Key Idea: This topic is about personal and literary texts — the letter, memoir, travel writing, the essay, a fiction extract and the poem. They all share one thing: a strong voice — a real person, or a crafted narrator, speaking to you. So the marks come from how it's written (voice, detail, imagery, structure), not just what it says. In Paper 1, analyse the writer's choices and the effect they build.
📜 The six text types
| Text type | Purpose | What to spot |
|---|---|---|
| Letter | Speak to one specific reader | Salutation & sign-off (‘Dear Sir’ vs ‘Hey you’) · direct address to ‘you’ · tone · register (formal/casual) |
| Memoir extract | Mine a real remembered moment for meaning | First-person looking back · vivid sensory detail · reflection (the now-voice on the then-self) |
| Travel writing | Bring a place alive and share the experience | Sensory description (sights, sounds, smells) · a personal voice · the writer's response to the place |
| Essay | Explore an idea and persuade | A guiding idea developed step by step · a distinctive voice · rhetorical moves (questions, reversals, metaphor) |
| Literary extract | Build character and mood through craft | Narrative voice / point of view · selected detail · imagery for mood (not decoration) |
| Poem | Compress feeling into form, sound and image | Form & line breaks · imagery (metaphor, simile) · sound (rhythm, rhyme, alliteration) |
🔍 The one move that works for all six
Every personal or literary text uses the same move. Name a choice (a greeting, a sensory detail, a line break, the narrator's viewpoint), say its effect (what it makes you feel or notice), then the so what — the relationship, mood, character or meaning it builds. Ask how it's written, not just what happens: analyse the voice and craft, don't retell the events or paraphrase the message.
✍️ IB-style worked examples
IB-style question — analyse a letter
Analyse the tone and address: “Dear Ms Okafor, I am writing about the shared hedge, which your builders removed without asking. I am sure this was an oversight you will wish to put right.”
Step by step:
Salutation: ‘Dear Ms Okafor’ is formal — it sets a distant, official relationship.
Address: ‘your builders removed without asking’ speaks straight to the reader and quietly blames her.
Tone: ‘an oversight you will wish to put right’ is polite but pointed — a veiled demand dressed as a favour.
So what: the formal register and controlled tone make the complaint feel firm and final, without ever raising its voice.
The formal ‘Dear Ms Okafor’ sets a distant, official relationship, and the direct address to ‘your builders removed without asking’ places the blame on the reader. The polite ‘an oversight you will wish to put right’ works as a veiled demand — so the register and tone make the complaint firm and final.
IB-style question — analyse a memoir extract
Analyse this memoir line: “I can still hear the screen door of my grandmother's house slap shut behind me. I was seven, and I was certain the summer would never end.”
Step by step:
Sensory detail: ‘hear the screen door… slap shut’ makes a distant memory feel present and real.
Looking back: ‘I can still hear’ is the now-voice reaching into a moment from long ago.
Reflection on the then-self: ‘certain the summer would never end’ captures a child's sense of endless time.
So what: the detail plus the reflection lift an ordinary childhood day into a picture of lost, carefree innocence.
The sensory ‘hear the screen door… slap shut’ makes the memory feel present, and the now-voice (‘I can still hear’) reaches back across years. The reflection — a seven-year-old sure the summer would never end — turns an ordinary day into a vivid image of a childhood that felt endless, which is what memoir is for.
IB-style question — analyse a poem
Analyse these lines: “The train pulls / away, / and her hand / stays up / long after / I can't see it.”
Step by step:
Line breaks: short broken lines slow the reading, mimicking a goodbye stretched out moment by moment.
Word choice: ‘stays up’ makes the waving hand feel stubborn, refusing to give up.
The break before ‘long after’: the pause makes that phrase land heavily, holding onto the moment.
So what: form and word choice make a station farewell feel aching and reluctant.
The short, broken lines slow the reading so the goodbye seems to stretch out moment by moment, and ‘stays up’ makes the hand feel stubborn, refusing to drop. The line break before ‘long after’ lets that phrase land heavily — so form and word choice turn a station farewell into an aching, reluctant goodbye.
Important: Don't retell the events (memoir, fiction) or paraphrase the message (essay, poem). Every point needs a named choice — a word, a detail, a line break, the register — plus its effect and the so what. Ask how the writer makes you feel it, not just what they say.
Tap each card to check yourself.
Why does the greeting matter in a letter? ‘Dear Sir’ vs ‘Hi love’ sets the register and the relationship instantly — half the meaning.
What lifts a memoir above just retelling events? Sensory detail plus reflection — the now-voice finding meaning in a small remembered moment.
How does travel writing bring a place alive? Sensory description plus a personal voice — you feel the place and the writer's response to it.
In an essay, what carries the marks — the conclusion or the journey? The journey — how the argument develops and how the voice carries you, not just the final point.
Why analyse a poem's line breaks? Where a line ends creates pauses and emphasis; the shape on the page is a deliberate choice that makes meaning.
Exam Tips
- Ask HOW it's written — voice, detail, imagery, structure — not just what it says.
- For a letter, name the register and tone and say what relationship they reveal.
- For memoir and fiction, analyse the craft (detail, reflection, voice) — never just retell.
- For a poem, analyse the line breaks and one or two hard-working words; listen for sound.
- Never stop at a label — every point needs the effect and the ‘so what’.