HLE again

 What has been done before:

1) 24 May 2022 double lesson (hopefully you have your notes)

2) PhilpotNew U7 pp 300-304-319 (including two examples with assessors' comments)

3) PhilpotNew p xix + marking scale for HLE: pp xxvii-xxviii

4) 18 May 2022 blog post

5) Tera HLE folder: this is what is there at the moment, most of it since the year 2020 (some more might be added)

6) Today:

https://ibenglishguys.com/higher-level-essay/

(HLE from start to finish)

The Higher Level Essay (=HLE)

The Higher Level Essay is a 1200-1500 word essay completed internally but externally assessed by an examiner.  It is a processed piece of writing that is completed over time and with guidance from the teacher.

You may write about a non-literary text or texts studied as part of the course. Alternatively, you may write about a literary work studied as part of the course.  You may select any texts or works already studied as part of the course, but texts and works used for the internal assessment (IO) are not acceptable choices. Neither may you use texts intended for Paper 2.

Where you to decide to focus on non-literary texts, and consult a number of texts, it is important that these texts are of the same text type, and that the texts are the work of one writer or producer. Also, at least one of the texts must have been studied in class as part of the course. You may base your essay on texts or works in translation. These should be professional translations. Texts and works in other languages that have not been translated are inappropriate.

The HLE must be your own work and thinking.  There cannot be prescribed topics or titles.   

To reiterate:

The HLE is a 1200-1500 word formal, academic essay.

The HLE is a processed essay and will take time to develop.

The HLE is based on work(s) or text(s) studied in the course.

You select your own topic, title, line of inquiry and thesis although the teacher can guide and support you.

You cannot base your essay on any work or text that was used for the Individual Oral or that will be used for Paper 2.

It is not a requirement to use or consult secondary sources.

Looking at any text from different perspectives

Any text can be looked at from different perspectives, and analysed as is suitable towards different IB aims.

Paper 1: 

Take a careful look at assessment criteria A and B, and consider how you would approach this particular text in light of the requirements of these criteria. Identify the text type and its characteristics. (See the characteristics of the text as listed in the subject guide.) You also need to be able to analyze a text to see the extent to which it follows the characteristics of the text type, or subverts them. If an advertisement, for example, does not clearly identify the product, consider the reasons why that choice was made and think about the intended effect on the audience. 

Individual oral: 

Look at criteria A and B for the IO. There are some similarities between the criteria in the IO and those in Paper 1 but the IO also requires students to make connections between extracts from a literary work and non-literary body of work (BOW). The IO must make connections with the global issue (=GI) that the student has chosen, so it is advisable to consider how a text is linked to different global issues.

HL essay:

This is an in-depth analysis of a non-literary BOW or a literary work the student has studied in class. Imagine this text is from a non-literary body of work and consider possible approaches you could take with the 1200-1500 word HL essay. This could include evaluating connections between this text and the seven central concepts in DP Language A Language and Literature.