So much of your success in written assessment is knowing what good looks like, what is expected, and therefore how to be successful. Paper 1, of course, relies on your independent ability to read and understand a previously unseen text. However well you understand the text, though, you need to know what successful work looks like.
What is expected?
Paper 1 requires you to read and understand a previously unseen text of challenging quality. You can expect one of the texts to be predominantly visual, and the other to be multimodal (with more text but with some visual elements). Recognising different text types and having knowledge of their features is a key capacity for success. However, as Dylan Wiliam once said, [most] students don't know what successful work looks like, and so no matter how good your understanding you need to know how to go about structuring a response, something that in turn will help your thinking as you approach unseen texts. More ideas on how to structure can be seen in Paper 1 - Structuring a Guided Textual Analysis.
A Guided Textual Analysis on a previously unseen (single) non-literary text is one of the assessment components for which we can look to the old course for guidance, as it was exactly the Paper 1 assessment of the old Standard Level course. As explained elsewhere, the selection of the texts by the IBDP examiners tended to encourage the students to consider topical internationalist issues. However, the difference now is that students MUST respond to the guiding question, or reject the guiding question and essentially create one of their own, that becomes the main line of inquiry of the response. A full commentary on the text is no longer required nor desired.
Students must, however, display analytical and evaluative skill. This process of analysis and evaluation is explored in Paper 2 - Analysis and Evaluation; the same process applies when analysing literary and non-literary works and texts.
Consider the text type, its conventions and stylistic features, and what the thematic meaning and message of the text might be. Look carefully at the guided questions, and decide how you would construct a response around answers to them. Finally, think about the movement and development of the text, and consider how you would construct a "movement paragraph" (with embedded quotations) exploring how the text begins, shifts, develops and concludes, as discussed elsewhere.
Student Sample Work
Read the following student response to Text 1:
The literary article adapted from the essay written by Gavin Francis in "The London Review of Books" was published on March 6th in the year of 2014. In his essay, Francis aimed to deliver an essay which was appealing to a wide audience and not only medical students as it might first be assumed. He does so by describing the process of rediscovering the beauty of medicine and the human body, through its complexity but also its harmonic embodiment.
When the readers first discover the article they are quickly guided away from the misonception that the article is mainly medical. Certainly it is filled with many medical terms such as 'systole' (l.18) or 'aortic stenosis' (l.28) but it equally juxtaposes this with a myriad of metaphors describing the beauty of the human body. This first example of juxtaposition appears when the act of listening to a patient's heart using a 'stethoscope' (l.1) is compared with the daily act of 'laying our heads against the breasts of our loves' (l.2). This association of these two distinct processes are found throughout the article.
It is important to note that the literary magazine also publishes book reviews as well as topical articles on politics, history, science and the arts. Therefore readers come from different backgrounds of interests and the author must adapt his writing to make it accessible to a wider audience. The entire duality of the scientific and literary is illustrated in the oxymoron 'intimate yet detached' (l.5) the author describes when discussing the traditional method of listening to the heart without a stethoscope. Moreover, not only is this a duality, as the text progresses the two develop a harmonic relationship. The sound of blood flow is continuously compared to the ocean. This concept will be discussed further along this commentary. Overall, the author is able to develop a relaxed atmosphere of wonder and comfort which he does so by repeatedly referring to the imagery of the ocean and water - 'conch shell' (l.11), 'just as a river' (l.12), 'imagined ocean' (l.11). Furthermore, word choices such as 'warm' (l.30), 'reassure' (l.33), 'comforting' (l.28) further accentuate this. This comforting mood embodies the harmony between medicine and the appeal of life.
