IB English A: Literature

1. The first read: situation, speaker, shift

Learning goal: Use a three-question first read on an unseen passage.

Under time pressure, a fixed first read prevents panic. Ask three questions: what is happening (situation), who is speaking and to whom (speaker), and where does the tone or direction change (shift). Write one line for each in the margin.

The shift is often the key to the whole passage: a change from description to reflection, from certainty to doubt, or from one image to another. Mark it before analysing details, because later observations should connect to it.

Only after those questions should you list features. A feature that sits at the shift deserves more attention than one in the middle of a stable stretch.

A good first read also decides what not to do. Do not start by hunting for a device, and do not retell the passage. A retelling shows that you have understood the surface, but it earns little because the task is to explain how the writing makes its effects. Keep your three margin lines short so that they stay useful.

Next, turn the three answers into a working claim. For example: the passage moves from confidence to doubt, and the writer uses its form to enact that change. This claim will guide every choice you make later, because each quotation you select must help to support it. If a detail does not connect, leave it out. The sample passages in this course are invented for teaching, so practise the same routine on short unseen texts from your own class.

A last habit is to number your three answers and refer to them in your plan, so that the margin notes become the skeleton of your essay.

Worked example

Poem: 'I counted the stairs as a child: twelve, always twelve. Now the house is sold and the stairs are someone else's. I could not say how many.' Find the shift.

1. Situation: a speaker recalls counting stairs.
2. Early lines are certain: 'twelve, always twelve'.
3. The final line reverses the certainty: 'I could not say how many'.
4. The shift is from certainty to loss of memory, which mirrors loss of the house.

Mental model: Find the shift, then connect features to it.

Common trap: Listing devices with no overall movement.

2. Line endings: enjambment and the pressure of a pause

Learning goal: Read line breaks as meaning.

An end-stopped line finishes a unit of sense, often with punctuation. An enjambed line runs on, so the reader's momentum meets the physical break. The pause can create hesitation, surprise or a double meaning where the line seems to stop before the next line changes it.

The last word of a line is especially stressed. If a line ends on 'still', the reader briefly hears the adjective before the next line adds what is still. Analysis should quote the line ending and explain the effect.

Do not claim enjambment is always speed or always hesitation. Say what it does here.

A line ending is a choice. When a sentence runs over the end of a line, the reader makes a small pause and then moves on, and the pause can hold a thought in suspense. When the line ends exactly where the sentence ends, the effect is of closure or restraint. Both are neutral facts until you connect them to meaning.

To write about this well, quote the words on either side of the break and describe what the reader does. For instance: the line breaks after the word 'before', so the reader waits for what comes next, which mirrors the speaker's reluctance. Avoid claiming that enjambment always means speed or flow. Test each case against the content, and say what the break adds that a prose sentence would not. Also notice where a line is very short, since a short line leaves white space and can feel like silence.

As a check, read the passage once with the line breaks removed and once as printed. The difference between the two readings is the effect of the breaks, and that difference is what you describe in your answer.

Worked example

Poem: 'The kettle clicks and the house / holds its breath. A coat / hangs on the door, still / waiting for a shoulder.' Count the enjambed lines.

1. Line 1 ends without punctuation and the sense continues: enjambed.
2. Line 2 also continues onto 'hangs': enjambed.
3. Line 3 ends on 'still' and continues: enjambed.
4. Line 4 ends with a full stop: end-stopped. Count: 3.

Mental model: Quote the line ending, then explain its effect.

Common trap: Calling enjambment 'flowing' without meaning.

3. Narrative perspective: who sees, who speaks

Learning goal: Separate narrator, focaliser and implied reader.

The narrator is the voice telling; the focaliser is the consciousness through which events are seen. They can be the same (first person) or different (a third-person narrator limited to one character's thoughts).

Distance changes intimacy. Free indirect style blends narrator and character voice without quotation marks, so the reader sometimes cannot tell whose judgement it is. That ambiguity can be the point.

Unreliable narration appears when the text gives evidence that the narrator misjudges or hides something. Use textual contradictions, not your own suspicion.

Narrative perspective governs what the reader can know. A first-person narrator may be honest, mistaken or deceiving, and the reader often has to decide. A third-person narrator may be limited to one character's thoughts or may know everything. Name the point of view, then ask what is gained and what is hidden by it.

