What the exam asks
In Paper 1, you may meet a passage that looks like one text type (for example, a nutritional label or a set of instructions) but actually acts as another (such as an environmental appeal or a satirical opinion column). Your guiding question (the optional question printed with each passage) might ask how the creator uses layout, structure or tone to persuade the reader. In Paper 2, one of the four general questions can ask how writers conform to or challenge the expectations of their literary form, or how they surprise the reader.
Core ideas
Forms, genres and text types
IB examiners look for exact terminology under Criterion D. Do not mix up these three terms:
| Term | Plain meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Literary form | The broad structural setup of a literary work (four are named on the Prescribed reading list, the IB’s list of authors that schools choose from) | Prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry, drama |
| Genre | A thematic or stylistic category inside a form | Tragedy, gothic fiction, dystopia, elegy, detective story |
| Text type | A category of text with its own purpose and features. The IB’s lists also include literary types (novel, play, poem), but the term is used mostly for non-literary texts and for types that can be literary or non-literary, such as letters | Infographic, opinion column, charity appeal, letter, manifesto |
Conventions and subversion
Conventions are the standard features, rules and patterns of a form, genre or text type. Because readers recognize these conventions from other texts they have read (the heart of the area of exploration called Intertextuality: connecting texts), conventions create reader expectations.
- Meeting conventions creates familiarity, clarity and authority. A medical report uses clinical jargon, passive voice and data tables so the reader trusts its objectivity.
- Subverting conventions means deliberately breaking or twisting those rules. Writers subvert conventions to shock the reader, expose a cliché, or show that traditional forms can no longer express a complicated modern reality. For example, a tragic play usually gives a noble hero a dignified downfall; a modern playwright might subvert this by giving a working-class character an anti-climactic, bureaucratic death to critique capitalism.
How conventions evolve over time
Conventions are not fixed; they shift as technology, power and culture change:
- Letters: Once formal, handwritten documents with fixed greetings and sign-offs (“Dearest...”, “Your obedient servant”) and long, formal sentences, letters have evolved into rapid digital communications or public “open letters” designed for viral sharing.
- Elegies: Traditional English elegies, such as the pastoral elegy, usually moved through three stages: grief for the dead, praise of them, and finally comfort (consolation). Modern poets often subvert the elegy by refusing consolation altogether, leaving grief unresolved.
- News reporting: Early print news often mixed opinion with chronological storytelling. The telegraph and modern journalism created the “inverted pyramid” (most vital facts first, neutral tone), which digital media now mixes with links, images and video, making news reports multimodal (built from words, images and sound together).
- Campaign speeches: Political speeches were once long, formal performances for the crowd in front of the speaker, built on balanced sentences and grand appeals to history. Today they are also written as short, quotable lines that can travel as video clips and social media posts, so a speech is shaped for the screen as much as for the hall.