The HL Essay: sustained independent critical writing
The HL essay is an externally assessed formal essay of 1,200–1,500 words, worth 20% of the HL grade, on a line of inquiry you develop from a work or works studied. It is marked out of 20 on knowledge, understanding and interpretation; analysis and evaluation; focus, organisation and development; and language.
Core rules
- A line of inquiry is a question, not a topic, and it must be answerable within the word count. 'How does X use Y to do Z?' is workable; 'Discuss power in Shakespeare' is not.
- It must be arguable: a reasonable reader could disagree. State the claim in the first page and let each section advance it.
- Analysis means close reading of selected passages, not survey. Choose three or four moments and treat them in depth.
- Keep the focus on authorial choices - narrative structure, imagery, syntax, genre - and on effects.
- Use secondary sources only if they earn their place, and cite them properly; unacknowledged borrowing is malpractice.
- Draft structurally: proposal, outline, first draft, feedback, revision. The assessed version should read as one sustained argument.
Worked example
Line of inquiry: 'How does Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun use an artificial narrator's limited perception to interrogate what humans mean by love?' Reasoning: it names a formal device (limited first-person perception), a conceptual target (love) and a relationship between them (interrogate). It is narrow enough for 1,500 words and rich enough for close reading of Klara's descriptions of the sun and of Josie's household. A weak version - 'Love in Klara and the Sun' - has no argumentative edge and invites plot summary.
Traps
- A topic rather than a question.
- Biography or historical background replacing analysis.
- A long preamble before any claim.
- Description of what happens, with little on how it is made.
- Exceeding the word limit and losing marks for focus.