If you were to ask an examiner of Paper 2 what are the things that students frequently struggle with, you are likely to receive a range of replies. Some of the answers will highlight the minutiae of essay writing, and that is reasonable enough. However, one big and frequently observed problem with Paper 2 responses is that, in an essay where students are asked to write about literature, the reader derives very little sense that the student is, in fact, writing about literature. Such essays tend to be mediocre at best, and often receive very few marks in criterion B. This page includes a Paper 2 essay – to be fair, a somewhat manufactured essay, written by an IB graduate who we engaged to write a response to one of the May 2023 essay questions. We don’t think the essay is flawless; but what would such an essay look like? It is, however, a very strong essay in which there is a good sense that the student is writing about literature. The task that is associated with the essay asks students to scrutinize the essay, identifying its many strengths, but also its weaknesses, focusing on those areas where students tend to struggle most. Students require both the essay and the task sheet to complete the activity, and the essay is available here to subscribers.

David & Tim