Paper 1

Guided textual analysis

Key information, processes and resources
Contents
1. Task information

2. Assessment criteria

3. Exemplars

4. Tips and tricks

5. Process / skills

6. Preparing for the paper 1

7. Text Type practice

1. Task information
● Paper 1 is an unseen, externally assessed exam that is worth 35% of your final grade.

● At SL, you will have 75 minutes to write an analysis essay on one of the unseen language texts
provided to you.

● At HL, you will have 135 minutes to write analysis essays on both of the unseen language text
provided to you.

● The unseen texts are identical for both SL and HL.

● The texts may be complete texts or extracts from larger works.

● Each of the texts are accompanied by a guiding question which encourages, but does not limit,
your inquiry. It is very helpful in focusing your analysis but it is optional. If you choose not to use it,
you should provide your own line of argument that provides focus to your response.

(Source: IBDP Language A: Language and Literature Guide for first teaching in 2019)
2. Assessment criteria
The assessment criteria
are essentially the same
for both SL and HL. For
HL, you will be assessed
separately for each essay
that you write.

Familiarise yourself with

the assessment criteria (
SL / HL).
3. Exemplars Sample A - Nature Magazine editorial

Browse through the exemplar folder Sample B - Nature Magazine editorial

and read some examples. It would be Sample C - Nature Magazine editorial

helpful to read different essays on the
Sample D - Political cartoon
same stimulus text, as well as essays
that deal with a range of different text Sample E - Diet ad
types. Sample F - Campaign

Then, as a group, choose one to Sample G - Advertisement

assess using the rubric. Sample H - Magazine cover

Some of the exemplars have teacher

assessments / comments, so look at
these afterwards.
4. Tips and Tricks
● To adequately prepare for this examination you will need to read and evaluate
a range of student responses. Weak examples can be just as instructive as
strong ones, so don’t limit yourself!

● This is a skills-based exam, so remember to practice analysing a range of

texts often. Annotate sample language texts, then write an essay plan (thesis
+ outline).

● Time management is tricky, especially at HL. Work up to the point where you
can comfortably complete an analytical essay in the time provided.

● Read more advice from examiner’s here.

5. Process and Skills
a. Knowing a range of text types / purposes
b. Identifying audience, context and purpose(s)
c. Identifying key language features that help the author achieve intended purpose
d. Thinking about implications
e. Analysing text (chunking, summarising, annotating, analysing)
f. Mind-mapping
g. Thesis statements
h. Outlining an essay
i. Introductions
j. Body paragraphs
k. Conclusions
l. Focus and cohesion
m. Building academic vocabulary (tone and mood adjectives; active verbs)
n. Writing precisely (sharpening ideas with precise nouns, verbs and adjectives)
o. Writing concisely (eliminating redundancy; using active, verb-driven sentences)
5A Knowing a range of text types / purposes
Texts are written for a variety of
different purposes, using different
forms and standards of composition.
The paper 1 examination assesses
your language literacy in this area
and so the first step is to know a
range of text types.

There is no universally agreed upon

standard for this, unfortunately!

The image opposite, taken from the

IBO guide, lists a number of
language texts although it is not
comprehensive.

How is one to prepare?

5A Knowing a range of text types / purposes
This is one way to Practical
start thinking about (communicate
text types. information)
Not necessarily!
Most texts lie
Discrete somewhere in
categories? the middle

Literary
(communicate Hortatory
experience) (persuade)
 Narratives
5A Knowing a range of text types / purposes , poetry,
literary
Here is another... non-fiction

Literary:
Persuasive
Language to imagine, Instructions,
speeches, letters
explore, entertain reports, news
to the editor
articles

Hortatory: Practical:
Language to Language to recount,
persuade, argue, inform, explain,
advise, discuss, describe, socialise,
review review

Analytical
essays, oral
commentarie
s
Academic:
Analyse, commentary
?
5A Knowing a range of text types / purposes
Here is another.

Notice how text

types are generally
organised by
purpose?

Also, notice how

text types have
written, visual or
auditory modes? (or
multi-modality)

So your fist step is

to establish a good
textual purpose
vocabulary.
5A Knowing a range of text types / purposes
Use any of the previously linked resources to build your text type
/ purpose knowledge.

Also, check out this nice resource supplied by the BBC.

