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Paper 1: Please Explain


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Hi,

Since our mocks are coming up, I'd like to know what exactly we have to do on paper 1.

I know we get 2 pairs of texts and we are supposed to write a comparative analysis in 2 hours.

My question is: how many analysis do we have to write, 1 or 2?

And if 1, then why are we given 2 pairs of texts?

Sorry for sounding like an idiot. My teacher is in his first year of teaching IB and he's quite clueless.

Edit: removed "textual" to change the word to "analysis" just to avoid confusion. (Sorry, twas my bad. )

Edited by Excalibre
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No, that's not what you're supposed to do. You get a prose passage and a poem, and have to write an analytic commentary ON ANY ONE of the two, in 2 hours. You get a choice between the two. You are not supposed to compare the texts. 

The passage is unseen beforehand and honestly probably not related to the books you do in the course. It's a separate assignment intended to test your literary analysis. 

Typically, you make a thesis statement in your introduction, and your analysis focuses on those two. 

That's honestly about it; if you'd like tips on how to do well in them I think there's an excellent thread on it elsewhere on the forum. 

 

It's a tad out of date; criterion A and B are merged and counted as one criteria, but the tops themselves are supposed to be useful. I haven't actually read through it though, it's just something a few friends found helpful. :P

http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/19903-how-to-get-a-7-in-english-a1-paper-1-unseen-commentary/

 

Good luck in your mocks :) 

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Ok... Sorry for not specifying but I was asking for HL. Much of what BlackCurrant said makes sense.

As for the first answer: the extracts from prose and poems are referred to as 'texts' in all the past papers I've done. But thanks for clarifying anyway. It's just that you're stating one text from two, whereas we get four texts in the exam (2 pairs).

Edited by Excalibre
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