What the exam asks
Unlike Paper 1 or Paper 2, the HL essay gives you no prompt. You must design your own investigation into one literary work or one non-literary body of work studied in class. Examiners mark your essay across four 5-mark criteria:
- Criterion A (Knowledge, understanding and interpretation): Persuasive interpretation of the whole work or body of work in direct relation to your chosen line of inquiry.
- Criterion B (Analysis and evaluation): Insightful analysis and evaluation (judging how well choices work) of textual features and broader authorial choices (large-scale decisions like structure, narrative voice, staging or recurring visual motifs).
- Criterion C (Focus, organization and development): Clear, sustained focus on the line of inquiry, stated right at the start and developed cohesively, with examples woven into your own sentences.
- Criterion D (Language): Precise, formal academic English.
Core ideas
1. Choosing an eligible text
Before brainstorming topics, check the IB’s strict eligibility and no-reuse rules:
- Studied in class: The literary work or non-literary body of work must be part of your course syllabus.
- No reuse: You cannot use the literary work or non-literary body of work from your individual oral, nor can you use any of the literary works you use (or plan to prepare) for Paper 2. Since HL students study at least six literary works and are advised to prepare three works for Paper 2 plus one for the oral, you have at least two literary works—or any unused non-literary body of work—available for the HL essay.
- Broad scope (whole work or body of work): The HL essay is a broad investigation, never a close commentary on a single poem, short story or advertisement.
- If you choose a single extended text (a novel, play, graphic novel, feature film or long poem), you must draw evidence from across the entire text.
- If you choose a collection (short stories, poems, song lyrics, opinion columns, photographs or an advertising campaign), you must examine more than one text from that collection. You may even include other texts of the same text type by the same author or creator not read in class, provided at least one was studied in class.