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 Mr Hale, I write regarding the noise from your late-night gatherings. I trust a single reminder will suffice.”
Step by step:
Salutation: ‘Dear Mr Hale’ is formal — it sets a distant, official relationship.
Address: ‘your late-night gatherings’ speaks straight to the reader and quietly blames him.
Tone: ‘I trust a single reminder will suffice’ is polite but cold — a veiled warning.
So what: the formal register and controlled tone make the complaint feel firm and final, without shouting.
The formal ‘Dear Mr Hale’ sets a distant, official relationship, and the direct address to ‘your late-night gatherings’ places the blame on the reader. The icy-polite ‘a single reminder will suffice’ works as a veiled warning — so the register and tone make the complaint firm and final.
IB-style question — analyse a memoir extract
Analyse this memoir line: “I still smell the chalk dust of that first classroom. I was six, and I thought the whole silent room could hear my heart.”
Step by step:
Sensory detail: ‘smell the chalk dust’ makes a distant memory feel present and real.
Looking back: ‘I still smell’ is the now-voice reaching into a moment from long ago.
Reflection on the then-self: ‘I thought the whole silent room could hear my heart’ captures a child's fear.
So what: the detail plus the reflection lift an ordinary first day into a picture of childhood nervousness.
The sensory ‘smell the chalk dust’ makes the memory feel present, and the now-voice (‘I still smell’) reaches back across years. The reflection — a six-year-old sure the room could hear his heart — turns an ordinary first day into a vivid image of childhood fear, which is what memoir is for.
IB-style question — analyse a poem
Analyse these lines: “The last light / holds on / to the edge of the hill, / then lets / go.”
Step by step:
Line breaks: short broken lines slow the reading, mimicking light fading bit by bit.
Word choice: ‘holds on’ makes the light feel almost human, clinging.
The break before ‘go’: the pause makes the final ‘go’ land softly, like letting go.
So what: form and word choice make sunset feel like a gentle, reluctant goodbye.
The short, broken lines slow the reading so the light seems to fade piece by piece, and ‘holds on’ makes it feel almost human, clinging to the hill. The line break before ‘go’ lets that final word land softly — so form and word choice turn a sunset into a gentle, 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’.