E.g...
● entertain – to make the reader enjoy reading
● persuade – to change a reader’s opinion
● advise – to help people decide what to do
● analyse – to break down something to help people to
understand it better
● argue – to make the case for something
● describe – to give details about a person, place, event or
thing
● explain – to make clear why or how something works
● inform – to tell a reader about something
● instruct – to tell a reader how to do something
5B Identifying audience, context and purpose(s)
Once you have established the text type and purpose,
you should then consider the context and audience.

Context:
● When and where was the text produced? How
does the context of composition influence its
content and form?
● Who was the author? How does the author’s
situation and worldview influence the text?
Time & Place of Production Time & Place of Reception =
= Context of Composition Context of Interpretation
Audience:
Author Audience
● Who is the text aimed at and how can you tell?
(Consider age groups, genders, ethnicities,
Text
interest-groups, professions, sub-cultures etc.) Text

THERE AND HERE

THEN AND
NOW
5C Identifying key language features that help the author achieve intended purpose
Central purpose
Means / techniques that the text achieves this
central purpose (for example? tone, literary devices
etc…)
Once you have established the central purpose (or
purposes of the text), you should focus on those
structural and stylistic elements of language
that help the author achieve this purpose.
For example, in a piece of travel writing, the
author’s ultimate goal is to communicate their
experience about visiting a certain place and
perhaps persuade the reader to visit. In order to
do this, the author may:
● recount what they did (past tense, first
person perspective, active verbs)
● describe what they saw (proper nouns,
emotive adjectives, figurative language)
● instruct the reader on what to do when if
they should visit (imperative verbs).
This is a skill that only develops through practice,
so make sure to do this often throughout the
course. This resource is a good, basic starting
point.

5D Thinking about implications
Now look carefully at the highlighted portions of the assessment criteria. It is
not enough to just focus on the literal meaning of the text. ToLet’s
score a 3 or
return to the
above you must interpret implications and subtleties. What does this
Air Steward mean?
example and
discuss the implications as a
class.
From the IBO guide: Use knowledge and understanding to recognize trends
and draw conclusions from given information. Now go back to the
sample folder and examine
In the context of the paper 1, this could mean: one of the exemplar papers.
Choose a text and discuss the
implications and subtelties
● commenting on the implicit values or ideas within the text
with (i.e.
your things
group.
not explicitly stated)
● considering perspectives (i.e. whose voices and perspectives are
explored? Whose are missing?)
● noticing subtle elements or impacts of the text that might not be
immediately clear to a cursory reader (e.g. subversiveness, irony)
Criterion A:
Understanding and interpretation
The response demonstrates some
understanding of the literal meaning of the
2 text. References to the text are at times
appropriate.
The response demonstrates an
understanding of the literal meaning of the
text. There is a satisfactory interpretation
3 of some implications of the text. References
to the text are generally relevant and
mostly support the candidate’s ideas.
The response demonstrates a thorough
understanding of the literal meaning of the
text. There is a convincing interpretation of
4 many implications of the text. References to
the text are relevant and support the
candidate’s ideas.
The response demonstrates a thorough and
perceptive understanding of the literal
meaning of the text. There is a convincing
and insightful interpretation of larger
5 implications and subtleties of the text.
References to the text are well-chosen and
effectively support the candidate’s ideas.
5E Analysing text “THE BIG 5”
Your primary goal in this course is to analyse language and
literary text. To analyse means to: break down in order to
bring out the essential elements or structure. To identify parts Audience, Purpose, Context
and relationships, and interpret information to reach
conclusions. (IBO)

● The ‘Big 5’ model gives a comprehensive framework, Content, Theme

with guiding questions, on how to break down a text.
Other similar routines include CAMPS,TAPS etc, but
they are all essentially the same. Find what works for
you. Tone, Mood, Register
● CSI is a routine for systematically chunking,
summarising and inquiring into texts.

● When annotating, circle, underline and/or highlight to

Style
key parts and techniques used within a text. Label the
language technique. Try to identify patterns by
connecting these observations.
Structure, Layout
● Look at this sample annotated text, then try one of
your own in response to this stimulus text.
5F Mind-mapping
Once our annotations are complete, it is time
to start organising our ideas. Write the guiding
question in the middle of a piece of paper,
then use a prewriting strategies (e.g.
clustering) to start getting your ideas on paper.
Clustering is also known as ‘brainstorming’ or
‘mind-mapping’.

