jupiter Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 I've just finished year 1 of IB. Everything has been going great, except for one little thing... My HL English teacher has never taught IB before, and I literally haven't learned a SINGLE thing from him this entire year! It was ok at first, I thought he was just being a bit lax and would get into it later on, but an entire year has passed, and although we've had some great, enlightening, off-topic philosophical discussions... I can't help but freak out a little that an entire year has passed and I don't have any idea:How to write a comparative essay (or any good lB English essay for that matter!!)What the reflective statements are actually supposed to be about...How to do the UWCHow to write my WLThey sound like stupid and obvious questions, but we literally haven't learned anything!! English is one of my best subjects and I am desperate to get a 7, but I don't know how that's possible when I haven't been taught a single thing in the course!!If anyone has any advice or could give me tips on different parts of the course (other than the IOP which I've already done :/ ), that would be amazing The rest of my English class would appreciate it too!! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigel Posted December 30, 2013 Report Share Posted December 30, 2013 The best thing is to look at past exams (especially the markschemes) and get a hang of what the IB is asking for. Other important resources for the course are looking at some sample papers (you can find them online), or outlines in how to write your Paper 1 and Paper 2 essay (in my opinion, Paper 1 is usually harder than Paper 2 as it is not so obvious to outline main features of a text with limited time).Keep in mind that I took Spanish A1 HL, and not English A1 HL. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alwaysanexttime Posted January 5, 2014 Report Share Posted January 5, 2014 (edited) In my mocks i haven't done so well for English Lit and i've just got some nerve-wracking questions about writing a commentary in Paper 1.If i'm taking a thematic approach to a text and something I find within the text is seen to be an important idea or important literary technique, but doesn't fit in with any of my themes how would I include it in a presentable style? Do I just talk about it near the end of my commentary?How does one talk about structure in a prose...? Edited January 5, 2014 by Alwaysanexttime Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedino Posted January 5, 2014 Report Share Posted January 5, 2014 If it's an important idea then it's probably something you need to mention - maybe either try to work it in as part of a theme - link it somehow to further/extend your existing thematic arguments, or if it's really important, it could be its own theme, even if it's a slightly smaller one. Try to avoid just talking about it near the end of the commentary for the sake of mentioning the important idea - unless it follows the flow of your essay.Structure in prose - look at whether it's linear or random anecdotes.. how many paragraphs are there? Amount of dialogue? (If there's a lot of dialogue then usually there's lots of thin paragraphs). Large paragraphs might indicate lots of description/complex detailed thoughts, etc. That's some of the things I personally look for.. Once you take a look at the structure, try to think about what the effect of it is.. and then link the effect to the theme? I apologise if this is all a bit vague, but hopefully it gives you some idea 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.