IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature – Paper 2: The Comparative Essay 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 the Paper 2 comparative essay for IB Diploma Programme Language A: Language and Literature, at SL and HL. It draws on Intertextuality: connecting texts and Time and space. It follows the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021).

Learn the method first with the Paper 2 study guide and the revision notes. Course links: Language and Literature hub · printable checklist.

Model answers use public-domain works: Ibsen, A Doll’s House (1879); Shelley, Frankenstein (1818); Chopin, The Awakening (1899); Owen, Poems (1920). Apply the same moves to your own works.

Questions

Passage A — a student’s draft paragraph (original text written for Marlbridge)

In Frankenstein, Victor is a young scientist who wants to discover the secret of life. He brings the creature to life, but he is horrified and runs away. The creature later kills people Victor loves, so Victor is punished for his ambition. In “Dulce et Decorum Est”, Owen describes soldiers walking away from the front line. There is a gas attack and one man cannot get his mask on in time. The speaker keeps seeing him in his dreams. At the end Owen says the Latin saying is a lie. So both texts show that ideals can be dangerous.

Passage B — two short extracts (original texts written for Marlbridge)

Extract 1, from a poem, “Harbour Wall”

My father built the harbour wall stone over stone, to hold the sea; each winter it gave back a little, each spring he mended it for me.

Extract 2, from a short story, “The Last Shift”

The mill had been shut for eleven years, but Grandmother still woke at five. She dressed in the dark, laced her boots, and sat by the window with her coat on, waiting for a whistle that would not come.

Passage C — two general comparative prompts (original text written for Marlbridge)

(a) In what ways, and to what effect, do two works you have studied present the gap between what a society praises and what individuals experience?

(b) Discuss how two works you have studied use their endings to change the reader’s understanding of what came before.

1. According to the subject brief, state what Paper 2 is based on, how many questions you choose from, how long the paper lasts, and its weighting at SL and at HL. [4]

2. Name the two areas of exploration most directly used in a Paper 2 essay and explain one way each appears in a comparative essay. [4]

3. Unpack Passage C question (a): identify the key term and the two demands the question makes. [3]

4. Using Passage C question (b), show how you would test whether two works fit the question before you commit to it. [4]

5. Identify the main structural weakness of Passage A and three further weaknesses. [5]

6. Rewrite Passage A as one woven comparative paragraph. [6]

7. Passage B: identify a concern the two extracts share and compare how each uses repetition or pattern to present it. Support your answer with quotations. [4]

8. Passage B: compare the effect of the final line of each extract. [3]

9. Plan to write Paper 2 from memory. Name three kinds of evidence, other than long quotations, that you can use, and give a brief example of each. [3]

10. A student writes: “Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1818. Wilfred Owen wrote his poems during the First World War.” Rewrite this as context that explains a difference between the two works. [5]

11. Plan a full answer to Passage C question (a), using two works you have studied. Give a thesis and a point-by-point paragraph plan. [10]

Answers

1. It is a comparative essay based on two literary works [1]. You choose one out of four questions [1]. It lasts 1.75 hours (1 hour 45 minutes) at both levels [1]. It is worth 35% at SL and 25% at HL [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Only literary works count; an essay built on a speech or advert misreads the task.

2. Intertextuality: connecting texts [1] – for example, comparing how each work uses or breaks the conventions of its form [1]. Time and space [1] – context of production or reception explains a difference between the works [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Strong essays use these areas inside the comparison, never as separate sections.

3. Key term: the gap between what a society praises and what individuals experience [1]. “In what ways”: the writers’ methods, such as voice, structure or imagery [1]. “To what effect”: what those methods do to meaning or to the reader [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Answering only “in what ways” produces a list of techniques; the argument lives in “to what effect”.

4. Name an ending from Work A: Frankenstein ends with Victor’s death on Walton’s ship and the creature’s final speech, which makes us rethink who the victim was [1]. Name an ending from Work B: “Dulce et Decorum Est” ends by calling the Latin motto “The old Lie”, turning a memory into an accusation [1]. Check for three comparable points (listener, shift of sympathy, warning) [1]. If they exist, commit; if not, change the question or the pair [1]. [4] Examiner insight: A fit test done in two minutes saves an essay that runs out of comparison halfway.

5. It uses a block structure: all of Frankenstein, then all of Owen [1]. The only comparison comes in the final sentence [1]. It retells plot instead of analysing method [1]. It has no quotation or analysed reference; the gas attack is described, not how Owen presents it [1]. Its final claim, “ideals can be dangerous”, could fit almost any pair of works [1]. [5] Examiner insight: Two good mini-essays joined by one “both” sentence do not meet a comparative task, and summary without analysis of method rarely answers the question.

