IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Non-literary text types and their conventions Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions, and they do not replicate the exam’s exact structure, question count or mark tariffs – the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

This practice set covers non-literary text types and their conventions for IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature, at SL and HL. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021) and belongs to the area of exploration Readers, writers and texts. All passages are original; all people, places and organisations are invented.

Revise first with the study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

Questions

Passage A – blog post (original text written for Marlbridge)

Borrowed Wheels

Post 40: The hill wins again (for now) Posted 14 March · Tags: commuting, hills, stubbornness

Forty mornings. Forty mornings on my neighbour’s old green bicycle, and I still cannot get up Castle Hill without stopping at the postbox.

For new readers: in January I sold my car, borrowed Mr Aziz’s bike “until spring”, and promised to blog every ride. Spring is next week. Mr Aziz has stopped asking.

Today’s score: Hill 40, Me 0. But I stopped at the postbox, not the bench. Last month it was the bench. That is thirty metres of progress, and I will take it.

[Photo: the green bicycle leaning on a red postbox, rain on the handlebars.]

What’s your hill? Tell me in the comments. I read every one, usually with a cup of tea and aching legs.

23 comments

1. Identify three conventions of a blog in Passage A. Quote or describe each one. [3]

2. Analyse how the third paragraph (“Today’s score…”) builds the blogger’s persona. [3]

Passage B – infographic (original text written for Marlbridge)

[Layout: a square graphic in green and grey. At the top, in very large green figures, “−25%”. Beneath it, in smaller type, the headline. Below that, four rows of stick-figure icons, one row per way of travelling, each ending in a percentage. Three rows are green; the car row is grey. A pull quote sits in a speech bubble on the right. A thin grey line of small print runs along the bottom.]

−25% Car drop-offs down by a quarter since 2022

How Tamsford gets to school, 2026: Walk 38% · Bus 25% · Car 24% · Cycle 13%

“My legs, my rules.” – Year 9 walker

Source: Tamsford Schools travel survey, March 2026, 1,200 students. Car share in 2022 survey: 32%.

3. Identify the most salient element of Passage B and describe the likely reading path. [2]

4. The car share fell from 32% to 24%.

(a) Show that this is a fall of one quarter, and give the fall in percentage points. [2] (b) Explain why the designer made “−25%” the largest element rather than the fall in percentage points. [2]

5. Evaluate how far the source line supports the headline “Car drop-offs down by a quarter”. [3]

6. Analyse how the colour coding and the pull quote shape the reader’s view of walking and driving. [3]

Passage C – editorial cartoon (original text written for Marlbridge)

[Single-panel cartoon. A town mayor, drawn with an enormous head and a tiny body, cuts a ribbon with giant golden scissors and smiles at the viewer. Behind him, a sign reading “NEW CYCLE LANE” points at a painted strip no wider than a tyre, squeezed between a row of parked cars and a huge lorry labelled “RUSH HOUR”. A cyclist in the strip holds her breath, cheeks puffed out, elbows tucked in.]

Caption: “Mind the gap.”

7. Identify two conventions of an editorial cartoon in Passage C and explain the effect of each. [4]

8. Explain what the reader needs to know for Passage C to work, and how the caption creates irony. [3]

9. A news photograph shows a crowded railway platform at dusk, taken from a high angle, with hundreds of commuters looking up at a departures board. Write two captions that anchor it in opposite ways, and explain how each changes its meaning. [4]

10. Extended task. Plan a guided analysis of Passage B in response to the guiding question: How do the visual and verbal features of the infographic present a success story? Give a thesis and a paragraph plan with evidence. [8]

11. Extended task. Write one analytical paragraph on Passage C in response to the guiding question: How does the cartoon use exaggeration to criticise the new cycle lane? [8]

Answers

1. Any three, one mark each with evidence: a dated post with a numbered title (“Post 40”, “Posted 14 March”) [1]; tags (“commuting, hills, stubbornness”) [1]; a comments section (“23 comments”, “Tell me in the comments”) [1]. Also creditworthy: first-person voice; the embedded photo. Examiner insight: A convention earns credit only with evidence from the passage.

2. The sports-style score “Hill 40, Me 0” turns a daily defeat into a joke, so the blogger seems self-mocking rather than discouraged. [1] “But” pivots to a small gain: the postbox, not the bench. [1] “thirty metres of progress, and I will take it” shows a stubborn, cheerful persona that readers can root for, which fits the tag “stubbornness”. [1] Examiner insight: Strong answers name the persona (self-mocking, stubborn) and tie each quotation to it; weak ones paraphrase the paragraph.

3. The most salient element is the very large green “−25%” at the top. [1] The eye then moves down to the headline, across the icon rows, to the pull quote on the right, and ends at the small grey source line at the bottom. [1] Examiner insight: Salience needs a reason (size, colour, position), not just a name.