A useful test is to rewrite one sentence from another viewpoint and see what changes. If a nervous character narrates, the room feels threatening; if an outside narrator describes the same room, it may feel ordinary. The difference shows the effect of the choice. Be careful with the implied reader: this is the reader the text seems to expect, shown by what it explains and what it assumes. Do not confuse the narrator with the author, since the author makes choices about the narrator. Use phrases such as the narrator suggests, not the author feels.

When two narrators describe the same event, compare what each notices and leaves out. The gaps between the accounts are usually the best evidence of how perspective shapes what the reader believes.

Worked example

Sentence: 'She straightened the cushions. Surely no one could object to a tidy room.' Is the second sentence narrator or character?

1. The first sentence is plain narration.
2. The second uses 'Surely', a character-like thought.
3. There are no quotation marks.
4. It is free indirect style, blending voices.

Mental model: Name whose view it is before analysing the effect.

Common trap: Assuming first person means unreliable.

4. Imagery and symbols: from 'represents' to 'does'

Learning goal: Analyse the function of a recurring image.

An image becomes meaningful when it recurs or changes. A lesson on a single sea metaphor is weak; tracing how the sea first soothes, then threatens, then recedes shows a development the text may be arguing.

'Symbolises' is a lazy verb if it ends the sentence. Say what the image does: it connects two settings, it shows a character's fear, it tests an idea of freedom.

Multiple readings can coexist, but each needs evidence from the text.

A recurring image earns attention because repetition is a signal. When a writer returns to an image such as light, water or a locked door, ask how its meaning is changing, not only what it stands for. A symbol that means the same thing each time adds little; one that shifts, reverses or breaks creates an argument.

Track the image through the passage in order: first appearance, complication, change, last use. Then write a sentence that states the development, such as: the window begins as a view of freedom, but by the end it is only glass. Support each stage with a short quotation. Remember that your reading should come from the words on the page and not from a fixed list of what symbols mean. Where an image is unusual, say what is surprising about it and what that does to the reader's expectation.

If an image appears only once, give it less weight and say so. A claim about a pattern needs at least two or three appearances, and honest limits make an argument more convincing than a large claim on thin evidence.

Worked example

An image of an open window appears three times: first inviting air, then letting in cold, then closed. What pattern does it show?

1. Appearance 1: invitation.
2. Appearance 2: threat.
3. Appearance 3: shutting out.
4. The pattern is a shift from openness to retreat.

Mental model: Trace an image's development before naming its meaning.

Common trap: Stopping at 'symbolises'.

5. Drama on the page: stage directions and dramatic irony

Learning goal: Use the performance dimension in analysis.

A play is written for performance. Stage directions, pauses and silences are evidence. A pause between two lines may carry more meaning than a speech.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something a character does not. It turns a harmless line into a threat or a joke into a warning, and you can describe it as a gap between what a character says and what the audience understands.

Write about the effect on an audience, not only the text: what do we expect, fear or notice?

Drama is written to be performed, so analysis can use the performance dimension. Stage directions, entrances, silences and gestures are part of the meaning. Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows something that a character does not, which makes ordinary lines carry a second meaning.

When you write about a play, say what an audience would see or hear and what it would feel. For example, a long silence after a question can show a character's refusal without any words. Be careful to claim only what the text supports; a stage direction in the script is evidence, but an imagined production is not. Link each point to a purpose, such as building tension, showing power between characters, or preparing a later reversal. A short quotation plus a note on staging is often enough for a strong paragraph.

Note also what an actor must decide: where to stand, how fast to speak and when to look away. Each of these decisions is open to interpretation, so present your reading as a reasoned suggestion backed by the words of the script.

Worked example

The audience has seen a letter hidden in a drawer. A character later says 'There's nothing to hide.' Explain the irony in one sentence.

1. The audience knows about the letter.
2. The character claims there is nothing hidden.
3. The statement contradicts what the audience knows.
4. The line becomes ironic and signals concealment.

Mental model: Describe what an audience sees, knows and expects.

Common trap: Treating a play like a novel.

6. A paragraph of guided analysis

Learning goal: Write claim, quotation, effect and link under time pressure.

The official brief describes Paper 1 as a guided analysis of an unseen literary passage or passages; SL lasts 1 hour 15 minutes and HL 2 hours 15 minutes, and the paper counts 35 percent of the final grade at both levels. A paragraph from such an answer should do four things in order: claim, evidence, effect, link.

