My Paper 1 Practice

In our Paper 1 practice exercise, according to the feedback of my peers, I generally fell short of the criteria. Unfortunately, I mostly expected this of my writing. Going into the exercise, I had no idea where to start. I’d never seen a Paper 1 example before and I didn’t fully comprehend the task, so I had no jumping off point. Now that I’ve read some good and bad examples of a Paper 1 task and written a bad one myself, I know how I can improve my writing for this specific work.
For Criterion A, my peer noted that I didn’t acknowledge the time period or audience. This wasn’t a goal I had in mind going into the task. However, now that I have had practice, time period and its relevant audience is an idea I will take into heavy consideration next time. Personally, I felt like I needed to analyze each text more and understand better how they relate to each other and what their differences are. These are lessons I will carry into my next attempt at a Paper 1.
For Criterion B, my peer stated that I analyzed the language more than the content. My peer also stated that I didn’t acknowledge stylistic devices to a great enough extent. This is an excellent piece of feedback. While language is an important stylistic feature to analyze, there are visual features to comment on as well. I should also remember to go beyond the word choice of the author and comment on what they have written as well.
For Criterion C, my peer noted that I jumped from topic to topic. In our conversation, she mentioned that she wished I had written a point-by-point comparative essay, rather than a text-by-text essay. This is a helpful piece of feedback for Paper 1, as this will help with balanced analysis as well as a more organized flow of points. I should also include a clear introduction and a conclusion, as well as more prominent topic sentences.
For Criterion D, my peer stated that my language was inconsistent and awkward at points. This is a chance for me to improve my vocabulary and think more carefully about my word choice as I write my next Paper 1 exercise.

Overall, I learned many important lessons from this task. Not only do I now have any idea of where to start, I have a better plan for organizing and writing my paper. I will be taking some time to write a practice comparative analysis on my own time using the feedback I received and have detailed in this reflection. Hopefully this exercise and my future practice will help me write a successful Paper 1 essay to submit to the IB.

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