Paper 1: Guided textual analysis

Duration: SL 1 hour 15 minutes HL: 2 hours 15 minutes

Weighting: SL:35% HL: 35:

Paper 1 contains two unseen non-literary passages. Students write a guided analysis of (one of these passages for SL and both passages for HL). A guided analysis refers to an exploration of the passage supported by a guiding question which asks the students to consider a technical or formal aspect of the passage. The passages could be taken from any of the non-literary text types. 

The passages for analysis may be either complete pieces of writing or extracts from longer pieces.

One guiding question will be provided for each passage on a central technical or formal element that may provide an interesting point of entry into the text. Although it is not compulsory to answer this question, students should be aware that it is expected that the analysis will be focused on a particular aspect of the text. 

The maximum mark for paper 1 SL is 20 and HL is 40.

Non-literary text types