Critical Response: the outline (HL only)

For Written Task 2 - the critical response - you do not have to write a rationale because the type of text (formal essay) and main questions are pre-determined. Instead, you have to write an outline, similar in length to the rationale, in which you address the following points:

• the prescribed question that has been chosen
• the title of the text(s) for analysis
• the part of the course to which the text refers
• three or four key points that explain the particular focus of the task

(You could even start by writing the outline as the lay-out for your actual response!)

The IB guide adds the following useful information:

Where appropriate, task 2 must reference, in a bibliography, the relevant support documentation such as the newspaper article or magazine advertisement on which it is based.              

Where a complete shorter text is chosen (for example, a newspaper article or an advertisement from a magazine) students may refer to other texts to support their response.

The critical response is in the style of a formal essay and must be clearly structured with an introduction, clearly developed ideas or arguments and a conclusion.