What the exam asks
Your individual oral (30% at SL, 20% at HL; 40 marks across four 10-mark criteria) answers one fixed prompt. In our words, it asks you to:
examine how a global issue you choose is presented, through both content and form, in one literary work and one non-literary body of work from your course.
To meet the rules of the 2026 guide, your choices must satisfy four strict conditions:
- One literary work and one non-literary body of work, both studied in class.
- No reuse: neither your literary work nor your non-literary body of work can be used for Paper 2 or (at HL) the HL essay.
- Two extracts: one from the literary work and one from the non-literary body of work, each no more than about 40 lines, continuous, from a single text, with its source (title and author) clearly stated, handed to your teacher at least a week ahead for approval.
- Balanced scope: your 10-minute response must give about equal attention to both extracts and to the wider work and body of work as a whole, so pick a work and a body of work with equally rich material on the issue.
Core ideas
1. Securing the literary vs non-literary distinction
You must pair one literary work with one non-literary body of work, and make clear in the oral which is which. Never pair two literary works or two non-literary bodies of work: the guide says such an oral does not meet the requirements of the task.
Watch out for “either-way” text types such as essays, speeches, memoirs, biographies, letters, diary entries, opinion columns and travelogues. Under IB rules, a text is literary if its author is on the Prescribed reading list (PRL, the IB’s list of authors for literary study) or is a widely recognized literary writer. If neither applies, your teacher decides, looking at whether the text has a clear artistic (aesthetic) purpose, and teaches it as one or the other.
- Rule of thumb: Never use a speech, essay, column or letter by a famous novelist, poet or playwright (such as George Orwell, Margaret Atwood or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) as your non-literary body of work.
2. Defining your work and your body of work
Your oral is not just an analysis of two short extracts; Criterion A (10 marks) tests your knowledge and understanding of the whole work and the whole body of work.
| Component | What counts as the “whole” | How to cover the “whole” in 10 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Single extended literary work (novel, play, graphic novel, memoir) | The entire book or play. | Connect your extract (up to 40 lines) to 2–3 other pivotal moments, structural shifts or character arcs across the full text. |
| Literary collection (15–20 poems, 5–10 short stories, 5–8 essays) | The entire collection studied in class by that single author. | Analyse 1 poem or story fragment as your extract, then examine 2–3 other poems or stories from the studied collection. |
| Non-literary body of work (extended text, or shorter texts of one text type) | The whole extended text, or all the texts sharing one text type and one authorship. | Analyse 1 text (or a continuous section of up to 40 lines from one) as your extract, then reference 2–3 other texts or moments from the same body of work. |