IB Literature SL cheat sheet

Paper 1 (guided textual analysis, SL 1h15m) is worth 35% of the final grade; the candidate writes one analysis of one unseen text chosen from two options.

Paper 2 (comparative essay, SL 1h45m) is worth 35%; four questions are set and the candidate answers one, referring to at least two works studied.

The individual oral (SL 15 minutes: 10-minute presentation plus 5 minutes of teacher questions) is worth 30% and is built on one global issue and two extracts, one from each of two works.

A global issue must be transnational, present in everyday local contexts, and evident in the text; the three fields are culture, identity and community; beliefs, values and education; politics, power and justice.

Paper 1 assessment criteria are A (understanding and interpretation), B (analysis and evaluation), C (focus and organisation) and D (language), each marked out of 5.

Paper 2 criteria are A (knowledge and understanding), B (analysis and evaluation), C (focus and organisation), D (language) and E (comparison), each out of 5.

The individual oral criteria are A (knowledge and understanding), B (analysis and evaluation), C (focus and organisation), D (language), each out of 10.

Analysis requires attention to authorial choices (diction, imagery, syntax, structure, register) rather than summary of content; evaluation weighs the effect of those choices on the reader.

The area of exploration Time and space asks how a text's context of production and reception shapes meaning, and how texts represent time, place and movement.

Context of production includes the writer's biography, historical moment, language community, publication circumstances and intended audience.

Context of reception includes the reader's own time and place, translation history and shifting critical or cultural readings.

Texts may be studied for how they construct time (chronology, flashback, foreshadowing, stream of consciousness, cyclical structure) and space (setting, geography, interior versus exterior).

Works studied across the course must span at least three literary forms, three periods and three countries or regions; the school's choices should reflect this breadth.

A literary work is defined by the guide as a text that is fictional, imaginative or creative in nature and of literary merit.

The works studied in translation must originally have been written in a language other than the language of study; the SL programme requires at least two works in translation.

Comparing texts from different periods or places is a legitimate route to discussing how time and space alter the treatment of similar themes.

Intertextuality is the area of exploration concerned with how texts connect to one another through allusion, quotation, parody, pastiche, genre convention, adaptation or shared theme.

Intertextual links may be explicit (named references, epigraphs, direct quotation) or implicit (genre conventions, structural echoes, shared motifs).

Comparison is assessed in Paper 2 through criterion E, which rewards sustained, purposeful comparison rather than parallel description of each work in turn.

The individual oral requires one extract from each of two works and a single global issue that is explored through both, making intertextual comparison the core of the task.

Genre study is a form of intertextuality: a text can be read against the conventions of tragedy, the bildungsroman, the sonnet, magical realism or the epistolary novel.

Adaptation and translation are intertextual acts; comparing a source text with its translation or adaptation exposes shifts in emphasis, register and cultural framing.

The learner portfolio is an informal, non-assessed record of responses, comparisons and explorations that supports preparation for both assessment tasks.

A strong intertextual argument names the specific link (motif, structural device, allusion) and explains what the comparison reveals about each text's meaning.