A claim is about how the text works, not what it says. Evidence is a short quotation. Effect explains the response it invites. The link ties the paragraph to the guiding question or the next paragraph.

Practise with a timer on one paragraph at a time, then assemble.

Timed analysis rewards a fixed paragraph pattern. Begin with a claim about the passage, add a short quotation, explain the effect on the reader, and finish with a link to the wider meaning or the guiding question. This pattern keeps the paragraph from drifting into description.

Check each paragraph with a quick test: could someone remove the quotation and still know your argument? If so, the claim is clear. Could they remove the explanation and still understand the effect? If so, you have only described. Vary the openings of your paragraphs, and use precise verbs such as suggests, contrasts, delays and undercuts instead of shows each time. In the real paper, check the official page for the current time and the guiding question, and keep a minute at the end to read your last paragraph again.

After writing, underline your verbs of analysis. If most are shows or uses, replace some with exact ones such as hesitates, softens or withholds, and notice how the paragraph gains precision.

Worked example

Classify: (1) The poem has two stanzas. (2) The second stanza's shorter lines make the voice falter. (3) It mentions a house. (4) The word 'falter' echoes the broken counting. Which sentences are analysis?

1. Sentence 1 states form only.
2. Sentence 2 states an effect.
3. Sentence 3 names content.
4. Sentence 4 links a word to an idea; analysis sentences are 2 and 4.

Mental model: Claim, short quote, effect, link.

Common trap: Naming content and calling it analysis.

7. The comparative essay: choose pairings that talk to each other

Learning goal: Select works and a line of argument for Paper 2.

The brief describes Paper 2 as a comparative essay on two literary works studied, answering one of four questions; it counts 35 percent at SL and 25 percent at HL, and lasts 1 hour 45 minutes at both levels. You choose which two works to compare for the question you pick, so preparing pairings flexibly is an advantage.

A good pairing shares a concern but differs in method, such as how two novels handle silence but with different narrators. Without a shared concern, the essay has nothing to link.

Plan an argument that moves between works in every paragraph, with an overall judgement about how the works differ in method.

The comparative essay asks you to build an argument across two works. The pairing matters, because two works that speak to each other give you much more to say than two that only share a theme. Look for a shared question that both works answer differently, such as how each treats power, memory or silence.

A strong plan has a line of argument first and then one point per paragraph, with both works in each paragraph. Say how each writer treats the point and what difference the choice makes. Do not write one half on each work. Note that the brief says the essay is based on two works written in response to a choice of one out of four questions, so you need flexible pairings that can answer several kinds of question. Practise the same two works against different past questions.

Worked example

A question asks how writers use setting to show isolation. Which pairing of works fits: A) both foreground a bleak setting but differ in narration; B) one has a setting, one is a character study; C) two plot summaries? Enter 1 for A, 2 for B, 3 for C.

1. Check the shared concern: setting and isolation.
2. A has both works engaging setting.
3. A also gives a method difference to compare.
4. Choose A (1).

Mental model: Choose pairings by concern and method.

Common trap: Choosing by plot similarity.

8. Context that explains, not context that lectures

Learning goal: Use context only where it explains a choice in the text.

Context includes when and where a work was written and received. It earns credit when it helps explain a specific choice. A biographical paragraph that never touches the text is a lecture.

Use a two-step move: 'The author wrote during X, which makes the repeated image of Y significant because...' The context should sharpen interpretation, not replace it.

Different readers may respond differently depending on their own context; noting that can enrich an argument.

Context can help a reader to understand a choice, but it should not take over the essay. A short note on the time or place of writing is useful when it explains why a word, form or image is used. A long paragraph of history with no link to the text is not analysis.

Use this rule: every contextual point must be followed by a textual example and an explanation of the choice. Say, for example, that a writer's use of a certain form responded to the expectations of readers at the time, and then show where it appears. Avoid broad claims about whole periods or nations unless you have checked them in your own study. Context also includes the reader's own time, since a modern reader may notice different things; say so when it helps your argument.

A helpful check is the so-what question. After each contextual sentence, ask what it explains about a specific word or choice in the text, and delete the sentence if you cannot answer clearly.

Use one or two sentences of context per point, and no more, so that most of the paragraph stays on the words of the text itself.

