Advice to Students Writing IB World Literature Essays
Start with the Heart!
This is not a mathematical exercise!
For Criterion A, it will be difficult to earn more than 2 out of 5 unless you write with
passion, since to earn a 3 you must include a “personal response”.
What does the story/play/poem make you feel, make you think about? And then the
crucial question: how does it do that? The best writing comes from someone whose heart
and mind are equally engaged.
Have a genuine question, and use your essay to explore that question.
Most student essays are boring to read because the writers are bored when they write
them. Why? Because there’s no personal engagement. It’s just an exercise in writing
down what’s already in your head about some topic you don’t really care about anyway.
Ideally, an essay is an opportunity to think deeply about a question that intrigues
you. As a result of that deep thinking, you change. By the time you finish the essay,
you’re not quite the same person you were when you started. You understand a bit
more. Your perspective is a bit different. You have new questions.
If your essay comes out of a genuine question, shows your personal engagement with
that question, and shows that by thinking deeply about the question you have learned
something, you have changed, you have grown... then your essay will be almost a complete success. The other part, of course, is writing well. But notice that writing well
counts for only 25% of your marks (Criterion D).
Organization for Comparison-Contrast Essays (Assignment 1)
Model A: never!
Intro
Work #1
Work #2
Conclusion
Model B: only for
short, in-class essays.
Intro
Similarities
Differences
Conclusion
Model C: the one to use.
Intro
Point of Comparison #1
POC #2
POC #3
Conclusion
Great literature raises questions. It does not give answers! Don’t waste your time trying to explain “what it means” or “what the author believes”. Please don’t talk about the
author’s “message”. Instead, identify the questions being raised. Discuss the ways those
questions are handled, and the possible implications.
Advice to Students Writing World Lit Essays
Writing a creative piece for Assignment 2 is often a good idea. However, your “statement of intent” MUST be detailed and show the thinking behind your creation. Many otherwise excellent pieces earn only 1, 2, or 3 marks out of 5 for Criterion C because the
statement of intent does not provide such details.
Miscellaneous Notes
Put your name, IB number, etc., in a header or footer so it appears automatically on
every page and you don’t have to add it in later.
Use a standard font, big enough so it’s easy to read, and double-space your essay
(line-spacing = 2). 14-point Times New Roman is a good choice.
Be sure that the first sentence of each body ¶ states the assertion of that ¶. Topic sentences should not recount events from the story! They should not make factual statements,
nor should they make generalizations about life and literature. An assertion is an arguable claim that something is true. Make a good, specific assertion in the first sentence of
each body paragraph and use the rest of the paragraph to persuade the reader with evidence from the text that your assertion is true.
Do NOT write topic sentences like this: “The most interesting thing about Gandalf is
the mystery that surrounds him.” Revise them to use strong, active verbs: “The mystery surrounding Gandalf fascinates us.”
Don’t throw around words you don’t truly understand. No examiner will be impressed if you go on and on about “epiphanies” or “catharsis” or “exposition” when
you are simply parroting words introduced by your teacher. Use plain, simple language; tell the truth; and show how these works have engaged your imagination.
Genre: don’t call a novel a play, or an epic poem a novel.
“Heroin” is an illegal drug derived from poppies. “Heroine” is the female protagonist
of a story.
DON’T USE FOOTNOTES. No examiner reading 210 papers will bother to read
footnotes. Cite sources in the body of your essay, using a format prescribed by your
teacher. Be clear and consistent.
Learn from your teacher, too, the proper ways to include quotations—long, short,
dialogue—in your essay.
Openings / Introductions
State your thesis: all of your major assertions, plus a brief preview of your conclusion.
Everything else is decoration.
Closings / Conclusions
These can be deadly boring, and hardly worth reading. Make yours more interesting
by using it to put all the pieces of your argument together, and discuss the implications.
Perhaps you can touch on further questions that now arise, given what you have discovered writing your essay. Or sum up your personal response in light of what you’ve
discovered. Another option: use your conclusion to ask and discuss the question,“So
http://www.Eric MacKnight.com/ • Page 2 of 4
Advice to Students Writing World Lit Essays
what?” How have these works changed your perspective or inspired you or provoked
you to think differently about something? How have they touched you?
Excerpts from my 2007 Examiner’s Report
1. Overall I'm sorry to say that I am disappointed with this batch of World Lit essays.
Most students have been taught that literature is filled with hidden messages and
meanings cleverly disguised with symbols, metaphors, and other 'literary devices'.
Their job is to decode the messages and file them under various standard headings such
as 'existentialist', 'nihilist', and 'archetypal'. Every realization is an 'epiphany'; everyone
who thinks is 'Apollonian'; everyone who feels is 'Dionysian'; every unusual event is an
example of 'Magical Realism'. One candidate actually made this theory of literary criticism the opening sentence of her essay: "It is important to understand the intentions of
authors as most of the time they are trying to convey hidden messages."
Not surprisingly under such circumstances, most students simply retail ideas that their
teachers or other sources have fed them. When the same interpretation of a work is repeated by student after student, it's clear that they are repeating what they have been
taught. The 'Candidate Declaration' that students sign when submitting their papers
should be given to students at the beginning of the course, printed in large letters, suitable for mounting on the wall at home and in the classroom:
The assignment(s) I am submitting is (are) my own work. I have
acknowledged each use of the words or ideas of another person,
whether written or oral.
Failing to acknowledge use of their teachers' ideas with a simple 'as discussed in class'
casts suspicion on the provenance of every other observation they make.
Literature as 'The Search for Hidden Meanings' and students' retailing of potted interpretations go together, of course. Somehow teachers must realize, and then convey to
their students, that great works of literature raise questions and elicit responses. The job
of a reader is to consider those questions and sensitively respond to them—not to decipher hidden meanings, or to sort books and authors into categories from a 'Reader's Digest' History of Ideas.
2. Several students included irrelevant biographical information about the authors of
the works.
3. Page citations very obtrusive in several essays. Just put them in parentheses—don't
make them part of the sentence. Don't use 'page' or 'Pg.' Either use 'p.', or just use the
number in parentheses.
http://www.Eric MacKnight.com/ • Page 3 of 4
Advice to Students Writing World Lit Essays
4. Similar topics repeated many times. Repetitions make it clear that much of the content is taken from class discussions or lectures. Students often over-coached to use
literary terms that they do not fully understand. Several essays were catalogs of
'themes' with commentary—not the same thing as analysis. Focus too wide. Topics
confused with themes, which properly speaking involve a statement, a claim of some
kind. A couple of students analyzed sound effects without any acknowledgment that
they were discussing a text in translation. One essay attempted to discuss four short
stories; the inevitable result was lack of concentrated focus, more a book review than
an analysis.
5. Most essays lack titles.
6. WRONG WORKS: Assignment 1 should be based on two Part I works. In this case
every single student based Assignment 1 on Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War (Part 1)
and Medea (Part 4). Penalty: 2 marks deducted from Criteria A & B.
7. There is a tendency for students to misuse or overuse literary terms that they understand only superficially.
http://www.Eric MacKnight.com/ • Page 4 of 4