Paper 1 gives you an unseen literary passage (prose, poetry, drama or literary non-fiction) and a guiding question. You score by explaining how the writer's choices create meaning and effect.
Course topics
Readers, writers and texts· How literary texts create meaning; Paper 1 guided literary analysis · 6 subtopics
Time and space· Context, culture and how texts are read in different times and places · 4 subtopics
Individual oral· A global issue explored through two works · 3 subtopics
HL essay· A line of inquiry into one work, 1,200–1,500 words · 3 subtopics
Free lesson: Readers, writers and texts
Exam format
SL: analyse one of two passages in 1h15. HL: analyse both passages in 2h15
Guiding question
Optional focus offered for each passage; you may use it or set your own
Close reading
Analysing precise word choices, images, sound and structure
First read: what happens, who speaks, what tone, what is the overall effect?
Second read: annotate diction, imagery (metaphor, simile, personification), sound (alliteration, rhythm, rhyme), structure (shifts, line breaks, enjambment, paragraphing) and narrative voice.
Thesis: one sentence linking the passage's main concern to the key methods you'll analyse.
Paragraphs: a claim, a short embedded quotation, the technique, its effect on meaning or the reader, and a link back to the thesis.
Discuss how the passage develops; strong essays track shifts in tone or perspective.
Worked example
Original sample line: “The kitchen clock kept counting after she had stopped.” Analyse it.
Personification: the clock “kept counting”, as if indifferent to her.
Contrast between mechanical time continuing and the woman who “had stopped”, which suggests exhaustion, grief or death.
The flat, plain syntax mirrors the clock's steady rhythm.
Effect: the reader feels the coldness of time moving on regardless of human loss.
Common mistakes
Retelling the plot instead of analysing it.
Naming a technique without explaining its effect.
Using long quotations.
Ignoring structure and how the passage develops.
Quick check
At HL, Paper 1 requires you to…
analyse both passages. HL students write two separate analyses.
A line of poetry running onto the next line without punctuation is…
enjambment. Enjambment can create momentum or suspense.
“Time is a thief” is an example of…
metaphor. A direct comparison without “like” or “as”.
The strongest thesis for Paper 1 is one that…
links the main concern to the writer's key methods. It sets up an argument about how meaning is created.
Practise this in the app. Interactive diagrams, quizzes, exam-style papers with mark schemes and a personal study planner. Open English A: Literature in FortyFive →
FAQ
What topics are in IB English A: Literature?
IB English A: Literature (SL / HL) is organised into: Readers, writers and texts; Time and space; Intertextuality: connecting texts; Paper 2 · Comparative essay; Individual oral; HL essay.
Are these IB English A: Literature notes free?
Yes. The topic pages, key terms and the first lesson are free. The full lessons, interactive diagrams and exam-style practice papers with mark schemes are in the FortyFive app, which you can start for free.