English A: Language & Literature HL
Comparative essay skills — HL Paper 2
- 1.
You are comparing how power is portrayed in 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights'. A classmate argues that both works ultimately suggest ordinary people are powerless against large forces such as climate change or economic policy. (a) State one piece of textual evidence from each work that could support this claim. (b) Construct a brief counter-argument, using evidence from either work, that qualifies or challenges the classmate's claim rather than simply agreeing or disagreeing. (c) Explain why including a counter-argument like this would strengthen a comparative essay.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 2.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “You are comparing how power is portrayed in 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights'. A classmate argues that both works ultimately suggest ordinary people are powerless against large forces such as climate change or economic policy. (a) State one piece of textual evidence from each work that could support this claim. (b) Construct a brief counter-argument, using evidence from either work, that qualifies or challenges the classmate's claim rather than simply agreeing or disagreeing. (c) Explain why including a counter-argument like this would strengthen a comparative essay.” Their response addresses only this point: “States plausible supporting evidence from 'The Salt Road' for the powerlessness claim.” Evaluate the response against the complete 5-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 3.
A student's essay conclusion reads: 'In conclusion, The Salt Road and Harbour Lights both show that loss of place is difficult for communities.' (a) Identify why this conclusion is weak for an HL comparative essay. (b) Rewrite the conclusion (two to three sentences) so that it synthesises the essay's comparative argument rather than simply restating the shared theme.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 4.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student's essay conclusion reads: 'In conclusion, The Salt Road and Harbour Lights both show that loss of place is difficult for communities.' (a) Identify why this conclusion is weak for an HL comparative essay. (b) Rewrite the conclusion (two to three sentences) so that it synthesises the essay's comparative argument rather than simply restating the shared theme.” Their response addresses only this point: “Identifies that the conclusion merely restates the shared theme rather than synthesising what the comparison has actually revealed, such as a difference in agency, hope, or resistance.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 5.
You are writing an HL comparative essay on narrative perspective in 'The Salt Road' (told from a child's point of view) and 'Harbour Lights' (told through multiple characters' voices). (a) State one interpretive effect of the child's point of view in 'The Salt Road'. (b) State one interpretive effect of using multiple voices in 'Harbour Lights'. (c) Explain one specific way you could integrate a brief, well-chosen quotation from each work into a single comparative body paragraph, rather than discussing the two quotations in separate paragraphs.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 6.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “You are writing an HL comparative essay on narrative perspective in 'The Salt Road' (told from a child's point of view) and 'Harbour Lights' (told through multiple characters' voices). (a) State one interpretive effect of the child's point of view in 'The Salt Road'. (b) State one interpretive effect of using multiple voices in 'Harbour Lights'. (c) Explain one specific way you could integrate a brief, well-chosen quotation from each work into a single comparative body paragraph, rather than discussing the two quotations in separate paragraphs.” Their response addresses only this point: “States a plausible interpretive effect of the child narrator in 'The Salt Road', such as creating dramatic irony or an emotionally immediate but limited understanding of events.” Evaluate the response against the complete 5-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[5 marks] · no calculator - 7.
A student has brainstormed three separate observations: (1) 'The Salt Road' uses water imagery throughout; (2) 'Harbour Lights' uses light imagery throughout; (3) both works end ambiguously. (a) Explain why simply listing these three observations one after another would not constitute synthesis. (b) Suggest a single, unifying comparative claim that could connect all three observations into one coherent argument.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 8.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student has brainstormed three separate observations: (1) 'The Salt Road' uses water imagery throughout; (2) 'Harbour Lights' uses light imagery throughout; (3) both works end ambiguously. (a) Explain why simply listing these three observations one after another would not constitute synthesis. (b) Suggest a single, unifying comparative claim that could connect all three observations into one coherent argument.” Their response addresses only this point: “Explains that listing three separate observations without connecting them leaves the reader to infer any relationship between them, rather than the essay actively demonstrating why they matter together.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 9.
A student includes a single counter-argument paragraph near the end of an otherwise one-sided essay arguing that both works present communities as ultimately powerless. (a) Explain one limitation of confining a counter-argument to a single isolated paragraph. (b) Suggest how the student could instead weave qualification and counter-evidence throughout the essay's body paragraphs.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 10.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student includes a single counter-argument paragraph near the end of an otherwise one-sided essay arguing that both works present communities as ultimately powerless. (a) Explain one limitation of confining a counter-argument to a single isolated paragraph. (b) Suggest how the student could instead weave qualification and counter-evidence throughout the essay's body paragraphs.” Their response addresses only this point: “Explains that an isolated counter-argument paragraph can feel like an afterthought, tacked on rather than genuinely integrated into the essay's overall reasoning, and risks the main argument appearing one-sided everywhere else.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 11.