4. (a) 32 − 24 = 8, and 8 ÷ 32 = 0.25, so the fall is one quarter (25%). [1] In percentage points the fall is 8 percentage points. [1] (b) “−25%” is a bigger, rounder number than 8, so the change looks larger and more impressive. [1] A single bold figure is also quicker to grasp at a glance, which suits an infographic’s convention of little text. [1] Examiner insight: Commenting on how a figure is framed is analysis; repeating the number is not.

5. The source line adds credibility: it names the survey, the date and a sample of 1,200 students. [1] But it gives the car share (32% to 24%), not the number of drop-offs, and no sample size for 2022, so if pupil numbers changed the headline’s claim about drop-offs may not follow. [1] It is also printed small and grey at the end of the reading path, so few readers will check it; the support is partial. [1] Examiner insight: “Evaluate” needs a judgement that weighs what the source line does and does not support.

6. Walking, bus and cycling rows are green, a colour linked with health and the environment, while the car row alone is grey, which makes driving look dull and out of place. [1] The pull quote “My legs, my rules.” gives walking a young, confident, independent voice. [1] Together, colour and quote present walking as the attractive choice, so the graphic persuades as well as informs. [1] Examiner insight: Link each visual feature to an effect; naming colours alone is description.

7. Any two conventions, with effect, 2 marks each. Caricature: the mayor’s enormous head and tiny body [1] suggest vanity and self-importance, more interest in the photo than the lane. [1] Labels: “NEW CYCLE LANE” and “RUSH HOUR” [1] tell the reader what the objects stand for, so the lorry becomes the danger of peak traffic, not one vehicle. [1] Examiner insight: Each convention needs a precise visual detail and its meaning; naming “exaggeration” without saying what is exaggerated earns little.

8. The reader needs to know that councils open new cycle lanes with ceremonies and that some lanes are criticised as narrow or unsafe. [1] “Mind the gap” is a familiar safety warning about a dangerous space. [1] Here the only gap is the tiny lane itself, so the warning ironically admits the lane is the danger, while the mayor smiles. [1] Examiner insight: Without the context the cartoon assumes, the answer is only description.

9. Model captions, for example: A: “Record crowds as the new timetable proves popular” [1]; B: “Stranded: evening trains cancelled again” [1]. With caption A, the crowd reads as success and the upward gaze as anticipation. [1] With caption B, the same high angle makes the commuters look small and helpless, and the upward gaze reads as waiting in vain. [1] Examiner insight: The marks come from explaining how the words redirect an unchanged image.

10. The real exam is marked holistically against the IB criteria, not point by point. These are indicative points.

Thesis: the infographic presents a success story by making the change look large and walking look attractive, while keeping its limits out of sight. [1]

• P1: salience of “−25%” in large green figures sets a positive frame before any detail. [1]
• P2: framing of the figure: a quarter sounds bigger than 8 percentage points. [1]
• P3: colour coding: green for walking, bus and cycling; grey for the car. [1]
• P4: the pull quote “My legs, my rules.” adds a confident young voice. [1]
• P5: the icon rows let readers compare modes at a glance, with walking longest. [1]
• P6: reading path ends at the small grey source line, which reports shares, not numbers. [1]
• Conclusion: features combine so the graphic persuades while appearing to inform. [1]

Examiner insight: Strong plans are organised by argument; weak plans describe the graphic top to bottom.

11. Marked holistically in the real exam; these are indicative points.

The cartoon uses exaggeration to show the new cycle lane as a publicity stunt rather than real protection. [1] The mayor’s enormous head on a tiny body turns him into a figure of vanity [1], and his smile at the viewer, not at the lane, suggests he cares about being seen. [1] The giant golden scissors inflate a small painted line into a grand occasion. [1] By contrast, the lane is shrunk to a strip “no wider than a tyre” [1], squeezed by a lorry labelled “RUSH HOUR”, so the danger is made as large as the ceremony. [1] The cyclist’s puffed cheeks and tucked elbows make her discomfort physical and slightly comic. [1] Exaggeration works in both directions, enlarging the ceremony and shrinking the safety, so the reader sees the gap between the mayor’s claims and the cyclist’s experience. [1]

Examiner insight: The best paragraphs keep returning to the guiding question’s key word, exaggeration, and explain what each exaggeration criticises.

Where marks are usually lost

• Listing conventions from memory without quoting or describing them in the passage.
• Describing a visual feature (“the colours are green”) without explaining its effect.
• Taking an infographic’s headline figure on trust instead of asking how it is framed.
• Ignoring the source line, or mentioning it without judging what it does and does not support.
• Explaining a cartoon’s picture without the context the reader needs to get the point.
• Treating the caption and the image separately instead of showing how the words anchor the image.
• In extended tasks, following the text in order instead of arguing towards the guiding question.

Next steps

• Revision notes for this unit
• Study guide for this unit
• Paper 1 practice questions and Readers, writers and texts practice
• Language and Literature course hub
• Printable checklist
• All free 10-minute diagnostics
• Book a free trial class

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019).