Introductions to Paper 2 essays often fall short for various reasons. Sometimes they are too long and identify nitty gritty that really should be kept back for the main body or the essay; sometimes they are too short and/or fail to say very much that isn't obvious or self-evident; sometimes they fail to indicate proper understanding of the terms of the question. Some key reminders are presented below along with a range of introductions for discussion.

A question recently posted on this website asked for some guidance on the distinction between the level 4 and 5 descriptors for Language, picking out the difficulty of distinguishing between language that was “carefully chosen” and “effective” (level 5) rather than just being “carefully chosen” (level 4). The person asking the question made the point that “the only way by which we can determine that any language is carefully chosen is by noting the extent to which it is effective,” and so such a distinction was not very helpful when trying to decide which mark to give a student for this criterion. This blog post attempts to elaborate on the answer I gave to the question, while also giving a few samples of writing to illustrate the different levels in this criterion.

Many of the pages on this site are accessible to students, and some are actually addressed to them. The information below explains how to provide your students with the means to use the site; if there are particular pages that are not currently available to them, which you think would be useful, please let us know and we will make them 'student friendly'.

If you are considering a graphic novel for study on the course, we recommend Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It is a text that students find both fascinating and accessible, provoking engaged personal responses and rich analytical explorations. Set in post-revolutionary Iran, it gives an insight into a country and culture many students know little about; however, in its autobiographical portrayal of a young girl growing up and finding her way in a world that she often finds both ridiculous and hostile, students also find a lot that is recognisable, sad and funny.

Getting it right... It is a sad and regrettable thing that each year students across the world receive fewer marks than they deserve in the IOC because their teacher has failed to properly read the Subject Guide and to check that the way they go about the assessment is correct. There are often practical problems, such as failing to make the recording clear, procedural issues such as allowing the...

Marking the IOP can sometimes present difficulties, not least because there tends to be a lot less exemplar material 'out there', and also because it is often a task that individual teachers complete in isolation - making it difficult to moderate. It is important, therefore, to look for sample presentations (such as you will find below and/or on the Teacher Support Material of the OCC), as...

Written Assignment 1: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Reflective Statement: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the Interactive Oral? In the Interactive Oral we looked into subjects varying from the history of the book 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' to the conditions in the labor...

Introduction Students of Higher Level only will find that their Part 2 assessment lasts for a further 10 minutes. Once the Individual Oral Commentary is completed, they are asked to remain in the examination room in order to enter into a discussion about one of the other two works (i.e. not poetry because all Part 2 works must be from a different genre). As its name would suggest, the second part...

Written Assignment 2 Therese Raquin, by Emile Zola Reflective Statement: How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the Interactive Oral? The interactive oral covered a range of issues relevant to the novel’s cultural context. The emergence of the scientific method and positivism as a way of acquiring knowledge was introduced as a key...

The final stage of the process is of course to start writing the actual assignment. As the supervisor of the essay, your role is to provide guidance and support - but to keep in mind at all times that the assignment must be the work of the student. Note that you are only allowed to provide feedback on one written draft, and you must not write notes on the draft itself. Suggestions for improvement...