'The Salt Road' is a novel narrated in prose, while 'Harbour Lights' is a play told primarily through dialogue and stage directions. (a) Suggest one specific way the novel's narrator can convey the family's internal emotional experience of loss that the play's form cannot easily achieve. (b) Suggest one specific way the play's form (visible action, spoken dialogue) can convey the community's collective experience of loss in a way the novel's individual narration cannot easily achieve.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 12.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “'The Salt Road' is a novel narrated in prose, while 'Harbour Lights' is a play told primarily through dialogue and stage directions. (a) Suggest one specific way the novel's narrator can convey the family's internal emotional experience of loss that the play's form cannot easily achieve. (b) Suggest one specific way the play's form (visible action, spoken dialogue) can convey the community's collective experience of loss in a way the novel's individual narration cannot easily achieve.” Their response addresses only this point: “Suggests that prose narration can directly access a character's private thoughts and feelings (interiority), such as describing the mother's unspoken grief in a way no external observer could perceive.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 13.
Suppose both 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights' were written during a period of increasing public debate about climate-driven displacement. (a) Suggest one way knowing this context could deepen an essay's interpretation of the works' shared theme. (b) Explain one risk of over-relying on authorial context, such that the essay becomes more about historical background than about the text itself.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 14.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Suppose both 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights' were written during a period of increasing public debate about climate-driven displacement. (a) Suggest one way knowing this context could deepen an essay's interpretation of the works' shared theme. (b) Explain one risk of over-relying on authorial context, such that the essay becomes more about historical background than about the text itself.” Their response addresses only this point: “Suggests that knowing the historical context could explain why both authors chose this particular theme at this particular time, framing the works as a deliberate literary response to a contemporary real-world debate.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 15.
A student's draft thesis reads: 'Both The Salt Road and Harbour Lights explore how communities deal with change.' (a) Explain why this thesis is too broad and uncontroversial to be genuinely arguable. (b) Rewrite the thesis so that it makes a claim a reasonable reader could disagree with, forcing the essay to actually defend a position.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 16.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student's draft thesis reads: 'Both The Salt Road and Harbour Lights explore how communities deal with change.' (a) Explain why this thesis is too broad and uncontroversial to be genuinely arguable. (b) Rewrite the thesis so that it makes a claim a reasonable reader could disagree with, forcing the essay to actually defend a position.” Their response addresses only this point: “Explains that virtually no reader would disagree that both works 'explore change', making the claim too obvious and general to require or reward defence.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 17.
You are planning a full essay in response to the question: 'Compare how two works you have studied use setting to reflect a community's emotional state.' (a) State a working thesis for this essay, using 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights'. (b) Outline three distinct body paragraph topics, each built around a different point of comparison (not simply 'point one, point two, point three' but the actual content of each).
[4 marks] · no calculator - 18.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “You are planning a full essay in response to the question: 'Compare how two works you have studied use setting to reflect a community's emotional state.' (a) State a working thesis for this essay, using 'The Salt Road' and 'Harbour Lights'. (b) Outline three distinct body paragraph topics, each built around a different point of comparison (not simply 'point one, point two, point three' but the actual content of each).” Their response addresses only this point: “States a specific, arguable working thesis connecting setting to emotional state across both works.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 19.
Two critics disagree about the harbour lights symbol in 'Harbour Lights': Critic A argues it represents fading hope, since the lights grow dimmer as the play progresses; Critic B argues it represents enduring resilience, since the lights never fully go out even in the play's final scene. (a) Suggest what specific textual evidence each critic would need to support their reading. (b) Explain how you would decide, as an essay writer, which interpretation to adopt, or whether both could be defensibly combined.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 20.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “Two critics disagree about the harbour lights symbol in 'Harbour Lights': Critic A argues it represents fading hope, since the lights grow dimmer as the play progresses; Critic B argues it represents enduring resilience, since the lights never fully go out even in the play's final scene. (a) Suggest what specific textual evidence each critic would need to support their reading. (b) Explain how you would decide, as an essay writer, which interpretation to adopt, or whether both could be defensibly combined.” Their response addresses only this point: “Suggests that Critic A would need specific textual evidence of the lights' described dimming or weakening across multiple scenes to support a fading-hope reading.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 21.