Worked example

Classify: (1) The author was born in 1920. (2) Because the poem appeared during rationing, the sparse table gains pointed meaning. (3) The period was difficult. (4) The empty plate echoes the era's scarcity. How many sentences use context to explain a choice?

1. Sentence 1 states a fact without linking.
2. Sentence 2 links context to a choice.
3. Sentence 3 is general.
4. Sentence 4 links image to context; count is 2.

Mental model: Context explains a specific choice.

Common trap: Biography without text.

9. HL essay: sustain one line of inquiry

Learning goal: Develop a focused 1200 to 1500 word essay on one work.

The brief lists the HL essay as a written coursework component on one work studied, 1,200 to 1,500 words, with 20 percent of the final grade. Because it is short, it needs a narrow line of inquiry.

Choose a question that concerns a pattern: how does narration create sympathy, how does a recurring setting register change, how does structure delay a revelation. Avoid a general theme with no method.

Plan five or six moments you can analyse closely and sequence them as an argument.

The HL essay is a written coursework task of 1,200 to 1,500 words on one work studied, according to the IB subject brief. It is for HL students only and it is worth 20 percent of the final grade at HL, while SL students do not write it. A sustained line of inquiry is the key idea: one question, followed through the whole essay.

Choose a focused question about how the writer's choices create a meaning, not a broad topic. Plan three or four points, each with close reading, and let each build on the last. Keep a record of your drafts and follow your school's academic honesty rules. Check the official page and your teacher for current deadlines and the word count rules, since this course gives only the figures in the fetched brief.

Plan the essay in stages: question, evidence, first draft, feedback and final draft, with dates for each. Early planning leaves time to improve the argument and not only the wording.

Ask a trusted reader to tell you in one sentence what your essay argues. If they cannot, the line of inquiry needs to be clearer before you polish the style.

Worked example

Which of these are focused lines of inquiry? (1) Power. (2) How the narrator's sentences lengthen when he lies. (3) Symbols. (4) How the stage door marks retreat. Enter the count.

1. Power and symbols are broad themes.
2. Item 2 names a method and effect.
3. Item 4 names a method and effect.
4. Count 2.

Mental model: Narrow to a pattern you can analyse closely.

Common trap: A theme with no method.

10. The individual oral: a global issue across two works

Learning goal: Prepare an oral linking a work in the original language with a translated work.

The brief describes the individual oral as a prepared oral response on how one work originally written in the language studied and one work studied in translation approach a common global issue; it carries 30 percent at SL and 20 percent at HL.

Pick extracts that allow close reading and issue discussion. Spend time on the issue, using the extracts as evidence, not as the main subject.

Notice translation: wording belongs to the translator, so analyse language choices cautiously and focus on what the translated text lets you see.

The individual oral is an internal assessment. The brief describes a prepared oral response on how one work originally written in the language studied and one work studied in translation have approached a common global issue. It is worth 30 percent at SL and 20 percent at HL according to the brief.

Prepare by choosing a global issue and an extract from each work, then plan a clear structure: introduce the issue, analyse each extract for how language and form shape the idea, and compare. Practise speaking from notes rather than reading a script. Time yourself against the limit your teacher gives you, and check the official page for the current rules. Listen to your own recording and mark where the argument is vague or where you describe more than you explain.

Remember that the oral is marked on how well you analyse language and form, and not on how much you can summarise. Aim for a clear thread through the whole talk, and leave time at the end to say what the comparison shows.

Worked example

Classify talk plans: A) retell both extracts; B) state a narrow issue, analyse each extract against it, compare, judge; C) discuss only context. Enter 1, 2 or 3 for the best of A, B, C.

1. Plan A is retelling.
2. Plan C ignores the extracts.
3. Plan B states an issue and uses evidence.
4. Choose B (2).

Mental model: Frame with an issue and use extracts as evidence.

Common trap: Retelling extracts.

11. Tone and diction: reading the temperature of words

Learning goal: Show how word choice sets tone and shifts attitude.

Diction is the writer's choice of words. Two words can name the same thing but carry different feelings, which are called connotations. A house can be called a home, a property or a shell. Each choice tells the reader how to feel about it, so careful readers ask why this word and not another.

Tone is the attitude that the voice takes toward its subject and reader: it might be tender, ironic, angry or weary. You find tone by collecting the words that carry feeling, looking at sentence length, and noticing what is left out. A short blunt sentence after a long flowing one can change the tone suddenly, and that change is often the heart of a passage.

