I Have 2 Questions About IB Lit

[essaywriter]

Hello!

I'll be going into IB soon, and though I know that I'll probably figure it out soon, I have two questions about Lit

1- What is the IOP like? I know it stands for "Individual Oral Presentation," but what exactly is it?

2- How to write a great literary essay? Every time I write a lit essay, my teacher never gives me over a 26/30. How do you write 30/30 essays?

Yes, I know this is early, but I'm worried. Yes, I know my name is "essaywriter" but my forte is history essays.

Thanks!

[Thrashmaster]

I'll take a crack at number 1.

The IOP is a 10-15 minuted presentation you prepare about a topic of your choosing that relates to one or more of the works studied that semester. It has three criteria, equally weighted, 10 points each and 30 points total.

Criterion A: Knowledge and Understanding (AKA your content).

Criterion B: Presentation Skills (Can't remember if that's the official name of this criterion, but that's essentially what it is. How well you deliver the presentation (eye contact, hand gestures, etc.) and entertainment value for the audience (audience retention)).

Criterion C: Language (your use of technical usage and the proper register. The trick here is that the register depends on your presentation. You could do very well here with a casual register if your presentation is casual (like a skit or something like that). You could talk like a professor and do well if you're doing an academic discussion as your presentation).

Overall, you'll notice that only a third of your grade is about your content and the rest is how well you organize and deliver it. The IOP is usually considered the easier IA in English, compared to the IOC (individual oral commentary).

[Sandwich]

For number 2, it's very hard to comment without reading your essay and knowing the breakdown of the marks. Ask your teacher which section(s) you're losing the marks on and then read through the markscheme to see what is required. Go back over your essay and see if you can figure out where it was deficient.

[stupidibkid]

for number 2, I had the same concern going into ib last year but the best advice I can give you is to keep practicing! In class we did lots of pressure writing (timed) with teacher feedback. I'm defiantly less nervous with writing literary essays and have seen my marks improving. If you don't think you get enough practice in class maybe try timing your writing at home and ask your teacher for feedback based on the syllabus, I know my teacher agreed to do this for some other students in my class. If you get lots of feedback it will be easier to pinpoint what part of the syllabus you need to work on. Hope this helps  

[IBhelp2015]

For the second point, I asked my teacher after class when would be a good time to meet to get some help on my essay writing. I thought I was getting better at adjusting based on her written remarks, but it didn't really help. We met during lunch a few times, realized there had been a communication error on my part in figuring out what to fix, and she really helped me. Hopefully your teachers are just as nice I know history essays are pretty different, but if you're a good enough writer to get 30s on your history essays, you clearly have the writing skills, and really there has to be a technical or an analytical error. 

 

Also, stupidibkid's advice about timing your own writing at home and asking for feedback later at school really helped me as well, after my teacher told me what to focus on. Practice makes perfect!