As discussed previously, the harmony exisiting between the medicine and literary references encourages the readers to develop a new perspective on medicine. Francis decided to mainly focus on the idea of comparing listening to a patient's heart beat to the movement and sound of water to be able to develop his concept in greater detail. The narrator of the article continuously establishes connections between the movement of 'air frothing with blood' (l.9-10) with placing a 'conch shell' (l.11) against your ear as a child. This metaphor illustrates the different perspective that a doctor, with several years of experience can continue to develop, and 'rediscover' (l.4). Following this description, Francis develops a more medical passage describing the components of the heart, 'there are four valves' (l.15). This is then followed by a reference to the same doctor but at the beginning of his career, when he had to rely on distinguishing his childhood memory of the sound of a 'conch shell' from the blood flow. By juxtaposing the two facets of the doctor, this enables the readers to develop an understanding of the doctor's development. He even refers to the different sounds as 'seagull' and 'musical murmur' (l.27). By doing so, the blood flow has now become in harmony with the musicality of the ocean and 'waves of the sea' (l.10). Moreover, in the same sentence, Francis describes the 'grate of mitral regurgitation from the trill of aortic stenosis' (l.27-28). This alliteration in 't' embodies the musicality of the science. The author aimed to illustrate to his audience that not only in medicine but in any career in general, one could rediscover the beauty of the science with a change in perspective.
Francis also incorporates elements in his text to appeal to his broad audience. With the use of the anaphora 'our heads', 'our lovers', 'our parents', 'our children', the author develops a relation with the readers and associates with them, notably with the use of the personal pronoun 'our'. Furthermore, he appeals with the medical audience by giving tips to the readers such as 'it helps if you stick a finger in the unoccupied ear' (l.5-6). He also clearly explains the different parts of the heart by naming the structures using brackets '(diastole)' (l.21), as well as an italic font and writing the words between dashes '- the mitral and the tricuspid -'. This way his audience can be both advanced medical students or any other person with a general anatomic understanding. In addition, numerous references to the auditory senses are made, prominently where describing the sea and blood flow. This way, the audience can use the personal experience to understand and connect with the author's experiences. At the end of the article, the author describes reassuring a mother which develops empathy for the author from the reader's behalf. All in all, the article is accessible for a wide audience range.
To conclude with, the adapetd essay written by Francis aims to illustrate the harmony which exists between a more scientific subject matter such as medicine and a literary interpretation of it. By doing so, the author portrays the beauty and wonder of the human body. Another important note is that this is accessible to a wide audience of diverse backgrounds which can all appeal to the author's intents and relate this to their own experiences. With a change of perspective, one can rediscover their own area of expertise. The element of harmony is emphasised by the conlcuding sentence 'two rhythms within one, two lives within one body' (l.42).
Now, using the Marking Criteria, establish what you would give the student out of 20 for this response. Break your marks down into:
A: Understanding and Interpretation (5)
B: Analysis and Evaluation (5)
C: Focus and Organisation (5)
D: Language (5)
Remember that criteria A & B refer to the student's subject understanding, and criteria C & D refer to the student's own use of language and structure.
Now look at the marks and commentary awarded by the examiner:
A: 3
B: 4
C: 4
D: 4
Demonstrates very good understanding of the purpose and the audience, and good knowledge of stylistic features. Could be developed further. Just at times, the response veers into descriptive rather than analytical, feeling a little more like a "paint-by-numbers" comment on purpose and audience, as opposed to an authentic analysis and evaluation of craft and thematic effect. Crucially, and this is where the mark comes down in A, doesn't always stick to the guiding question but becomes more of a commentary on the full text, which is not required nor desired.
In general, this text shows an interesting blend of a scientific and an artistic / linguistic understanding of the world. It celebrates, to some extent, the old ways of doing things - the instinct of the expert and the value of human judgement - and thus perhaps urges caution in trusting only the mechanisms of science and technology in the modern age. In order to exemplify this, scientific and biological processes are described through the artistic medium of descriptive language and metaphor.
This example - despite its faults most notably with language near the end of the piece - is good evidence for how a well-constructed response, with appropriately balanced paragraphs and lots of line-referenced quotation, does well. Much of that quotation is embedded, but also enough is deconstructed in terms of technique and effect too.
Why don't you try writing a response to Text 2 and asking me to mark it for you!
MY PROGRESS
How much of Paper 1 - Writing a Guided Textual Analysis have you understood?
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