IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature – Paper 2: The Comparative Essay Revision Notes

For full explanations and a model paragraph, use the Paper 2 study guide. These notes condense the Paper 2 comparative essay for IB Diploma Programme Language A: Literature, SL and HL, for the final weeks before the exam. They cover two areas of exploration, Intertextuality: connecting texts and Time and space. They follow the current IB subject brief (first assessments for SL and HL 2021).

Then test yourself with the Paper 2 practice questions. Course links: Literature course hub · printable checklist · assessment revision notes · Intertextuality revision notes.

Examples use two public-domain works: Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), and Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (book edition 1891).

Paper 2 facts (from the subject brief)

	SL	HL
Task	comparative essay based on two literary works	same
Choice	one out of four questions	same
Time	1.75 hours (105 minutes)	1.75 hours (105 minutes)
Weighting	35%	25%

Plan to write from memory. Your teacher will confirm the exam rules and which works you may use.

A timing plan (a suggestion, not an IB rule)

Stage	Minutes
Read all four questions, sort them, fit-test two pairs, choose	5
Thesis, point-by-point plan, jot a quotation cluster for each point	15
Introduction, four body paragraphs, final paragraph	75
Check key terms, quotations and balance	10
Total	105

Method in steps: from question to plan

1. Sort the question: human concern, craft feature, or readers and contexts (or a mix).
2. Underline the key terms. Every body paragraph must use at least one.
3. Find the double demand: “how” and “to what effect”; similarity and difference.
4. Fit-test: one precise moment from each work per key term. Fewer than three comparable points means change the pair or the question.
5. Thesis, then three or four points, each with evidence from both works.

Thesis checks

A Paper 2 thesis passes all four:

1. It uses the question’s own key terms.
2. It names both works.
3. It contains a “but”, “while” or “whereas”: a shared claim and a difference.
4. It says to what effect, so a reasonable reader could disagree.

Pattern: Both A and B present [key term] as [shared claim], but where A [method] so that [effect], B [method] so that [effect].

Paragraph moves (the hinged paragraph)

1. Comparative topic sentence: both works, one point, linked to the question.
2. Work A: precise evidence, method named, effect explained.
3. Work B: precise evidence joined by a comparative connective.
4. Hinge: what the difference (or likeness) in method shows.
5. Link back to the thesis.

Intro in 4–5 sentences: define the key term for this essay, name each work with author, form and date, thesis, preview. Final paragraph: answer the question in one sentence, return to the biggest difference, no new evidence.

Worked reminder: topic sentences

Question (original, written for Marlbridge): “Discuss how two works you have studied present a character who cannot escape the consequences of an earlier choice.”

• Weak: “Jekyll makes a bad choice.” (one work, no comparison, no key term)
• Better: “Jekyll and Dorian both suffer for an earlier choice.” (both works, no method)
• Strong: “Jekyll and Dorian both try to escape an earlier choice, but Stevenson lets Jekyll explain it in his own final statement, while Wilde shows the consequences mainly on the portrait, so one consequence is confessed and the other is seen.”

The strong version gives the paragraph its evidence (the statement; the portrait) and its hinge (confessed versus seen).

Connectives by job

Job	Connectives
Likeness	similarly, in the same way, likewise, both …
Difference	whereas, while, by contrast, unlike, where A …, B …
Qualification	although, yet, even so, at first … but later
Consequence	so, therefore, as a result, this means

A connective signals a comparison; it does not make one. The hinge sentence (move 4) does.

Remembered quotation: the rules

• Short: three to ten words where possible.
• Located: know the speaker or narrator and roughly where it falls in the work.
• Tagged: one technique and one concern for each quotation.
• Clustered: learn quotations in groups that serve several possible questions.
• Tested: cover, write from memory, check every word, repeat after a few days.
• Honest: unsure of the words? Paraphrase precisely, without quotation marks.
• Embedded: fit the quotation into your sentence’s grammar and comment on it.