In 'The Salt Road', the narrator occasionally comments with wry, distanced irony on the family's optimism ('They believed, as people always do, that this time would be different'). In 'Harbour Lights', irony instead emerges through a character's spoken dialogue that the audience recognises as self-deceiving, without any narrator to point it out. (a) Compare how irony is created in each text, given their different forms. (b) Explain why the play's form requires the audience to do more interpretive work to recognise the irony than the novel's form does.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 22.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “In 'The Salt Road', the narrator occasionally comments with wry, distanced irony on the family's optimism ('They believed, as people always do, that this time would be different'). In 'Harbour Lights', irony instead emerges through a character's spoken dialogue that the audience recognises as self-deceiving, without any narrator to point it out. (a) Compare how irony is created in each text, given their different forms. (b) Explain why the play's form requires the audience to do more interpretive work to recognise the irony than the novel's form does.” Their response addresses only this point: “Compares 'The Salt Road's' narrator-mediated irony, where the narrator explicitly signals a gap between the family's belief and a more knowing, distanced perspective.” Evaluate the response against the complete 4-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[4 marks] · no calculator - 23.
To support the claim that 'The Salt Road' portrays the mother as quietly resilient, one student cites the specific line 'She rebuilt the altar from memory, tile by tile, before she allowed herself to cry.' Another student, making the same claim, simply writes 'The mother is shown to be strong throughout the novel.' (a) Identify which piece of evidence is stronger, and why. (b) Explain what is missing from the weaker piece of evidence that prevents it from functioning as genuine literary evidence.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 24.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “To support the claim that 'The Salt Road' portrays the mother as quietly resilient, one student cites the specific line 'She rebuilt the altar from memory, tile by tile, before she allowed herself to cry.' Another student, making the same claim, simply writes 'The mother is shown to be strong throughout the novel.' (a) Identify which piece of evidence is stronger, and why. (b) Explain what is missing from the weaker piece of evidence that prevents it from functioning as genuine literary evidence.” Their response addresses only this point: “Identifies the specific quotation as the stronger piece of evidence.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 25.
A student's paragraph identifies that both works can be read in relation to the global issue of 'culture, identity and community', but stops there without further analysis. (a) Explain why simply naming a global issue is not, by itself, sufficient literary analysis at HL. (b) Explain how the student could extend this paragraph to link the named global issue to a specific technique each author uses.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 26.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student's paragraph identifies that both works can be read in relation to the global issue of 'culture, identity and community', but stops there without further analysis. (a) Explain why simply naming a global issue is not, by itself, sufficient literary analysis at HL. (b) Explain how the student could extend this paragraph to link the named global issue to a specific technique each author uses.” Their response addresses only this point: “Explains that naming a global issue only categorises the works thematically; it does not yet demonstrate any analysis of how the authors' specific literary choices actually explore that issue.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 27.
'The Salt Road's' narrator occasionally steps back from the story to offer broader commentary (an intrusive, omniscient narrator), while at other points the narration stays closely within the mother's immediate thoughts and perceptions (free indirect style). (a) Suggest one effect of the narrator's intrusive commentary on the reader's sense of perspective. (b) Suggest one different effect created when the narration shifts closely into the mother's immediate point of view.
[2 marks] · no calculator - 28.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “'The Salt Road's' narrator occasionally steps back from the story to offer broader commentary (an intrusive, omniscient narrator), while at other points the narration stays closely within the mother's immediate thoughts and perceptions (free indirect style). (a) Suggest one effect of the narrator's intrusive commentary on the reader's sense of perspective. (b) Suggest one different effect created when the narration shifts closely into the mother's immediate point of view.” Their response addresses only this point: “Suggests that intrusive, omniscient commentary creates a sense of distance and broader perspective, allowing the reader to see the family's situation within a larger context the characters themselves cannot perceive.” Evaluate the response against the complete 2-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[2 marks] · no calculator - 29.
A student's paragraph correctly identifies that both works use a water/light symbol and explains what each symbol represents. (a) Suggest one specific addition that would elevate this paragraph from solid to excellent at HL level. (b) Explain why this addition (rather than simply adding more identified symbols) is what distinguishes a genuinely top-level comparative response.
[3 marks] · no calculator - 30.
Marking analysis: A learner attempts the following task: “A student's paragraph correctly identifies that both works use a water/light symbol and explains what each symbol represents. (a) Suggest one specific addition that would elevate this paragraph from solid to excellent at HL level. (b) Explain why this addition (rather than simply adding more identified symbols) is what distinguishes a genuinely top-level comparative response.” Their response addresses only this point: “Suggests adding a 'so what' layer: an explanation of why the specific difference between the two symbols matters for understanding each author's overall message or attitude towards the shared theme, not just what each symbol individually means.” Evaluate the response against the complete 3-mark task. Identify what earns credit and state every additional requirement needed for full marks.
[3 marks] · no calculator