What Paper 1 Is: Task, Timing, and Marks
Paper 1 asks you to write a guided analytical essay on unseen literary text(s); SL analyzes one text in 1hr15 for /20, HL analyzes both in 2hr15 for /40.
Paper 1 is the part of the exam where there's nowhere to hide behind memorized quotes or pre-planned arguments. You're given two unseen literary texts (each roughly 1–2 pages) that you have never seen before, and each comes with a guiding question pointing you toward a specific angle of analysis. Your job is to read closely, think fast, and produce a well-structured analytical essay — essentially, to prove you can 'read like a critic' even when thrown into unfamiliar territory.
| SL | HL | |
|---|---|---|
| Texts to analyze | 1 of the 2 given texts | Both texts (2 essays) |
| Time | 1 hour 15 minutes | 2 hours 15 minutes |
| Marks | /20 | /40 |
| Essays required | One guided analysis essay | Two guided analysis essays |
It's crucial to remember this course's Paper 1 is purely literary. Both unseen texts are literary — fiction, poetry, drama, or literary non-fiction like memoir. There is no non-literary or visual/media text on this exam (that's a feature of Language & Literature, not Literature).
The texts you might encounter include:
- Fictional prose (novel or short story extracts)
- Non-fiction prose (memoirs, reflective essays)
- Drama (scenes from plays)
- Poetry
Each text arrives with its own guiding question — a prompt that tells you what to focus your analysis on (e.g. how tone shifts, how imagery builds meaning, how structure reflects theme). At SL, you choose which of the two texts to respond to, then answer its guiding question. At HL, you must respond to both guiding questions, one per text, effectively writing two separate essays under a longer time limit.
Your task isn't just to observe what's in the text — it's to interpret it. Simply noting 'there is a metaphor here' earns little credit. The deeper and more purposeful your analysis (linking technique to effect to authorial purpose), the higher you'll score on Criterion C: Understanding and interpretation.
Common mistake: treating SL and HL Paper 1 as the same task with more time tacked on for HL. In reality, HL requires you to sustain two independent, fully-developed analytical arguments — each needs its own thesis, structure, and evidence, not a rushed afterthought once you've written the first essay.
Ultimately, Paper 1 tests your ability to analyze an unfamiliar literary text under time pressure — spotting techniques, connecting them to meaning, and articulating that connection clearly within a tight word and time budget. Everything else in this course's Paper 1 skillset (annotation strategy, thesis-writing, vocabulary precision) builds toward performing well within this exact structure: SL's single essay in 75 minutes, or HL's double essay in 135 minutes.
- SL: analyze ONE unseen literary text, 1 hour 15 minutes, worth /20
- HL: analyze BOTH unseen literary texts, 2 hours 15 minutes, worth /40
- Both texts are always literary (fiction, non-fiction prose, drama, or poetry) — never a non-literary or visual-only text
- Each text comes with its own guiding question that must shape your essay's focus
- Analysis must go beyond identifying techniques — always link technique to effect to purpose
Types of Texts You'll Encounter in Paper 1
An overview of the four literary text types that can appear as unseen passages in Paper 1—fictional prose, non-fiction prose, drama, and poetry—and how each demands a slightly different analytical lens.
In Paper 1, you are handed two unseen literary texts and asked to write a guided analysis of one (SL) or both (HL) in response to a guiding question. Unlike Language & Literature, every text you encounter here is drawn from the world of literature — there are no adverts, infographics, or opinion columns. Instead, the IB draws from four recognisable literary text types, and knowing what to expect from each helps you shift gears quickly once you open the exam booklet.
| Text Type | What It Looks Like | What to Watch For |
|---|---|---|
| Fictional prose | An extract from a novel or short story | Narrative voice, characterisation, plot tension, point of view, shifts in time or perspective |
| Non-fiction prose | A memoir excerpt or reflective/personal essay | The narrator's real (not invented) perspective, tone toward their own experience, rhetorical shaping of 'true' events |
| Drama | A scene from a play, often with stage directions | Dialogue as characterisation, subtext, stage directions as authorial commentary, pacing through exchanges |
| Poetry | A single poem or a substantial extract | Form, structure, sound devices, line breaks, condensed imagery, and how meaning builds line by line |
Each type rewards a slightly different set of instincts. With fictional prose, you're tracking how narrative choices (whose head are we in? what's withheld?) shape meaning. With non-fiction prose, remember the writer is shaping a real experience for effect — look for how they select and frame memory or argument, much like you would with a memoir. Drama asks you to read dialogue as performance: characters reveal themselves through what they say, don't say, and how stage directions frame their actions. Poetry compresses meaning into form, so structural features (stanza breaks, enjambment, rhyme scheme, meter) often carry as much weight as the words themselves.
You will never be asked to analyse a non-literary text (like an advertisement or press release) in Paper 1 — that belongs to a different course. Every passage is drawn from imaginative or reflective literature, so techniques like characterisation, structure, and figurative language are always fair game.
Don't assume prose always means fiction. Non-fiction prose (memoir, personal essay) can appear and should be treated with the same rigour — look for how the writer's real experience is crafted rather than simply reported.
Before annotating, silently name the text type to yourself ('this is drama' or 'this is a poem'). That single label primes you to look for the right toolkit of devices immediately, saving valuable time under exam pressure.
- Paper 1 texts are always literary — never non-literary or visual-only texts.
- Four possible text types: fictional prose, non-fiction prose, drama, poetry.
- Fictional prose: focus on narrative voice, characterisation, and plot tension.
- Non-fiction prose: focus on how a real experience or argument is rhetorically shaped.
- Drama: read dialogue and stage directions as characterisation and authorial commentary.
- Poetry: pay close attention to form, structure, and condensed imagery.