Textual Analysis practice questions.

When you first read an unseen non-literary text in Paper 1, which step should come before hunting for individual stylistic devices?

• Painstakingly counting up exactly how many metaphors and similes the text contains
• Establishing the text type, audience and purpose to frame the whole analysis
• Drafting the conclusion so the ending is secure
• Listing every unfamiliar word in the margin

Answer: Establishing the text type, audience and purpose to frame the whole analysis

Text type, audience and purpose give every later observation its function; a device only means something in relation to what the text is trying to do and for whom.

Which observation analyses the STRUCTURE of an opinion article rather than its language?

• The writer opens with a personal anecdote before pivoting to statistics, moving the reader from sympathy to conviction
• The verb 'slash' carries violent connotations
• The inclusive first-person pronoun 'we', used repeatedly, constructs a warm and continuous sense of shared solidarity with the intended reader
• The adjective 'toxic' is emotively loaded

Answer: The writer opens with a personal anecdote before pivoting to statistics, moving the reader from sympathy to conviction

Structural analysis examines the ordering and progression of a text — openings, pivots, escalation, endings — while the other options analyse individual word choices.

While annotating an unseen Paper 1 text, which habit is most productive?

• Underlining every sentence completely
• Marking patterns that connect to purpose
• Labelling devices without noting effects
• Writing a full paraphrase in the margin

Answer: Marking patterns that connect to purpose

Blanket underlining and bare device labels are the classic wasted annotations. Useful marks group repeated choices into patterns and jot the effect, so paragraphs can be built straight from the page.

Which pair of features most strongly marks an unseen text as an editorial?

• A byline and a personal anecdote
• Hyperlinks and a chatty register
• An unsigned voice and a collective "we"
• Speaker turns and hesitation markers

Answer: An unsigned voice and a collective "we"

Editorials are habitually mislabelled as opinion columns. The column carries a named byline and a personal voice; the editorial speaks unsigned for the whole publication — hence the institutional 'we'.

In IB English A, what percentage of the final grade does Paper 1 carry?

• 35% at both SL and HL
• 35% at SL and 25% at HL
• 25% at both SL and HL
• 20% at SL and 35% at HL

Answer: 35% at both SL and HL

Paper 1 carries 35% at both levels. At HL the 20% HL essay is fitted in by cutting Paper 2 from 35% to 25% and the individual oral from 30% to 20%, so a split between the levels is the tempting error.

"The minister described the job cuts as a necessary rebalancing of resources." Which device is at work in the quoted phrase?

• Euphemism
• Hyperbole
• Litotes
• Metonymy

Answer: Euphemism

Litotes understates by negation ('not unhelpful'), hyperbole exaggerates, and metonymy substitutes an associated thing. A euphemism replaces a blunt term with a milder one — here making loss sound like management.