IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Paper 1: Guided Analysis of Non-Literary Texts Study Guide

This study guide teaches the method for Paper 1: guided textual analysis in 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). The skills it uses come from two of the course’s three areas of exploration, Readers, writers and texts and Time and space, so this page maps to both. It is about method: how to read an unseen non-literary text, plan, structure and time an analysis that answers the guiding question.

Use it with the Paper 1 revision notes and the Paper 1 practice questions. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist. For the whole course and all four components, see the syllabus guide, the subject guide, the assessment revision notes and the exam preparation guide.

What this unit covers

From the subject brief	What you must be able to do	SL/HL
Paper 1: guided analysis of an unseen non-literary passage or passages “from different text types”	Analyse a text you have never seen before, under exam conditions	SL and HL
Time: 1.25 hours at SL, 2.25 hours at HL	Read, plan, write and check inside the time	Different lengths
Weighting: 35% of the final grade	–	Same at SL and HL
Objective: know “features of particular text types and literary forms”	Name the text type and use its conventions in your analysis	SL and HL
Objective: know “contexts in which texts are written and/or received”	Say who produced the text, for whom, where and when, and why that matters	SL and HL
Objective: analyse “ways in which the use of language creates meaning”	Explain effects, not just label devices	SL and HL
Objective: communicate “ideas in clear, logical and persuasive ways”	Write a structured, argued analysis	SL and HL

The brief says “passage/passages”. Your teacher will tell you how many passages you write about at your level and show you the paper’s exact layout in specimen material, including how the analysis is guided. This page assumes a guiding question that points you to one aspect of the text. Your teacher will also share the assessment criteria; this page does not quote them.

What “non-literary” means here

A non-literary text is written to do a job: sell, inform, warn, persuade, commemorate. The brief says the passages come “from different text types”, so expect variety: adverts, opinion columns, speeches, infographics, web pages, leaflets, open letters, blogs. Many are multimodal: they combine words with images, layout, colour and typography, and you must analyse those too.

Paper 1 uses skills from two areas of exploration at once:

• Readers, writers and texts: how the text is built to act on a particular reader. See the Readers, writers and texts study guide.
• Time and space: how the moment and place of production and reception shape meaning. See the Time and space study guide.

Step 1: read the guiding question first

Read the guiding question before the passage and underline its key words. They tell you what to look for, so your first reading is already aimed. Your whole answer, from first sentence to last, should respond to it.

Step 2: read the passage three times

Each reading has a different job.

Reading	Your job	What you write
1. Gist	Work out text type, audience, purpose and context	Four short notes at the top of the page
2. Evidence	Find features that answer the guiding question	Underlining and margin notes on effect
3. Argument	Decide what the features add up to	One sentence: your thesis

On the second reading, look in four places:

• Language: word choice and connotation, register (formal or informal), pronouns (“you”, “we”, “our”), sentence types (imperatives, questions, fragments), rhetorical patterns (lists of three, repetition, contrast).
• Structure: the order of ideas, headings, where the text turns, how it opens and closes.
• Visual features: image, what the eye is drawn to first, layout, white space, font size, colour.
• Context: who produced the text, where it appeared, when, and who it assumes its reader is.

Annotate for effect. “Imperative” is a label; “imperative: makes the job feel simple and theirs” is the start of a paragraph.

Worked example

Original text written for Marlbridge – community web page

[Layout: a wide banner photograph shows an older man and a teenage girl bent over a toaster, both laughing. Beneath it are three short sections, each with a bold heading in large type.]

The Saturday Fix – Brackwell Community Hall, every Saturday, 10am to 1pm

Broken? Bring it. Kettles, lamps, zips, bikes, the radio your grandmother loved. If it used to work, we want to meet it.

Who fixes it? You do. Our volunteers don’t take your things away and hand them back. They sit beside you and show you how. You leave with your lamp working and a skill you didn’t have when you arrived.

Why bother? Because “throw it away” doesn’t mean it goes away. It means it goes somewhere else. Last year, Saturday Fix visitors mended 412 items that would otherwise have been thrown out.

Tea is free. Biscuits are free. Advice is free. The only thing we ask you to leave behind is the idea that broken means finished.

Guiding question: How does the text encourage its readers to take part?

Reading 1: gist notes

Type:     community web page (multimodal: photo + headed sections)
Audience: local residents of Brackwell, any age, not experts
Purpose:  persuade them to come on a Saturday and bring broken items
Context:  local, voluntary, free; set against a throwaway habit

Reading 2: evidence notes

• The headings are questions and answers (“Broken? Bring it.”). They answer the reader’s doubts before the reader can raise them.
• “Who fixes it? You do.” turns the reader from customer into repairer.
• The list “Kettles, lamps, zips, bikes” moves from ordinary objects to an emotional one, “the radio your grandmother loved”.
• “we want to meet it” personifies the objects, which makes the café sound friendly, not technical.
• The photograph pairs an older man and a teenager, so the image shows the mixed ages it invites.
• The final paragraph repeats “free” three times, then turns to a bigger idea: “broken means finished”.