Look at how this example of a student mind-

mapping in response to a stimulus text.

Note how the ‘clusters’ could be organised

around stylistic features, ideas/themes, parts
of the question, or a combination of all three.

Now choose an example text from the

practice text portfolio to try your own mind-
mapping!
5G Thesis statements
Every essay needs a thesis statement, which is essentially your
main argument. Everything that follows will relate back to this
sentence. It is your argument.

In a paper 1 essay, thesis statements must:

● identify the central purpose and main message of a text

● be focused by answering the guiding question (the one
provided or your own)
● include an outline of your major supporting points.

There are different approaches to developing thesis statements.

Examine the following examples and decide on which approach
you prefer.

● Style-based
● Purpose / theme / idea-based (a good example can be
seen in this student example paper, p12 of the PDF)
5H Outlining an essay
You should already be familiar with two approaches after the previous style -
style-based vs. ideas/purpose/theme based.

For the paper 1, I prefer the ideas/purpose/theme-based method. It is more

challenging but it feels less formulaic and leads to greater critical thinking (in
my opinion!). The trick, then, is to think of the supporting points, which will
become your body paragraphs. These points should naturally follow from your
unpacking of the question and may be:

● Thematic / ideas (ideas such as exploration, challenging, equity,

stereotypes etc.
● Purpose (‘sub-purposes’ that help achieve the overall purpose, e.g. in
order to inform the reader about the nature of volcanoes, the author
needs to describe what they look like, explain geological processes Some resources:
etc.) ● P1 structure / graphic organiser
● Flow-based (every text has a beginning, middle and end - what are ● Mr Sato’s video on how to organise an e
ssay
these?)
● Brainpop - outlining essays
● SESC’s guide to ordering points (comple
Alternatively, feel free to go with a style-based paper if you feel more xity, importance, time)
comfortable with that.
 5I Introductions
Introductions are brief, but extremely important. I like Mr Sato’s
visual analogy - an inverted pyramid. Why do you think he has
represented introductions in this way? Watch the video to find
out.

Read the example student introduction on P12 of the PDF. What

makes this an effective introduction?

● Hook / topic?
● Introduction of author, text type, purpose, audience
● Thesis + outline

Introductions can be concise (three sentences) but they must be

precise. At the very least, you must Identify the text type,
audience, purpose, answer the guiding question and provide an
outline of points. (Hook is optional)
5J Body paragraphs
Sandwiches and burgers are frequent analogies used for body paragraphs.
Why? What do you already think you know about this writing skill?

Next, what do the following acronyms and key terms stand for? How do
these relate to the skill of paragraph writing? Which part(s) of the
burger/sandwich is represented by each letter or term?

● PIE - The basics!

● PEEL - Very similar to the previous, with an extra element.
● TEEAL - You should be familiar with this by now!

Finally, click on the links above or read more about paragraphing at OWL. to
revise your understanding or learn more about the acronym / key term.
Ultimately, there is no one ‘correct’ method, so it is up to you to decide on
what works best. Then, make your own correctly labeled burger / sandwich to
help remember whichever structure you choose.

In my experience, students often fail at connecting the topic of the

paragraph (topic sentence) with the overall argument (thesis). Don’t
forget your ‘bread’!
 5J Body paragraphs
It is very important to evenly balance the points, illustrations and
explanations in your essay. Often we can fall into the trap of making
too many statements without supporting them with evidence.
Alternatively, we can get lost in examples and forget to provide our own
critical thinking.

You should follow each point you make with a specific illustration
(reference to the text - “For example…”). You should then follow each
piece of evidence with analytical discussion (“This shows…”)

This is often called ‘bite-sized PIE analysis’. Look at how it is done in

the following example (p12-13) with a nice balance between points,
illustration and analysis.

Next, look at how PEEL structure is used in these

example body paragraphs.
5K Conclusions
Psychologists have identified a phenomenon they call the
‘peak-end’ principle. Basically, people remember the
high/lows of an experience and the end.

Thus, writing a conclusion to an essay or speech is so

important as people will remember this. It is your last chance
to leave the reader/audience with an impactful idea.

Often, there is much time for this in a timed-exam setting, so

your conclusion for the paper 1 will probably be brief and
formulaic. For example, you may simply restate your thesis
and main body points in a different way, which is fine for the
purposes of this assessment.

