More (Yes) on Writing Commentaries

March 27, 2019

One of the best guides to commentary I have ever seen was produced by Theo Dombroski, then of the UWC Pearson College. I am going to provide you with three of his good hints about commentary with the hope they will give you some help when you face this exercise. These...

Better and Better Essays #3

March 15, 2019

From a practicing journalist, one who has been through the IB Literature course (with an IB outcome of 7), three final hints to improve your essays. If you put into practice not only these, but the suggestions in the two previous ‘Better and Better Essays,’ you are...

Better and Better Essays(#2)

February 22, 2019

‘Sculpting’ your paragraphs so that a reader really wants to hear what you have to say. Yes, it’s the examiner’s job to read whatever you write, but why not make that an inviting task?  It’s probably true that when you see great blocks of...

Which Is It?

November 28, 2018

If you have been or are going to be studying the work, L’Etranger by Albert Camus, one question that is very likely to come up as you discuss this novel is ‘what is the “correct” translation into English of this title?’ You might be...

Essays about Character: Analysis, Not Re-description

November 14, 2018

In your earlier years, writing about characters by re-describing them in your own words was quite acceptable, but as an IB diploma student that won’t work.  First, you need to change your thinking from ‘character’ to ‘characterization.’...

Literature and Film

October 24, 2018

Currently, ‘Literature and Film’ is one of the most popular ‘suggested options’ under Part 4: Options (a bit confusing, to say the least, though it all shakes out as ‘Free Choice’, really). There are a lot of great ideas coming from...