Paper 2: The Rules
The paper:
- Will contain questions broken up into five categories. Four
categories will be related to specific text genres such as poetry, the
novel and drama. The fifth category will be general questions that can apply
to any genre of text
- There will be 2 specific questions for each genre of the novel,
drama, poetry
- There will be 4 general questions
- You will therefore have a choice of 6 questions: 2 related to the
specific genre of texts that we have studied in preparation for the exam
(these will be the 2 drama questions) plus the 4 general questions
- Standard Level exams last for one and half hours
- Higher Level exams last for two hours
You must:
- Choose only one question from the 6 options open to you
- Write an essay in response to that question based on two or three
of the texts you have studied
The World Literature essay is meant
to asses your:
- ability
to draw insightful and interesting links between texts that you have
studied in class
- ability
to show how a writer has used and manipulated literary features to create
an overall meaning / message or to have any other kind of effect on the
reader.
- ability to show an appreciation of aspects such as theme,
content, style, structure and language.
- ability to use detailed references to texts as evidence to
support your points.
- ability to integrate these references smoothly into your
essay.
- ability to structure essays that are continuous and show a
gradual development of points and argument. Essays comprising unrelated
paragraphs will not merit a high achievement level.
- ability
to write in the formal and precise register of literary analysis
Remember:
- To brainstorm the elements you might use in response to the
question and then plan your essay before you start
- It is better to write only about two texts so that you can discuss
each one in depth
- Good essays will consist of a small number of detailed and well
developed paragraphs rather than a large number of short and superficial
paragraphs
- The examiner’s will have read the texts and so there is no need to
explain details of the plot to them