A step-by-step practice frame for the IB Language A: Literature Paper 1. Read an unseen passage, answer its guiding question with a clear interpretive thesis, and build an analysis of the author's choices and their effects — with the four assessment criteria and the closed-book exam method built in.
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To cite a source, 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. Use it to rehearse a focused, well-organised guided analysis that answers the guiding question.
The IB Language A: Literature Paper 1 is a closed-book external exam: you are given previously unseen literary passages — one prose, one poetry — each with a guiding question, and you write a guided literary analysis (SL analyses one passage in 1 hour 15 minutes; HL analyses both in 2 hours 15 minutes). This examiner-written practice frame walks you through the method step by step — read the passage closely and pin down the guiding question, choose the authorial choices most worth analysing, state a clear interpretive thesis that answers the question, and build a sequence of analytical points that examine the author's choices of form, structure, language, imagery, tone, voice and sound and the effects they create. You support every point with precise reference to the passage and close on a controlled, well-timed response. Each step is paired with the assessment criteria, worked good-and-bad examples and the traps that cost marks, and your practice response 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.
Paper 1 is marked across four criteria: A — Understanding and interpretation; B — Analysis and evaluation; C — Focus and organization; D — Language. Top-band responses answer the guiding question with a clear, arguable interpretive thesis, analyse the author's deliberate choices and their effects rather than retelling the plot, support every point with precise textual reference, and write in fluent, precise language appropriate to literary analysis.
The whole analysis is built around the guiding question — usually a focused "How does…?" question about how the author's choices produce a particular effect. Treat the passage as a deliberate construct: analyse how it is made, not what happens. Ground every argument in a precise, briefly quoted reference, analyse the mechanism by which the choice creates its effect, and keep returning to the guiding question.
The Literature Paper 1 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.