Individual Oral

The Individual Oral is a prepared explanation of how writers and creators present one global issue in two selections you have studied. You speak for 10 minutes, then discuss your analysis with your teacher for 5 minutes. Your teacher assesses the oral, and the IB moderates the assessment.

You choose the issue and the selections. You develop your own interpretation, support it with precise evidence, and explain how authorial choices shape that meaning. Prepare so you can explain your reasoning aloud and develop it in response to questions.

State your global issue clearly near the start of the introduction. Use its full, precise wording before developing your analysis. Keep that wording as your touchstone throughout: your listener should hear exactly which issue each claim addresses, not have to reconstruct it from “my global issue.”

The selection requirement for your course

English A: Literature: choose two studied literary works, one originally written in English and one studied in translation. English A: Language & Literature: choose one studied literary work and one studied non-literary body of work.

The literary forms discussed in this guide, including poetry, drama, prose and graphic novels, can be relevant to either course. Film, advertisements and the other non-literary examples apply to the non-literary selection in Language & Literature. Both courses use the same preparation approach, criteria and 10-minute response followed by 5 minutes of questions.

What you bring together

• One focused global issue: the concern you investigate throughout the oral.
• Two studied selections: the works or body of work through which you explore it. The requirements differ between the two courses, as shown above.
• Extract analysis and analysis of the work as a whole: examine a chosen extract in detail, then explain specific connections to the work or body of work beyond it.

The IO is not a comparative task

Explore each selection through the same global issue. You do not need a comparative thesis or an argument organized around similarities and differences. The issue gives the whole oral a shared focus; each selection can reveal something different about it.

A brief connection is fine when it helps your reasoning. Repeatedly switching between the texts to manufacture comparisons uses time and makes your structure harder to follow. Develop one selection fully before moving to the other.

Before moving on: Explain what connects your two selections, what you will analyze in each, and why simply describing the global issue would not complete the task.

1. Understand what makes it global

A global issue has significance on a wide scale, crosses national boundaries, and has an impact in everyday local contexts. Explain those properties in ordinary language: why does this concern matter beyond one place, and how can it affect people in particular situations?

“Global” does not mean it affects every person or appears in every country. Your selections do not need different national settings. Nor must the issue be a current news controversy, a question with no answer, or a problem you solve in the conclusion.

2. Move beyond a broad topic

A field of inquiry gives you an area to explore. The five fields are Culture, identity and community; Beliefs, values and education; Politics, power and justice; Art, creativity and the imagination; and Science, technology and the environment. These are starting points, not a list of ready-made global issues.

A topic such as “education” is still broad. A more focused issue might concern how unequal access to education restricts social mobility. That wording identifies a relationship you could investigate, but it becomes useful for an IO only if your chosen selections support substantial analysis of it. A polished phrase cannot compensate for thin evidence.

This is a teaching example, not an issue to adopt without testing your own texts. Your issue can be a focused statement; it does not have to be phrased as a question.

3. Start with something you noticed

Return to your reading notes. Identify a tension, recurring pressure, consequence or relationship that interested you. Find the details that made you notice it. You can begin with one work, or with a concern that leads you back to studied texts. Expect to adjust your issue as the evidence becomes clearer.

4. Test both extracts and works as a whole

For each selection, identify evidence in a possible extract and evidence beyond it. Ask:

• What exactly does this detail suggest about my issue?
• Which authorial choices let me explain how that meaning is made?
• Where else can I investigate the same issue in this work or body of work?
• Does the second selection support the issue I have actually named, or am I quietly changing its meaning to make it fit?

If one side depends on plot summary or an isolated mention, revisit the issue or the selection. Do not force a text to prove an argument you decided in advance.

5. Write a provisional issue and explain your decisions

Use your own wording. Explain why it matters beyond one place and how it affects people in everyday situations. Then identify evidence that makes it worth exploring in both selections. Ask for feedback on the reasoning. Revise the issue yourself when the evidence calls for it.

6. State it early and keep its wording consistent

Name the exact issue near the start of your introduction. Return to its key wording as you begin the next selection, move to the work as a whole or body of work, and explain the significance of important evidence. Examiners listen for a sustained focus on that issue.

For example, if your issue is how workplace hierarchies restrict workers’ ability to voice concerns, say “This choice shows how workplace hierarchies restrict workers’ ability to voice concerns by …,” then explain the specific connection. “This links to my global issue” leaves that analytical work unstated.

Use the wording at meaningful points, not in every sentence. Between those points, develop the evidence and reasoning. Do not quietly replace your precise issue with a broader topic such as “power” or “inequality.” The wording keeps your analysis focused; it does not replace analysis.

