IB Paper 2

1. IB Paper 2 Hot off the press

2. Changes to the exam • There will be three questions for each genre • You can only use Part 3 works (part 2 works are not an option any more) • There will not be a set of General Questions About Literature questions • C:\Users\Adria.Strothers\Documents\12 IB 2012-2013\Paper 1 and Paper 2\IBPaper2Examples.pdf

3. Works you must use • Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko • The Awakening, Kate Chopin • Sula, Toni Morrison • There Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston • You must choose one of the questions in the section labeled: The Novel and Short Story

4. Preparing for the exam • Set to the task of carefully re-reading the works, the notes, and the supplementary material provided in class • No one can do this for you; it’s a very individual thing. • The most important component for writing an excellent Paper 2 essay is reading the works while your class is studying them.

5. You may feel that an acceptable strategy – owing to the demand of other classes or other parts of your life – is to be present in the class, pick up what you can of the works from that, and then read some or all of the works just before the exam. • Bad idea!!l

6. Examiner’s criteria • You need to show your knowledge of the works you are writing about and secondly, you want to show your understanding by making sure the elements of the works you choose to discuss are clearly related to the question you have chosen to answer. • You are expected to know, in detail, the content of the works you choose to write about. • You need to be clear about the genre of the works you have studied and the conventions that are operating in that work.

7. What are the conventions of the novel? • *Some examples: • Plot – Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution • Narration – 1st, 3rd Omniscient, 3rd Limited, Reliable Narrator, Unreliable Narrator, Free Indirect Discourse (is essentially the practice of embedding a character's speech or thoughts into an otherwise third-person narrative, i.e. Madame Bovary). • Interior Monologue, Stream of Consciousness • Direct/Indirect Characterization • *This is not an exhaustive list*

8. Conventions continued • Structure: Time, Place, Space, Suspense, Foreshadow,Flashback (analepsis), Flash Forwards (prolepsis), Chronological Order. • Diction: literal, figurative • Dialogue *This is not an exhaustive list*

9. Suggestions for studying • Lay out a comparative chart in which you can identify such elements of a text as: • The title and author (correctly spelled) • Character names and alternate names like nicknames • Place names • Features of structure (chapters) • Turning points or crucial scenes, lines, etc. • Then, set up a space for each of the works and fill in the features from each work. This chart can give you the comparative features of the works in an easy format for last-minute review.

10. Strategies Continued • Make a chart of the conventions you have addressed in class; supplement it with the list of conventions for the novel (genre). Try to find at least one, if not more, examples from each of the four works and record them in a way that is easy for you to remember. • Use some mind-mapping software from the internet and create a visual set of connections to conventions and to the places where they are found in each work. This visual will help you with memory. You can also create your own visuals.

11. Learning effective strategies for interpreting paper 2 questions • One of the most common errors students make when, focusing on a familiar work like ‘character’ or ‘dramatic tension’ and then inventing the question they wish they had been asked. • Certain words such as these are going to appear over and over again in questions. It is important to know that there are two elements to these questions: • A central or recurring element such as the one described • A particular angle for this exam, one that includes the recurring element but asks for something specific to that element

12. For example, two questions on the novel or short story might include character: • 1. A writer in the genre of novel and short story has many tools at hand for developing character. In the characterization of two minor but important characters in two works you have studied, show how two conventions you consider important have been used to make the characters memorable in spite of being minor. • 2. A major convention used by novel and short story writers in developing their characterization is a moment of revelation or epiphany. In the works of two writers you have studied, examine closely such a moment and the effect it has on the creation of the character.

13. You will, perhaps, think, “Aha! I’ll write about character in these two works.” What you need to do is step back and ask yourself, “What about character am I being asked to discuss?” This will be the secret, or at least one of them, to your success in this exam. • There are various initial strategies for ensuring that you are able to create an answer that will merit high marks in the second descriptor the examiner needs to apply: ‘response to the question.’ • What you should be aiming for is Level 5: “The student responds to the main implications and some subtleties of the question, with relevant and carefully explored ideas. An effective comparison is made of the works used in relation to the question.”

