The individual oral: a global issue through two works
The individual oral is internally assessed: a 10-minute presentation followed by 5 minutes of teacher questions, worth 20% of the HL grade and 40 marks. You explore one global issue through two works studied, using an extract of no more than 40 lines from one of them.
Core rules
- A global issue must be transnational, broad and pervasive, and relevant to everyday life. 'Bullying in my school' fails the first and second tests; 'the pressure to conform to gendered social roles' passes.
- The extract is the anchor: analyse its language closely first, then widen to the whole work, then to the second work.
- Both works must carry real analytical weight - evidence, authorial choices, effects - not passing mentions.
- Structure: brief framing of the issue and both works; close analysis of the extract; the issue across work one; the issue across work two; a conclusion stating what comparing them reveals.
- Prepare for the questions by knowing passages beyond the extract and being ready to justify your choices.
- Keep the presentation within 10 minutes; the teacher will stop you.
Worked example
Global issue: 'the pressure to conform to gendered social roles.' Work one: a novel whose protagonist is constantly described through others' expectations. Work two: a play in which a woman's public performance of propriety is staged literally. Reasoning: the issue meets all three tests; the extract's diction of observation and judgement supports close reading; the second work's theatrical motif lets you compare how genre shapes the same pressure - interior monologue versus visible performance.
Traps
- A global issue that is really a theme of one text.
- Summarising the extract instead of analysing it.
- A second work that appears only in the conclusion.
- Overrunning the 10 minutes.
- Treating the five-minute Q&A as a formality; it can raise or lower your mark.