, she becomes unhappy playing the subservient role of Torvald’s ‘doll’ that he can control and play with, rather than an equal partner in marriage. Torvald claims that Nora’s “sacred duties lie in (her) home”, symbolically suggesting that a women’s domestic role is religiously prescribed, and that Nora is “first a wife and a mother”. However, Nora recognizes that she can no longer stay with Torvald and that she must embrace her independence and search for her own identity. She realizes that she needs to “learn about” society on her own in order to “satisfy (herself) which is right, society or her” even if this means rejecting society’s view of “sacred duties” and “morals”. Ibsen, in my view as a young female reader, is challenging society’s expectation of women. It is this that 19th century European theatre audiences would have found shocking.
              Likewise, in The Bell Jar, Esther also searches for an authentic identity, refusing to accept the social conventions of 1950s America that stipulates how women should behave. During her summer internship as a guest writer on a ‘ladies’ magazine in Manhattan, Esther is expected to be having the time of her life and to be enthusiastic about her opportunity since many women would aspire to have her chance. However, through Esther’s narrative, Plath explores the tension between expectation and reality, showing how the expected charm and romance of New York life is opposed by Esther’s encounters with suspicious men like Lenny and the immense unhappiness and gloom she experiences. Early in Esther’s retrospective narrative, she says “I didn’t know what I was doing in New York” showing her sense of anomie and isolation in a society that makes no sense to her. Esther does not understand “why (she) couldn’t go all the way doing what (she) should do. This made (her) sad and tired,” and she also wonders “why (she) couldn’t go all the way doing what (she) couldn’t do. This made (her) even sadder and more tired.” It is apparent that Esther cannot conform to society’s expectations on how she should feel and behave despite her apparent success. This is emphasized by her refusal to accept traditional female roles as “the last thing (she) wanted was infinite security or to be the place an arrow shoots off from.” Esther “hated the idea of serving men” and “(she) wanted to dictate her own thrilling letters”, suggesting that Esther (and perhaps Plath) wants to author her own life’s narrative. In Esther, Plath has clearly created a female protagonist that is determined to shape her own individual identity. However, for Esther, this is not easy. The metaphor of the fig tree, and the choices on offer, suggests Esther’s indecision or inability to choose a future for herself. She eventually becomes depressed as a metaphorical bell jar descends on her, and she is ‘punished’ through electroshock therapy for her failure to accept socially appropriate roles. In a similar way, when Nora slams the door at the conclusion of A Doll’s House, she is physically and symbolically ‘in the cold’ – punishment for her decision to seek a life for herself.
              Plath and Ibsen write in different literary genres, and in different times and places. Esther and Nora, however, share very similar fates in refusing to be the women society expects them to be. Thus, whilst Esther and Nora are social constructs of particular societies, it can be argued that over time and space, the situation of women in male dominated cultures remains the same.

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