Ready to continue: You can explain the issue without vague labels and locate choices worth analyzing in each extract and beyond it. Use the optional Refinery below to explore or test your thinking; the questions above also work on paper.

Start with one continuous selection

For written extracts, use no more than 40 lines. This is a maximum, not an amount you must fill. Choose a continuous passage with enough substance for close analysis. Do not join separate passages or remove intervening material to assemble your strongest quotations. Use evidence from elsewhere in the discussion of the work as a whole.

Keep the text’s wording, punctuation and meaningful layout. Identify the work, creator and location clearly. Agree on the final format and line numbering with your teacher before preparing the clean assessment copy.

Poetry: preserve the poem’s lines

Count the poem’s verse lines and retain its line breaks and stanza divisions. A sentence may run across several verse lines; those are still separate lines. A blank space between stanzas is not another verse line.

A complete 20-line poem gives you a 20-line extract. You do not get another 20 lines from the next poem. The 40-line maximum does not let you combine separate poems. For a longer poem, choose a continuous passage within the limit rather than submitting the whole poem simply because it is one text.

If the complete poem is your extract, develop your analysis of the work as a whole through other poems in the studied work. If you use part of a longer poem, consider its relationship to the rest of that poem and to the studied work. Confirm the scope of that work with your teacher; do not assume that one short poem is the whole literary work for the assessment.

Drama: agree on the edition and extract

Choose one continuous extract of no more than 40 lines. Keep the dialogue, speaker names and stage directions intact. Number the lines on the clean copy agreed with your teacher.

Agree on the edition and translation before choosing your extract. Plays such as A Doll’s House appear in many versions, with different wording, layouts and page numbers. Use the agreed version consistently, identify the edition and translator where applicable, and make sure your teacher has the same text. Have any change of version checked before the assessment.

Prose: count lines, not sentences

For a novel or short story, select one continuous passage and preserve its paragraph breaks. A sentence can occupy several lines. Use a readable layout approved by your teacher; do not shrink the type or widen the page to squeeze extra material into 40 lines.

If the extract is from a short story within a studied collection, explain its relationship to the story and to the studied work as a whole. Name the precise moments you use rather than referring vaguely to the rest of the collection.

Graphic and non-literary material

Graphic novels can be literary selections in either course. Their page and panel layouts require a judgment about manageable material, rather than a mechanical conversion of panels into lines. See What to bring into the assessment for graphic extracts and the Language & Literature guidance on film and other non-literary material.

Signposting means using brief spoken phrases to tell your listener where you are in the oral, where you are moving next, and how the next point connects to your analysis. Your listener cannot see your headings or reread a paragraph. Clear signposting helps them follow your reasoning as they hear it.

Make the main moves clear

Simple language is enough. Adapt these examples to your order and selections:

• Begin the first extract: “In my first extract, from [title], …”
• Move to the work as a whole: “Moving on to the work as a whole, …”
• Move to the body of work: “Turning to the body of work, …”
• Move from the work as a whole into the extract: “This pattern is especially clear in my chosen extract, where …”
• Introduce the second selection: “For my second text, I will turn to [title] by [creator]. Here, [state the global issue in its exact wording] is presented through …”
• Begin the conclusion: “To conclude, my analysis has shown …”

Name the actual work, text or creator so your listener knows what you mean. You do not need an elaborate phrase or a forced comparison to move to your second selection.

Follow the signpost with a point

“Moving on to the work as a whole” tells us where you are going. Your next sentence needs a specific moment and an analytical claim. For example, using the invented factory story in Learn from a short example:

“Moving on to the work as a whole, the later meeting scene shows how workplace hierarchies restrict workers’ ability to voice concerns. Mara is present, but the manager’s list determines who may speak.”

The first phrase marks the move. What follows identifies the evidence and connects it to the issue.

Connect ideas within a section

Useful phrases include “This detail matters because …,” “Later in the work, this pattern changes when …,” and “This complicates my earlier interpretation because ….” Complete the relationship you announce. Adding “therefore” does not make an unsupported claim follow from the evidence.

Use a signpost at a meaningful change of section or idea. You do not need one before every sentence. Keep it brief, pause if useful, and continue with the analysis.

Check your signposting: Can someone listening tell which selection you are discussing, whether you are in the extract or the work as a whole or body of work, and why your next point follows?

More signposting support

IB English Guys have a Signposting and Transitions handout and an accompanying video. Use these for additional speaking cues. The handout uses a different timing model. I recommend 30 seconds for the introduction, four 2:15 analytical sections, and 30 seconds for the conclusion to protect time for analysis. Your ten minutes are yours to budget: if your introduction or conclusion needs longer, make that a deliberate choice and account for the time it takes from analysis. Keep both selections and the extract and work as a whole or body of work balanced.

