Advice from principal examiners about the HL essay

Advice from principal examiners about the HL essay (literature)

Key features

• HL students write a formal essay on one of the works they have studied. The essay should be between
1200 and 1500 words long.

• Both work and topic must be selected independently, with appropriate teacher guidance. The HL essay
is based on the exploration the student has carried out in the learner portfolio. The seven concepts
underpinning the course may provide some starting points.

• The work used can be of any literary form, be studied in translation or written originally in the language
A course studied, from the Prescribed reading list or chosen freely.

• The work chosen must not be one of those already used for internal assessment.

• If the work chosen is a collection of short stories, poems or lyrics, or any short literary text, just one of
the texts may be chosen. However, the focus must still be broad literary investigation and so it may be
necessary to refer to more than one text in order to locate the chosen text within the concerns or
approaches of the work studied. A commentary-style response to just one poem, for example, is not
appropriate.

• The focus should be literary, as an exploration of how authors’ choices create meaning is a key feature
of the essay, which is evaluated under criterion B, “analysis and evaluation”.

• Students should make detailed reference to their primary source, appropriately cited.

• The HL essay will be produced over an extended period of time in which students may refine their ideas
and approaches; careful drafting and re-drafting are essential to the process.

• To see some examples, please refer to the specimen papers and the exemplars.

Tips and recommendations

• In deciding which work to focus on for the HL essay, the first step is to rule out any work already used
by students for the internal assessment. Students may use any other work studied.

• The essay needs to have a clear, tight focus which can be argued effectively and in detail within the
word limit; too broad a scope and the task becomes very difficult.

• Students should be encouraged to refer to their learner portfolios and the seven central concepts
throughout the course to aid in determining a viable line of inquiry for their essay. While students do not
have to trace their essay back to one of the seven concepts and the assessment criteria do not require
it, working with one of the seven concepts will allow students to begin thinking about their topic as they
refine their ideas and arguments.

• The topic of inquiry must provide adequate opportunities for achievement in criterion B. Examiners have
noted over the years that this is one of the most consistent areas of weakness. Be sure to consider the
genre-specific features of the work—literary prose works are different from plays; poetry, graphic novels
and lyrics also have their own features.

• Introduce students to the idea of précis to help them learn to cover more ground in their writing more
efficiently. The ability to construct a detailed and persuasive argument within a set word limit is an
important factor for success in the extended essay also, so teachers are urged to spend time on this
valuable transferrable skill.

Language A: literature assessed student work 1

 Advice from principal examiners about the HL essay

Comments in relation to the assessment criteria

Criterion A: knowledge, understanding and interpretation are best shown in the use of detailed textual
evidence to support the developing line of inquiry. Understanding will be seen in the extent to which
candidates make some sort of proposal from the knowledge; assertions without evidence of some kind
(quotation, close textual reference) do not meet the requirements of displaying knowledge and
understanding. Be sure that points raised are relevant to the discussion—an irrelevant point, however valid
and interesting, is a waste of valuable words. An interpretation depends on showing the connections between
these points of detail to a reading of the work as a whole, going from the particular to the broader meaning.
A common weakness is to make a point, cite some evidence and then not show how or why the quotation
works to support that point. Remember that a commentary-style treatment of just one text in a collection
studied is not going to attract the highest marks here; the chosen topic should invite a broader literary
investigation.

Criterion B: after an exploration of the writer’s chosen strategies, a candidate would bring together these
ideas in terms of an overall reading of the text or extract and the effects produced. To evaluate is defined in
the list of command terms as “mak[ing] an appraisal ...”; candidates should show how they have engaged
with the works, showing sensitivity to each of the writer’s choices and the effects created, as opposed to
simply noticing or identifying them. Evaluation, here, has nothing to do with whether or not a candidate has
enjoyed the work or thinks the writer has done a good job.

Criterion C: if the introduction establishes a clear line of inquiry and it is made evident how each paragraph
develops the argument then high achievement in C should be likely. Repetition and irrelevance will interrupt
rather than develop the line of inquiry. Quotations should always be as brief as possible, to provide clear
support for the specific point being made. Also, short quotations are much more easily and elegantly
embedded in the candidates’ own writing. The maximum word limit is 1500 and examiners will not read
anything beyond that. If this means that the conclusion (or even some of the argument) is lost, then at the
very least marks in criterion C will suffer.

Criterion D: encourage candidates to develop a crisp, efficient and appropriately formal writing style. One of
the things noted by examiners is how verbose and laboured candidates’ writing can be. By avoiding repetition
and waffle, students can liberate scope within the word limit for more points of significant detail and for more
probing analysis and evaluation of them, securing higher marks in criterion A and B as well as in D.

Language A: literature assessed student work 2