A step-by-step writing frame for the IB Language A: Language and Literature HL Essay. Develop a focused line of inquiry on one literary work or one non-literary body of work, analyse the maker's choices and their effects, and build a clear, critical 1,200–1,500-word essay — with the four marking criteria and worked examples built in.
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📄 Official IB subject brief (ibo.org ↗) — your teacher or IB coordinator can share the full subject guide.
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To cite a source in your essay, click “Insert citation” on any entry while a writing box is focused — it drops an in-text citation at your cursor.
This is roughly how your exported DOCX / PDF will read. Keep the essay within 1,200–1,500 words (the reference list does not count) — examiners stop reading at the limit.
The IB Language A: Language and Literature HL Essay is your HL external assessment, worth 20% of the HL grade: a 1,200–1,500-word formal essay that develops a focused line of inquiry about either one literary work or one non-literary body of work studied in your course. This examiner-written writing frame walks you through it step by step — choose your text, frame an arguable line of inquiry, state a clear thesis, then build successive analytical points that examine the maker's choices and their effects, acknowledge complexity and alternative readings, and conclude with earned nuance. Each step is paired with the relevant marking criterion, worked good-and-bad examples and the traps that cost marks, and your essay exports to DOCX or PDF. The planning sections are free to use; the later sections are a one-time unlock. Sign in to save your work and sync it across devices.
The HL Essay is marked out of 20 across four criteria, each out of 5: A Knowledge, understanding and interpretation; B Analysis and evaluation; C Focus, organization and development; D Language. Top-band essays sustain a focused line of inquiry, interpret the text perceptively, and — above all — analyse how the maker's deliberate choices construct meaning and shape the reader or audience, rather than summarising what the text is about.
What makes Language and Literature distinctive is that the HL Essay may be built on a non-literary body of work — a coherent collection of texts by one maker or source, such as a politician's speeches, a columnist's articles, an advertising campaign or a photographer's series. For literary texts you analyse form, structure, language and narrative technique; for non-literary texts you analyse rhetorical, structural and stylistic features — register, mode of address, layout and visual choices, persuasive technique — always in relation to your line of inquiry.
The HL Essay tool is free to start: the planning sections are free, and the later sections are a one-time unlock per tool. You sign in to save your work to your own account and sync it across devices. The frame and its guidance are written by experienced IB educators.
Either one literary work or one non-literary body of work studied in your Language and Literature course. A non-literary body of work is a coherent collection of texts by the same author, source or campaign — for example a set of speeches, a columnist's articles, an advertising campaign or a photographer's series. You develop a single focused line of inquiry about that one text or body of work.
Out of 20, across four criteria each worth 5 marks: A Knowledge, understanding and interpretation; B Analysis and evaluation; C Focus, organization and development; D Language. The decisive skill is analysing how the maker's choices create meaning and effect — not summarising the content of the text.
The HL Essay is 1,200–1,500 words. Quotations count towards the limit, but the reference list does not. Examiners stop reading at the limit, so every word must earn its place.
The planning sections are free to use; the later sections are a one-time unlock per tool. Sign in to save your work to your own account and sync across your devices.