14. Strategy #1 • In the two questions above, make a list of all the elements included in the question. • Identify both the center of each question (the recurring element) and the particular angle from this exam. • Finally, make a list where you prioritize the elements of each question. What is central? What is secondary?

15. Strategy #2 • Another strategy to make sure you start from a strong base in your essay is to re-write the question in other words. Very often this can help students to see the terms of the question from a more personal angle.

16. Expectations for essay • You are expected to produce a comparative essay • Discuss both similarities and differences; the essay is an exercise in comparison and contrast • “Take a position” on the material of the question, because the essay is not just a re-description or a listing of similarities and differences, and possibly even some evaluation of their significance. • You will need to know your literary works well enough so that you can effectively select some features that are similar and some that are different. All of these must be relevant to the particular topic and the particular angle that your exam question requests you address.

17. Example: • Extended speeches by individual characters, either alone on the stage or with others present, are used in plays with various purposes and outcomes. Using at least two plays you have studied, show how playwrights use such speeches to achieve purposes particular to their plays. • What does the examiner expect you to focus on in your answer? • Longer speeches by characters

18. What particular angle is expected? • In this question, you will be invited to look at “various purposes and outcomes.” Depending on your point of view, this breadth of possibility may be an advantage or a hurdle. You can see that you will have to choose a purpose (or two) that you believe the playwright has in using extended speeches, and you will also want to consider the purpose and effect of those choices. So, what might be some possibilities for you to argue about your works?

19. Possibly angles • Longer speeches are used to reveal something otherwise hidden • Such speeches are used to add a new dimension to the characterization so far delivered b the playwright • Longer speeches are used to introduce a new element of conflict • The speeches are there to provide a concluding impression of the character

20. From the list, you might want to choose point 1 and show how two playwrights handle that purpose in similar but significantly different ways. Or you might want to choose point 3 for one play and point 4 for a second play, showing that the same convention can be used in different ways with different effects. • There is no one size fits all formula. The single biggest thing you want to think and remember is that differencesare just as important as similarities. • The most common mistake, which will earn low marks, is to build an essay around re-describing the similarities of a particular feature and leave it at that.

21. Essentially, you might show that both playwrights have given the protagonist a long speech very close to the end of the play (a similarity), but that the speeches have very different effects on the people around them. The playwrights may use different effects to change the audience’s impression of the character, resulting in a reversal of how the audience is likely to feel and what the viewers now think of the protagonist. The effects of these strategies could be quite similar or very different.

22. Paper 2 requires that you write • A “literary argument” • Comparatively • Based on the example, what is a “literary argument“ • It is constructed when you a take a position on the way extended speeches, for example, are used by two playwrights.

23. Sample thesis • Although Tennessee Williams gives most of the extended speeches to Tom in The Glass Menagerie, Tom’s double role as narrator and character makes his speeches less compelling to the audience than the way Arthur Miller handles the longer speeches of Willy in Death of a Salesman. • This is a position or thesis that can be argued. • An effective essay on this positions should include the first three elements of the descriptors that the examiner who reads your essay will use for evaluation • Knowledge and understanding of the works • A response to the terms of the question • An appreciation of the conventions highlighted in the question.

24. Organizing your essay • Essentially you will need to • Lead a reader through the relevant similarities and differences • Decide what you want to argue about and its particular angle • Keep the focus on the literary conventions you are discussing

25. This is a lot to handle; therefore, you will want to decide on one of the two approaches suggested by IB: • You will set out your introduction and then discuss the aspects of one work, use a transitional paragraph, and move on to discuss your second work. Some call this the “block essay.” • You will decide on perhaps two or three similarities or differences and discuss those in relation to each of the works. This format is sometimes called the “topical essay.” • **All information taken from IBO website and English A: Literature Course Companion

26. Sample IB HL Paper 2 Sample_HL_IB_Paper2.pdf