6. Model paragraph (original writing for Marlbridge):

Both works expose the cost of a glorious ideal through someone who believed in it. Victor tells his story to Walton and warns him “how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge”; the confession form makes scientific glory collapse from the inside. Owen, by contrast, compresses his evidence into one remembered scene: the soldiers march “Bent double, like old beggars under sacks”, a simile that strips away any heroic image. Where Shelley’s warning reaches one listener who can still turn back, Owen turns on “My friend” and every reader, so glorious death is not just regretted but accused of being “The old Lie”.

Indicative points: comparative topic sentence naming both works and one point [1]; precise evidence from Frankenstein [1] with analysis of the confession form [1]; precise evidence from Owen [1] with analysis of the simile [1]; a final comparison of effect (warning versus accusation) [1]. [6] Examiner insight: The strongest woven paragraphs end on the difference in effect, not on a second summary.

7. Shared concern: loyal routine continuing in the face of loss or decay [1]. Extract 1 repeats “each winter … each spring” to create a cycle of damage and repair, so the father’s care seems endless [1]. Extract 2 lists actions, “dressed in the dark, laced her boots”, in a habit that no longer has a purpose [1]. The poem’s pattern suggests care that still works, while the story’s pattern suggests habit outliving its reason [1]. [4] Examiner insight: Naming the device in both texts without comparing its effect stays at identification.

8. Extract 1 ends on “for me”, completing the rhyme with “sea” and turning the wall into a personal gift [1]. Extract 2 ends on “a whistle that would not come”, an image of absence [1]. The poem closes on something kept, the story on something lost: comfort in one, loss in the other [1]. [3] Examiner insight: Endings are high-value evidence in Paper 2 because they are easy to remember precisely and often carry the work’s final judgement.

9. Any three kinds, each with an example. A precise reference to a moment: Victor abandons the creature straight after bringing it to life [1]. Structural placement: A Doll’s House ends with a door closing offstage [1]. A recurring image: the sea in The Awakening [1]. Also accept a feature of form or a short quotation (“The old Lie”). [3] Examiner insight: An accurate paraphrase of a key moment is stronger evidence than a misremembered quotation in inverted commas.

10. Model rewrite (original writing for Marlbridge): “Shelley’s 1818 novel, written for readers fascinated by new science, delivers its warning slowly through layers of narrators. Owen, an officer who had fought at the front, aims at readers at home who still heard the war praised, so his poem is short, direct and angry. Readers today, knowing the war’s losses, may hear his accusation as confirmed rather than shocking.”

Indicative points: production context of Frankenstein [1] linked to its method (layers of narrators) [1]; production context of Owen [1] linked to his method (short, direct address) [1]; a point about reception today [1]. [5] Examiner insight: Dates alone earn little; context counts when it is tied to a choice the writer made.

11. Model plan using A Doll’s House and The Awakening.

Thesis: Both works show a society that praises the devoted wife and mother while the woman inside that role feels increasingly false; Ibsen exposes the gap through dramatic irony and a final argument, while Chopin traces it through narration close to Edna and images of the sea [1].

Paragraph	Point	A Doll’s House	The Awakening
1	What society praises	Torvald’s pet names for Nora (a lark, a squirrel) [1]	Chopin’s label “mother-women” for the women around Edna [1]
2	The hidden experience	the audience knows of Nora’s secret loan, so every compliment is ironic [1]	Edna learns to swim and feels a new sense of herself [1]
3	How form shapes the gap	a stage debate, heard in public	third-person narration close to Edna’s thoughts [1]
4	Endings	Nora leaves; the door closes offstage [1]	Edna swims out into the sea; a bird with a broken wing [1]

Time and space: both works provoked hostile reactions when first published or staged; readers today may side with the woman more readily [1]. Structure: point by point, ending on what the comparison shows – the same gap looks like argument on stage and like solitude in narration [1]. [10]

The real exam is marked holistically against the IB assessment criteria, not point by point; your teacher will share the criteria. These points show what a strong plan contains. Examiner insight: A plan in which every row has both works is already comparative; a plan that gives each work its own half of the essay is not.

Where marks are usually lost

• Block structure: one half per work, with the only comparison in the last sentence.
• A thesis without the question’s key term, so paragraphs drift into general discussion of the works.
• Treating “in what ways” and “to what effect” as one demand and answering only the first.
• Plot summary in place of analysis of method.
• Uneven evidence: close quotation for one work and vague recall for the other.
• Context stated as dates and facts, never linked to a writer’s choice.
• Choosing a question for one work and forcing the second to fit.

Next steps

• Paper 2 revision notes
• Paper 2 study guide
• 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). All passages, questions and model answers here are original writing for Marlbridge.