Reading 3: thesis

The web page encourages participation by removing every obstacle a reader might imagine, from cost to lack of skill, and then by redefining the reader as someone who can fix things.

The thesis answers the question and gives a structure: obstacles first, identity second.

Step 3: plan in five minutes

Plan by idea, not by device and not line by line. Each body paragraph makes one claim that answers the guiding question, then uses two or three features as evidence.

Thesis: removes obstacles, then redefines the reader as a fixer.
P1  Obstacles answered in advance: question-answer headings,
    "Tea is free. Biscuits are free. Advice is free."
P2  Reader made active: "Who fixes it? You do.", second person,
    "a skill you didn't have when you arrived".
P3  Emotional and communal appeal: "the radio your grandmother
    loved", photo of two generations laughing.
P4  Bigger purpose: "throw it away" doesn't mean it goes away;
    closing line "broken means finished" -> wider value.

In 75 minutes, three strong paragraphs beat five thin ones.

Step 4: structure the analysis

Introduction

Keep it short, three or four sentences. Name the text type, audience, purpose and context, then give your thesis.

This web page advertises a free community repair café to residents of the small town of Brackwell. Its purpose is to persuade readers who may feel unskilled to give up a Saturday morning and bring a broken object. The page encourages participation by removing every obstacle a reader might imagine, from cost to lack of skill, and then by redefining the reader as someone who can fix things.

Body paragraphs

Each paragraph follows the same pattern: claim → evidence → effect → link.

1. Claim: a sentence that answers the guiding question.
2. Evidence: a short quotation, embedded in your own sentence, or a precise visual detail.
3. Effect: what the feature does to the reader, and why the writer wants that effect.
4. Link: tie the paragraph back to the guiding question.

A model paragraph:

The page turns its reader from a customer into a participant. The heading “Who fixes it? You do.” answers its own question in two words, and the reply is surprising, because a reader expects a repair service to repair. The second person “you” is repeated through the section, and the volunteers are placed “beside” the visitor rather than behind a counter. The promise that visitors leave with “a skill you didn’t have when you arrived” offers a gain that lasts longer than one mended lamp. By making the reader the fixer, the page makes taking part feel like a small achievement rather than a favour asked of them.

It never names a device and stops, and never retells the passage. Every quotation is short and sits inside a sentence of analysis.

Conclusion

Two or three sentences, no new evidence. Say how the features work together, and why the approach suits this audience, place and moment.

The page works because every feature points the same way: cost, skill and worth are each dealt with before the reader can object. Its final line widens a Saturday repair session into a challenge to the habit of throwing things away.

Step 5: manage your time

The brief sets 1 hour 15 minutes at SL and 2 hours 15 minutes at HL. A workable split for one analysis in 75 minutes:

Stage	Time
Guiding question and three readings	15 min
Thesis and plan	5 min
Introduction	5 min
Three body paragraphs	40 min
Conclusion	5 min
Check quotations and links to the question	5 min
Total	75 min

If your paper asks you to write about more than one passage in the HL time, divide the 135 minutes evenly: roughly 65 minutes per analysis, with 5 minutes spare. Plan each analysis separately. Do not start the second passage until the first has a conclusion.

Text-type conventions worth knowing

“Features of particular text types” are part of the objectives, so use the conventions of the type as evidence.

Text type	Conventions to comment on
Advert	slogan, image, brand name placement, direct address, call to action
Opinion column	headline, standfirst, personal voice, anecdote, counter-argument, closing punch
Speech	direct address to the audience, repetition, lists of three, reference to the occasion
Infographic	headline figure, icons, colour coding, reading path, source line
Web page	banner image, headings, short sections, links and buttons
Leaflet or poster	hierarchy of type sizes, bullet points, logo, small print

Common errors

• Answering a different question. A tour of every feature, with no thesis about the guiding question, reads as a list.
• Labelling without effect. “The writer uses a rhetorical question” earns little until you say what it makes the reader think or feel.
• Long quotations. Three copied lines hide which words matter. Quote a few words.
• Ignoring the visuals. On a multimodal text, skipping the image or layout leaves out half the evidence.
• Forgetting context. The audience, place and moment explain why a feature works. This is the Time and space link.
• Running out of time. A missing conclusion is a planning failure. Keep to your split.

Where to go next

Test yourself with the revision notes, then try the practice questions. Related: Readers, writers and texts revision notes and the Time and space revision notes.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: language and literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019). The passage and model answers on this page are original texts written for Marlbridge.