However, let’s also watch Mr Sato’s video on this topic to

learn an important transferable skill and make sure that you
always leave your audiences with a great impression!
 5L Focus and cohesion
Focus means that your ideas are narrowed down. Coherence is when your ideas fit
together in a clean, logical and relevant fashion. Without focus and cohesion, your ideas
will seem disconnected and it will be hard to understand your argument.

There are many techniques to build cohesion, such as:

● Repetition of key phrases
● Synonyms for key phrases
● Pronouns to replace key phrases
● Transition words / cohesive ties / conjunctions to connect sentences
● Sentence patterns (e.g. parallel structure)

Read more about these elements, with examples, at this website.

For the paper 1 essay, you need to make sure that the topic and last/linking
sentences explicitly connect back to the thesis / guiding question. Focus is also
very important so make sure that the thesis is centered on a significant aspect of
the text -- you can’t talk about everything so narrow it down.

Go back to the student sample papers and evaluate them in terms of focus and cohesion.
5M Building academic vocabulary
Advanced thinking requires advanced vocabulary. How many
times have you been frustrated at having a vague thought, yet not
being able to clearly articulate it with the right word? Words give
us the power to focus our thoughts, so it is important to continue
developing vocabulary.

For the paper 1, you should continue to develop your vocabulary

in terms of:

● Tone and mood vocabulary

● Active verbs (things that texts / language techniques ‘do’)

Again, the best way to do this is practice by using the linked

resources to stretch your vocabulary when practising analytical
writing.
5N Writing precisely
Precise means to be “marked by exactness or detail”. It means to use precise
vocabulary to clearly and without ambiguity express your thoughts to an audience.

My main tips:
● Avoid vague terms like “good”, “effective” and “happy” (Why good? How
effective? What sort of happy?)
● Avoid vague or “empty” phrases such as “this communicates the author’s
message”
● Insert precise adjectives, nouns and verbs into your sentences to help
sharpen ideas (e.g. “The author’s sombre tone...”, “The abstract,
monochrome image…”)

Here are some further resources to learn how to write more precisely:
● Monash University’s writing tips (advanced, mainly relevant to tertiary
education but many points still relevant)
● 10 Techniques for more precise writing
● Improving writing - slideshow
5O Writing concisely
Concise means “giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive”.
Generally, the English language is more effective when the fewest words are used to express
the same meaning.

The main issues I encounter with student writing are:

● ‘Empty’ phrases (e.g. “The author uses many techniques to achieve their purpose”)
● Redundancy (i.e. needlessly repeating ideas)
● Excessive use of passive voice

Learn about these elements and how to fix them with the following resources:

● Slide 6 and 7 of this slideshow

● Monash University’s writing tips (advanced, mainly relevant to tertiary education but many
points still relevant)
● The Writing Centre
6. Preparing for the paper 1 exam

1. Study your language texts by keeping detailed notes about

the various text types we encounter. Revise and add to these
notes periodically.

2. Read and emulate good sample papers.

3. Practice analysing text and outlining essays based on

many different sample language texts. Do this frequently as it
should only take 15-20 minutes.

4. Write example paper 1 essays, get feedback, then refer

back to sources within this presentation to address these
points of feedback.

The best preparation is skill development, so remember to practice!

 6. Paper 1 time management
SL:
Total time: 1 hour 15 minutes (75 minutes)
Here is my rough time allocation recommendation:
- 5 minutes to read and think about the two
texts. At SL, choose one..
- 15-20 minutes to annotate the text, make an
essay outline, think of support examples etc.
- 50-55 minutes to write an essay (this would
allow about 15 minutes per body paragraph in
a five paragraph essay and slightly less for
introduction and conclusion)
HL:
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes (135 minutes)
Here is my rough time allocation recommendation:
- 5 minutes to read and think about the two
texts. At HL, decide the order in which you will
tackle them.
- 15 minutes to unpack the chosen text, make
an essay outline, think of support examples
etc.
- 50 minutes to write an essay (this would allow
about 12 minutes per body paragraph in a five
paragraph essay and slightly less for
introduction and conclusion)
- Repeat steps 2 & 3.
7. Text Type Practice
List of common text types (under construction)

- Spin this off into separate documents / slideshows?

● Op-eds, editorials
● Public speeches
● Comics
● Travel writing