When you write, avoid naming a tone with a single vague word such as negative. Use a precise word and then prove it with two or three details. For example, say the voice is wistful because it dwells on small objects from the past and uses soft sounds, and then quote them. If the tone changes, name the change and the moment where it happens.

A good test is substitution: replace one important word with a near synonym and read again. If the effect changes, you have found a meaningful choice. The sample lines used here are invented for teaching, so the practice works on any short text. Keep a list of precise tone words such as guarded, playful, resigned and defiant so that your analysis stays exact.

Practise by choosing a short passage and listing ten words that carry feeling. Rank them, then write two sentences about the strongest, using the substitution test. Compare your list with a classmate's and discuss any word that you disagree about.

Worked example

Invented line: 'The old clock grumbled the hour.' What does the verb add?

1. Clocks do not grumble, so the verb gives the clock a human mood.
2. The mood is tired and mildly annoyed.
3. The tone suggests the speaker is weary of time.

Mental model: Choose a verb for the feeling.

Common trap: Vague labels such as negative.

12. Structure and form: why the text is built this way

Learning goal: Treat the order and shape of a text as part of its meaning.

Structure is the way a text is arranged: the order of events, the grouping of lines into stanzas, the division of a play into scenes. Form is the kind of text it is, such as a sonnet, a letter or a short story. Both are choices that a writer makes, and both can carry meaning.

Ask three questions about structure. Where does the text begin and why there? Where does it speed up or slow down? How does it end, and does the ending answer or avoid what was set up? A story told out of order, for example, may show a character's confusion. A poem whose last line breaks the pattern may signal a sudden change of mind.

Form creates expectations that a writer can meet or break. A strict rhyme scheme can feel orderly; breaking it can feel like loss of control. Do not just name the form and stop. Explain what the shape lets the writer do with the subject and what it makes the reader feel at the point where the shape changes.

In writing, quote at the moment of change and describe the effect. Use phrases such as the shift in the final stanza and the delay before the ending to show that you are tracking the shape. The examples here are invented, and the method applies to any poem, passage or scene in the unseen paper and in your set works.

Practise by taking a short text and drawing its shape as a simple line, with high points where the pace quickens and low points where it slows. Write one sentence on what each change does to the reader.

Worked example

Invented poem: two long stanzas of calm description, then one line of two words. What could the final line do?

1. The sudden shortness breaks the calm pattern.
2. It could show shock or silence after the description.
3. The effect depends on the two words, which should be quoted.

Mental model: Effect of an incomplete ending.

Common trap: Naming form without an effect.

13. Characterisation: how a writer builds a person

Learning goal: Analyse how characters are shown through speech, action and description.

Writers build characters through what they say, what they do, how others describe them and how the narrator presents them. A reader puts these clues together. When speech and action disagree, the gap is often the interesting part, as in a character who promises kindness but acts coldly.

Look at speech for rhythm, vocabulary and what is avoided. Look at action for choices under pressure. Look at description for what the narrator chooses to notice, because noticing is a form of judgement. A character who is described only by their clothes may be seen as shallow, or the narrator may be showing that others judge them that way.

Characters often change, and the change is a source of argument. Identify the point where the character starts to act differently and quote the words around it. Ask what causes the shift and whether the writer approves of it. Avoid treating a character as a real person with a private life beyond the text; analyse the choices of the writer.

In a paragraph, state what the character is like, give evidence from two kinds of clue, and explain what the writer gains. For example, the use of short, clipped speech might show impatience, and a long description of a tidy desk might show control. The sample characters here are invented for teaching.

Practise by choosing one character from a work you are reading and making a table of three speech clues, three action clues and one description clue. Then write a paragraph that combines two of them in an argument about the writer's purpose.

Worked example

Invented character says 'I never mind' but slams every door. What does the contrast show?

1. Speech says calm; action shows anger.
2. The gap suggests suppressed feeling.
3. The writer uses it to make the character seem unreliable.

Mental model: Combine action and gesture.

Common trap: Treating a character as a real person.

14. Sound and rhythm: when the ear carries meaning

Learning goal: Link sound patterns and rhythm to meaning in poetry and prose.

Sound devices such as alliteration, repeated consonants, and assonance, repeated vowels, can support meaning but they do not carry it alone. Soft sounds do not always mean softness. The reader should ask what the sound reinforces in the context of the words around it.

Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, or in prose the pacing of long and short sentences. A steady rhythm can feel calm or mechanical. A broken rhythm can feel anxious or free. Reading aloud is the best test, because you can hear where the pace changes.

Silence and white space are also part of sound. A gap between stanzas, a dash or a full stop can force a pause. Link the pause to the sense of the passage: if a line is about waiting, a delay in the rhythm enacts that wait. This is a strong move in analysis because it shows form and meaning working together.

When you write about sound, quote only a few words, say what sound is repeated or what rhythm changes, and give the effect. Avoid saying that a sound is musical or pleasant without more. The sample lines used here are invented, and the habit of reading aloud works on any text.

A short example makes the point: a line that ends on a stressed, heavy word can feel final, while a line that ends on a light word can feel open. Test such ideas by reading aloud and not by assuming.

Practise by recording yourself reading a short poem aloud, then play it back and note where you slowed, sped up or paused. Compare your notes with the printed lines and see how the layout guided your voice.

Worked example

Invented line: 'Slow, slack, the slouching afternoon.' What sound pattern is there and what might it do?

1. The s sound is repeated.
2. It can slow the line and suggest a lazy afternoon.
3. The long, soft sound supports the idea of slowness.

Mental model: Name the device.

Common trap: Naming a sound with no effect.

15. Writing introductions and conclusions for literary essays

Learning goal: Open with a clear line of argument and close without repeating.

An introduction should answer the question quickly. Name the works or passage, state the line of argument in one or two sentences, and hint at how you will prove it. Skip long background on the writer and any list of everything you plan to say.

A thesis is a claim that someone could argue against. Compare: the writer uses imagery (a fact) with the writer uses images of cold to show that care has become distance (a claim). Write the claim before you plan the paragraphs so that each paragraph builds it.

A conclusion should not repeat the introduction. It should say what the analysis has shown, perhaps with a new angle drawn from the evidence, such as what the pattern reveals about the writer's concern. Do not add new quotations. Leave the reader with a clear judgement.

In timed conditions, write the thesis first, then the body, and return to the introduction if you have time. Check the official page for the current paper times. A tight three-sentence opening is better than a long unfocused one, and a clear final sentence can lift the whole essay.

Keep a bank of strong opening sentences from your own practice essays and review it before writing. Seeing what worked helps you to copy the habit and not the words, which keeps your voice your own.

Practise by writing three different openings for the same essay question, one weak, one average and one strong. Keep the strongest and note what made the difference, such as a clear claim or a precise word.

Worked example

Invented text: a poem about a cold winter. Write a thesis in one sentence.

1. State a claim, not a fact.
2. Example: images of cold show the speaker's fear of being forgotten.
3. Check that it can be argued.

Mental model: Count each part.

Common trap: Starting with a long background.

16. Timing and checking an unseen passage

Learning goal: Plan the time for a guided analysis and check the answer before the end.

A guided analysis is written under time pressure, so a plan for the minutes matters as much as a plan for the ideas. The brief gives Paper 1 as 1.25 hours at SL and 2.25 hours at HL, so work out how long you can give to reading, planning and writing for the version you sit, and check the official page for any change.

Begin with a short, fixed read of the passage and the guiding question. Use the three-question read of this course to find the situation, speaker and shift. Then mark four or five places for close reading, and decide the order in which you will discuss them. A short plan of one line per paragraph is enough and protects you from losing the thread.

Write the strongest paragraph first if you are unsure about time, because the opening of an answer sets the reader's view. Keep each paragraph to a claim, a short quotation, an explanation and a link. If a paragraph is going badly, stop, write one sentence about what you meant, and move on rather than losing the minutes you need for the rest.

Keep three or four minutes at the end to read what you wrote. Look for missing quotation marks, vague words such as shows or uses without an effect, and any claim without evidence. Add one precise sentence where the analysis is thin. The numbers in the worked example are invented for teaching and the practice applies to any unseen text from your class.

Worked example

An invented paper gives 75 minutes for one analysis. You plan 10 for reading and planning and 5 for checking. How long to write?

1. 75 - 10 - 5 = 60 minutes.
2. Use the 60 minutes for four or five paragraphs.
3. Keep each paragraph to about 12 minutes.

Mental model: Total minus the other two.

Common trap: Starting to write with no plan.