For more ways to connect ideas, use our transitions and sentence stems resource. Choose phrases that sound natural when spoken and fit the relationship you want to explain.

Use the optional timer and rehearsal notes for your own preparation. Choose the part you want to time, and note what you want to improve. These tools do not set a classroom practice routine or change the preparation instructions I give you. Your notes stay in this browser and are not sent to me.

The two fragments below are invented teaching material, presented as an extract and a later moment from an imagined story. They illustrate one analytical move, not a complete IO or a real student's assessed response.

The material

Extract: “At the factory gate, the sign read EVERY VOICE COUNTS. Mara folded her complaint into a square small enough to hide beneath her badge.”

Later moment: “At the meeting, the manager read the names of those invited to speak. Mara's name remained on the attendance sheet.”

Example global issue: how workplace hierarchies restrict workers' ability to voice concerns.

Begin with your own observation

What tension do you notice between the sign and Mara's action? In the later moment, what distinction is made between being present and being allowed to speak? Explain one choice before opening the commentary below.

These practical explanations help you use the criteria while planning and revising. They do not replace the full rubric.

A · Knowledge, understanding and interpretation

Support an interpretation of the texts in relation to the global issue with precise references.

What A looks like in the Individual Oral: Use precise knowledge of both extracts and their works as a whole or bodies of work to interpret the global issue. Explain what the selected details reveal about that issue rather than giving a general talk about the topic.

Check your work: Can I support my reading of the issue in both the extract and the work or body of work?

B · Analysis and evaluation

Explain how the creators' choices present the issue, in both the extracts and the works as a whole.

What B looks for in the Individual Oral: Explain how authorial choices present the global issue. Move from a specific detail to the meaning it creates, then show how that reading connects to choices beyond the extract. Identifying the issue alone is not analysis.

Check your work: Have I explained how the issue is presented, rather than only where it appears?

C · Focus and organization

Maintain a coherent line of thought and give substantial attention to both selections.

What C looks like in the Individual Oral: Keep the global issue in view as you move through the oral. Give both selections substantial attention and make the relationship between extract analysis and discussion of the work as a whole clear. The IO does not require a comparative argument.

Check your work: Can a listener follow why I am moving to this next detail and how it advances my discussion of the issue?

D · Language

Speak clearly and accurately with language suited to analytical discussion.

What D looks like in the Individual Oral: Use clear, accurate language that works when spoken. Shorter sentences and explicit connections help a listener follow complex analysis. Use terms you can explain and pronounce confidently.

Check your work: Would a listener be able to follow my reasoning without seeing my notes?

Your official outline

Bring the official outline form with no more than 10 brief bullet points. Use concise reminders for your ideas, evidence locations and transitions. The bullet points should help you recall your reasoning while speaking. Keep detailed preparation notes separate from this assessment form.

Clean copies of both extracts

Bring clean, unannotated copies of the two extracts you have agreed with your teacher. Identify and reference the texts clearly, and include line numbers where applicable. Do not add analytical notes, highlighting or other annotations.

Written extracts should not exceed 40 lines each. Select a manageable passage that gives you enough material for close analysis; 40 lines is a limit, not a target. For visual and audiovisual work, agree on a manageable selection and its printed format with your teacher. Prepare the approved printed material rather than relying on a recording or device in the room.

Graphic novels and film extracts

Graphic novels: the IB guidance does not set a universal number of pages or panels. Where line counting does not apply, your teacher judges whether the amount of material allows sufficiently detailed analysis in the time available. Select a continuous passage and preserve the reading sequence. A page with dense dialogue and many panels creates different demands from a largely visual page.

Film or television (Language & Literature): prepare the written dialogue for the selected passage together with still images from that same passage. The IB FAQ asks for matching stills without specifying a fixed count. Agree on the selection and presentation with your teacher so you can analyze both the verbal and visual choices. Keep the extract to one continuous sequence; use the discussion of the body of work for evidence from elsewhere in the film or episode.

Follow your teacher’s preparation instructions

Your teacher will confirm the extract format and any local limits for the outline, including how much writing is permitted in each bullet point. Follow those instructions alongside the IB maximum of 10 brief bullet points. A local word limit or recommended number of pages or stills is a practical preparation rule; do not assume it is a universal IB requirement.

Leave the preparation materials outside

Only your permitted outline and the two extracts go into the assessment with you. Do not bring your detailed preparation notes, annotated planning sheets or additional notes. Use your teacher's instructions for where to leave devices and other belongings.

Before the day: submit the extracts for approval and the outline for the required checks by the dates your teacher gives you. Verify that the copies you bring match the approved materials.