IO Question bank

The prompt:

Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content
and form of two of the works that you have studied.

Further questions, organised by area of exploration:

Readers, writers and texts

• What stance does each text take on the global issue? How is this apparent in the
way that each is written?
• Has either text changed your opinion about the global issue? Why/why not? • Do you
find either text challenging or confronting in the way it presents the global issue?
Why/why not?
• Is there an accepted reading of how the text presents the global issue? Are there
convincing alternative readings?
• Which elements of how the extract presents the global issue are typical of the
author/the text as a whole?
• Which of the author’s choices in this extract do you find most
effective/powerful/interesting in relation to the global issue?
• How does the narrative voice/perspective/speaker affect your reading of the text and
what it says about the global issue?
• How does the extract fit into the structure of the text as a whole and how significant is it in
the text’s exploration of the global issue?
• What do you think would be lost if this extract was omitted from the text? • How
does the title of the text connect to the global issue? Why do you think the author
chose this title?
• How does the author portray the relationship between character A and character B?
How does this relationship connect to the global issue?
• Does / how does the author make the reader/audience feel morally conflicted in
relation to this global issue?
• How does this extract connect to the ending of the text and what does the ending tell us
about the global issue? Does the text come to any definite conclusion regarding the
global issue?
• How does the author’s use of (insert relevant literary feature) add to the text’s
presentation of this global issue?
• Is there anything in this extract that is a motif used by the author throughout the text?
How does this motif contribute to what the text says about this global issue?

© David White, InThinking

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www.thinkib.net/englishalit

Time and Space

• (for an older text) Is what this text says about the global issue still relevant today? • (for
an older text) Has what this text says about the global issue changed over time? • How
do you think your interpretation may differ from that of one of the text’s original readers?
• How does the cultural or historical context of each text influence the way the author
writes about this global issue?
• To what extent does the extract/text give you an insight into the way another culture
perceives the global issue?
• Does the author reflect, promote or challenge the accepted views on the global issue in
his/her cultural context?
• Has the text had an influence on the way the global issue is perceived in its cultural
context? Has it had a wider influence?
• How does the extract/text represent social distinctions and identities of its time and
place, and how are these representations connected to the global issue? • To what
extent is it important for us to know about the author’s life/context when interpreting
what the text says about this global issue?
• To what extent is it important for us to know about the text’s historical/cultural context
when interpreting what it says about this global issue?
• What influence does your cultural and historical context have on the way you
interpret what this text says about the global issue?

Intertextuality
• How does the literary form or genre of each text affect the way it presents the global
issue?
• Are there any ways that the author conforms to, or challenges, the conventions of the
literary form or genre? How do these contribute to the presentation of the global
issue?
• (if relevant) How does the text use allusions to other texts in its portrayal of this
global issue?
• What are the similarities between these two texts and the way they present the global
issue?
• What are the most significant differences between the two texts and how they
present the global issue?
• Has looking at the two texts together changed the way you see this global issue? • If
these two texts were ‘in an argument’ about the global issue, which would win and why?
© David White, InThinking
2
www.thinkib.net/englishalit