UniGeniusIB English A

Course map

Paper 1: guided textual analysis

  • Advertisements and appeals: persuasion in words and imagesSL and HL: Paper 1
    • Analyse how an advertisement or appeal combines image, slogan, layout and copy to persuade
    • Explain appeals to emotion, trust and reason, and how a text positions its reader
    • Judge how well the choices serve the text's purpose and audience
    LessonPractice
  • News reports, opinion columns and editorialsSL and HL: Paper 1
    • Analyse headlines, framing, selection and the use of quotation in reporting
    • Explain how an opinion piece builds a stance: voice, anecdote, evidence, concession and irony
    • Tell what a text states from what it implies, and evaluate its bias and effect
    LessonPractice
  • Infographics, leaflets and web pages: multimodal textsSL and HL: Paper 1
    • Analyse how layout, typography, colour, icons and data displays guide a reader
    • Explain how words and visuals work together, or against each other, to make meaning
    • Evaluate how a multimodal text simplifies, selects or frames information
    LessonPractice
  • Speeches, open letters and blogs: voice and addressSL and HL: Paper 1
    • Analyse how a speaker or writer builds a persona and a relationship with an audience
    • Explain rhetorical structures: direct address, repetition, lists of three, questions and narrative
    • Judge how register and tone suit the occasion, the medium and the purpose
    LessonPractice
  • Writing the guided analysis: from guiding question to finished responseSL and HL: Paper 1
    • Turn the guiding question into a clear, arguable line of analysis
    • Organize the analysis around ideas, with well chosen references and evaluated effects
    • Manage time and write in a precise analytical register; at HL, write two analyses in one paper
    LessonPractice

Paper 2: comparative essay

  • The comparative essay: reading the question and building a comparisonSL and HL: Paper 2
    • Read a general question closely and choose the two works that answer it best
    • Write a comparative thesis and plan an integrated comparison, not two separate essays
    • Prepare works for the exam without the texts: key moments, short quotations and authorial choices
    LessonPractice
  • Comparing authorial choices: form, structure, language and contextSL and HL: Paper 2
    • Compare how writers use form and structure: narrative voice, dramatic structure, poetic form
    • Compare language and imagery, and evaluate how choices shape meaning in each work
    • Use context to explain choices without turning the essay into history
    LessonPractice

The course, the oral and the HL essay

  • Reading any text: audience, purpose, context and the course's conceptsSL and HL: Paper 1; Paper 2; Individual oral
    • Name a text's audience, purpose and context, and explain how each shapes its choices
    • Tell literary from non-literary text types, and know the three areas of exploration
    • Use the course's seven concepts (identity, culture, creativity, communication, perspective, transformation, representation) as lenses
    LessonPractice
  • The individual oral and the HL essaySL and HL: Individual oral; HL essay
    • Choose a global issue, a literary work and a non-literary body of work, and select extracts for the oral
    • Plan a 10-minute talk that balances the two texts and analyses content and form
    • At HL, shape a line of inquiry for the 1,200 to 1,500 word essay
    LessonPractice

IB Diploma Programme English A: Language and Literature, SL and HL. The individual oral and the HL essay are your own work on texts your school chooses, so they are taught in a lesson rather than practised here.

Independent preparation for IB Diploma Programme English A: Language and Literature. Not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization.

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