A mini bank for recall practice

Quotation or reference	Work	Speaker / place	Technique
“lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable”	Jekyll and Hyde	narrator on Utterson, opening	listing, alliteration
“If he be Mr. Hyde … I shall be Mr. Seek.”	Jekyll and Hyde	Utterson, early	pun
“the lamps glimmered like carbuncles”	Jekyll and Hyde	narrator, London in fog	simile, setting
“If it were I who was to be always young”	Dorian Gray	Dorian, before the portrait	wish, turning point
“It was a poisonous book.”	Dorian Gray	narrator, on the yellow book	metaphor
Dorian stabs the portrait; the servants find an old man dead	Dorian Gray	ending	reversal (reference)

Time and space in one sentence

Pattern: Because [work] was written for/in [context], its [method] [effect], whereas [other work] [method] [effect].

Example: Because Wilde’s novel met accusations of immorality in 1890, the 1891 Preface insists “All art is quite useless”, whereas Stevenson gives readers a case to solve through a lawyer’s investigation.

Must-know distinctions

• Topic vs method. “Both are about secrets” compares topics. “Stevenson withholds the secret until two written statements at the end, while Wilde shows it changing on the canvas as it happens” compares methods. Paper 2 rewards the second.
• Block vs integrated. Block: half the essay on each work. Integrated: both works in every body paragraph.
• Quotation vs reference vs paraphrase. A quotation uses the exact words in quotation marks. A reference points precisely to a moment. A paraphrase gives the sense in your own words. All three are evidence; only the first needs to be word-perfect.
• Context that explains vs context that decorates. Explaining context answers “why does this work do it this way?”; decorative context could be cut without loss.
• Likeness vs difference. A question that asks “in what ways” still expects both; a thesis with no difference has little to argue.

Quick self-test

1. What does the subject brief say Paper 2 is based on?
2. How long is Paper 2, and is it the same at SL and HL?
3. What are the Paper 2 weightings at SL and at HL?
4. Name the three ways of sorting a question used in these notes.
5. What is the “double demand” in “How, and to what effect, …”?
6. Give the four thesis checks.
7. What does the hinge sentence in a body paragraph do?
8. You remember that Utterson says something about “Mr. Seek” but not the exact words. What should you do?
9. Rewrite as an embedded quotation: Dorian wishes to stay young. “If it were I who was to be always young”. This is important.
10. Is “Stevenson was Scottish and wrote in the 1880s” useful context? Why or why not?
11. What should a final paragraph do, and what should it avoid?

Answers

1. Two literary works: a comparative essay based on them, written in response to one of four questions.
2. 1.75 hours (1 hour 45 minutes) at both levels.
3. 35% at SL; 25% at HL.
4. Human concern; feature of craft; readers and contexts.
5. Methods (how) and their effect (what they do to the reader’s understanding). Both must be answered.
6. Uses the question’s key terms; names both works; contains a difference (“but”, “while”, “whereas”); says to what effect, so it is arguable.
7. It states what the difference or likeness in method shows, turning two pieces of evidence into a comparison.
8. Paraphrase precisely without quotation marks, for example: Utterson resolves to hunt Hyde down, punning on the name “Hyde”.
9. For example: Standing before the finished portrait, Dorian wishes that “it were I who was to be always young”, a wish that sets the plot in motion and turns the painting into the one thing that ages.
10. Not on its own. It becomes useful only if linked to a method or a difference between the works, for example how the narrative’s lawyer and documents suit a society of professional reputation.
11. Answer the question directly and return to the most significant difference; avoid new evidence and a point-by-point repeat of the introduction.

Where marks are usually lost

• A thesis that restates the question or names a topic without a claim.
• Half the double demand ignored: methods listed with no effect, or likeness with no difference.
• Body paragraphs about one work each, with “similarly” as the only link.
• One work supported by exact quotations, the other by plot summary.
• Misquotation, including merging two separate quotations into one.
• Quotations dropped in without comment, or not fitting the grammar of the sentence.
• A prepared essay forced onto a question it does not answer.
• Context paragraphs of biography that explain nothing about either work’s methods.
• A final paragraph that only repeats the introduction.

Official syllabus

International Baccalaureate Organization, Diploma Programme Subject Brief, Language A: literature, first assessments for SL and HL 2021 (2019). Examples and self-test items are original writing for Marlbridge; quotations are from public-domain editions of Stevenson (1886) and Wilde (1891).