IB English Q&A

A common question and an area that many students struggle with, ‘analysis’ means the examination of authorial choices in terms of how they create and contribute meaning within the text.

For example, in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, when the titular character states, "Is this a dagger which I see before me," you can analyze the symbolic meaning of the dagger. The dagger is a weapon of an assassin, symbolizing Macbeth's intent and the violence he is about to commit. His vision of the dagger, and his need to grasp it, reflects his ever-growing ambition and the internal conflict he experiences as he contemplates killing King Duncan to take the throne. Here, we see how symbolism can be used to reflect Macbeth’s psychological turmoil.

Taking note of such features is what you need to include in your work to fulfill Criterion B.

Time is not your friend in the IB English Literature or IB English Language & Literature exams. However, this does not mean you cannot tackle this often overlooked, but crucial skill of time management. Below are a few strategies to aid you with your time management issues:

Plan how you will use your time carefully. While everyone is different, knowing where you need more time will help you keep track and not rush. For example, an SL Paper 1 exam which is 1 hour and 15 minutes could be planned accordingly:

• 10 mins annotating and planning
• 10 mins for introduction and conclusion
• 15 mins each for 3 body paragraphs
• 5 mins for proofreading
• Which leaves you about 5 mins in case anything goes wrong

Practice under timed conditions, without distractions. I know that essay writing is difficult and it can be hard to stay away from social media for an extended period of time, but nothing gets you ready for an exam like mimicking the real thing. Put your phone in another room, get out a pen, paper, and an analog clock and really try to focus when practicing. This will help you understand exam expectations and improve your timing.

By using these strategies, you can improve your time management and make sure you perform your best during the exam.

The ability to integrate quotations into your sentences as opposed to having to stop and create a new sentence separates the good writers from the great ones. Generally speaking, like most things in English, the best way to learn how to do this is to practice. Understanding the quote you are including early on, when thinking about your sentence structure is key, and using shorter quotations is much easier to incorporate than longer ones.

However, please keep in mind that just because it is a quotation, it does not mean it does not adhere to the rules of grammar. Remember, you can edit quotations grammatically for them to fit your sentence. Take the following example.

In The Great Gatsby, note the way Nick Caraway states ‘[he] was within and without’.

Here, the original text, written in the 1st person, states ‘I was within and without’. As such, I needed to change the first person ‘I’ to the third person ‘he’ to have it make sense grammatically. Remember, only ever change the grammar, and never the meaning.

The best way to structure an essay is to use the PEAL method. P stands for Point, E for Evidence, A for Analysis and L for Link.

In the first sentence of your paragraph you should ensure that you specify a single focus on the given question. So, if you’re given an advertisement and the guiding question reads: How has the text utilised visuals and language to convey meaning?, your paragraph should focus on a single meaning. Since you need about three body paragraphs for an essay, each paragraph should focus on a distinct idea. You should try not to have overlaps across your paragraphs. In your Point sentence you should also try your best to utilise the keywords given in the question. Hence, an ideal Point sentence may read like this: The advertisement employs visuals in order to present how the product can act as a companion during a time of loss. Here, your single clear focus is the product’s sense of companionship.

After you’ve written this sentence you then need to provide evidence to support the claim that you’ve just made. This is the E section of the PEAL method. When quoting make sure that you put down just as much as you need to prove your point. Including parts that you’re not going to expand on or sections that are irrelevant will just cause confusion to the examiner. Once you’ve quoted, you now need to extract the specific words from the phrase/sentence that you will expand on. This will lead you to the A part of the PEAL method, which is the analysis section.

For the analysis you need to really contemplate the connotations of the words and phrases that you’ve extracted. Ask yourself questions like why has the writer used this word or this visual over any others they could have included? Think about how this word makes you feel, what emotions, scenarios it ties back too. Explain this, then link back to your main point. This is the L section of your PEAL paragraph.

Repeating ideas within a paragraph is completely normal. Considering that your paragraph needs to be based on one distinct idea that you will specify in the topic sentence, you do need to continuously link back to this idea. However, this does not mean that you can repeat the same words, you should in fact try your best to use varied vocabulary to get a high mark for Criterion D. In such cases opt for synonyms and also switch around your sentences structures. Don’t start every sentence with ‘this’. Sometimes use a complex sentence, other times a compound sentence, sometimes start with ‘this’, other times reiterate the idea you’re expanding on.

Every literary piece is influenced by the social structure in which it is written. This includes factors such as the political climate, the religion prevalent at the time, the customs and traditions of the society, certain impending threats. Of course, some do more social commentary than others. While for some books the social commentary aspect might not be at the forefront, all the books that your teacher will choose for you during your IBDP studies will have social commentary that drives the characters and the plot, as the exam board specifically asks for books that are of high literary value. A common book is ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams which brings to the foreground social issues of the 1940s during which the book was written such as women’s inferior status within the post-war American society, the dangers of not complying to social gender norms, the demise of the aristocracy after the Second World War. Throughout the play Williams is critical of the patriarchal structure’s treatment of women and the upper classes treatment of the lower class segment of American society.

The best way to approach an unseen exam is to start annotating as soon as you start reading the text. Pick out literary devices, words that you feel have deeper connotations, visuals that are striking, focus on aspects such as colour, font size, font type and think about why the writer/illustrator may have used these techniques. What larger ideas do they convey? Once you’ve found that an idea recurs throughout the piece, you can jot it down as the idea of one of your paragraphs. Your paragraphs will focus on sub ideas that express the main idea of a text. So, in a given advertisement a tobacco company may be trying to sell its product. This is the main aim, the main idea of the advertisement. However, you need sub-ideas to form your body paragraphs. How are they trying to sell the product? In which ways are they trying to promote their product? This will form the basis of your body paragraphs.

To do well in an English exam you cannot just glance over notes, you instead need to maintain a steady streak of essay writing. In English, practice makes perfect. Writing an essay a week will ensure that you are honing your analysis and writing skills. If possible also show your essay to a teacher, a friend, a tutor and ask for feedback. Take the feedback into consideration when writing your next essay and ask for more. Compare your two essays’ feedbacks and see what you’ve improved on and what can be improved.