Paper 1: Guided textual analysis skills
Paper 1 SL gives you one unseen text and guiding questions; you write a guided textual analysis in 1 hour 15 minutes. It tests close reading, not prior knowledge of the text.
Read with a thesis
- Read the guiding questions first; they point to features and purpose, not a checklist to answer in order.
- Build a thesis about the text's central rhetorical or literary strategy.
- Analyse choices at word, sentence, structural and modal levels, linking each to effect and audience.
- Organise by claim, not by device. Use short embedded quotations.
Worked example
The opening of an opinion column reads: 'The airport is a cathedral. It is also a casino.' The metaphor blend juxtaposes reverence with risk, while the short parallel sentences give the claim epigrammatic certainty. A strong thesis: the writer constructs air travel as both sacred and gambled, preparing the reader for a critique of deregulation. The analysis moves from figurative language to sentence rhythm to argumentative purpose.
Traps
Retelling content; feature spotting; ignoring genre or mode; failing to address the guiding questions; making evaluative claims without textual support.