Key Idea: This exemplar shows a full HL essay at the highest level. Learn its moves so you can use them in your essay.
Model answer
- Thesis — A focused 'how' line of inquiry and an arguable answer.
- Developed body — Each paragraph builds, using analysed, embedded evidence.
- Conclusion — A payoff: it reaches a richer claim than the thesis.
What lifts the essay
- A sharp thesis.
- An argument that develops.
- Evidence that is analysed.
- Academic prose.
Copy the moves, not the words.
Should you memorise the exemplar's wording? No. Your essay is on your own work.
Where does the exemplar's conclusion arrive? At a claim richer than its opening thesis.
How is evidence used in the body? Short quotes, embedded and analysed.
What kind of question drives the exemplar? A focused 'how' question.