Educerie · IB Diploma · English A: Language and Literature

Paper 1 — Guided textual analysis

Paper 1 style, standard level · 20 marks · 75 minutes

Write a guided analysis of the following text. Your analysis must address the guiding question.

Guiding question: How does the writer use structure and tone to position the reader in relation to the argument?

### Text — opinion column (original text, written for Educerie; the publication, author and campaign are invented)

THE HARBOUR REVIEW · Opinion Nobody asked for the lights by Ruth Calloway

Let me be clear at the outset that I am not against progress. I want that on the record, because the moment anyone raises a question about the harbour scheme they are told they are against progress, and I have watched three neighbours stop coming to meetings rather than be told it again.

The proposal is for eleven illuminated installations along the north quay. The consultation ran for six weeks. It was advertised on a website, in a font I could not read without help, during the fortnight in August when half the town is away. Two hundred and forty people responded, out of eleven thousand. The council describes this as strong support.

I have lived here for forty-one years. In that time I have been consulted about a car park, a bypass and a bin collection schedule, and on each occasion the consultation confirmed a decision already taken. I am not suggesting anything improper. I am suggesting something more ordinary and harder to fix: that the people who design consultations and the people who answer them are not the same people, and increasingly do not know one another.

So no, I am not against the lights. I would probably quite like the lights. I am against being told, by a process I could not find, in a font I could not read, that I have already agreed to them.

Write a guided analysis of the text above. [20]

Total: 20 marks

How this is assessed. Four criteria, five marks each: A understanding and interpretation, B analysis and evaluation, C focus and organisation, D language. Establish purpose, audience and producer before analysing features — an analysis organised as a tour of techniques will cap criterion C.

Educerie · original assessment written against the published IB syllabus structure for Language A: Language and Literature, amended guide, first assessment 2026. The column, its author and the publication are entirely invented for this material. Last reviewed 5 September 2026.