Preview
IB DP English A: Language and Literature | SL & HL | Assessment & Exam Skills | Paper 1: Guided Textual Analysis
📋 What You Will Learn
- Describe the exact Paper 1 SL format — timing, text type, the guiding question — and explain what the examiner is looking for across criteria A–D
- Use the pre-planning framework (text type → purpose → audience) before you write a single annotation, grounding every subsequent move in the text's communicative situation
- Annotate an unseen text strategically — not randomly — by coding for technique, effect and linkage rather than simply underlining interesting words
- Group raw annotations into thematic clusters and convert the strongest cluster into a focused, arguable thesis statement
- Draft a Bird's Eye View plan that maps each body paragraph to a distinct analytical point, with evidence and technique pre-selected, before writing a word of the essay
- Manage the 75-minute time budget to produce a complete, focused analysis that scores well across all four criteria
🔍 Guiding Question Given that every student in the room sees the same unseen text, why do some analyses earn 17 or 18 out of 20 and others earn 9 — and how much of that difference is decided in the ten minutes before the first sentence is written?
🌍 Why This Matters Paper 1 is the most equitable component in the course: no studied texts, no advantage of having read certain books. You are given one non-literary text — an advertisement, infographic, speech, blog post, review, or similar — and 75 minutes. As Brad Philpot's Cambridge course companion puts it, the key is to develop "strategies for unpacking the stimulus texts, organising your ideas and shaping your analysis." The planning stage is not preliminary busywork: it is the invisible architecture that prevents the most common examiner complaint — an essay that identifies features without building an argument. A ten-minute investment before writing consistently separates Band 4–5 responses from Band 2–3 ones.
1 · The Paper 1 SL Format — Know the Rules of the Game
📖 Definition — Guided Textual Analysis Paper 1 is a guided textual analysis : a sustained, written analysis of an unseen text, accompanied by a guiding question that, as the IB course guide states, explores "a central technical or formal element that may provide an interesting point of entry into the text." The guiding question steers your focus; it does not dictate the entire essay.
At SL , you are presented with two non-literary texts and choose one to analyse. You have 75 minutes (plus 5 minutes of reading time in