For my HL essay submission, I had five essays prepared that were usable. As I was less familiar with the IB HL essay format in junior year, I was less inclined to use my first three essays. The first essay was about the video essays Pronouns and The Aesthetic by Natalie Wynn, and I felt that this essay was very unfocused due to the lengths of the texts in question. The second essay was about the opinion article by Joseph Epstein “Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D.”, which I felt took too much of an editorial approach that was inappropriate for this kind of submission. The third essay was about the TV show Riverdale on the CW, and this faced a similar problem to my first essay, which was that I was attempting to analyze a five-season TV show.
This left me with the two essays I did this year: the first was on the novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë, and the second was on the poems “Valentine for Ernest Mann”, “Trying to Name What Doesn't Change”, and “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye. I was stuck between these two essays for a while, and I didn't have any preference that would help me decide like you suggested. I ended up deciding to submit the Nye essay.
To be completely honest, when writing the essay about Nye's poetry, I did not intend for it to be the essay I would submit to IB. I mainly chose the Nye essay because it presented my ideas more clearly than the Jane Eyre essay, which would frankly benefit from the addition of a couple hundred (or couple thousand) words to properly communicate the ideas I wanted to communicate. I also thought that the organization of the essay (1 paragraph for introduction, 2 paragraphs for each poem, 1 paragraph for conclusion) was easier to follow. And rereading these papers, the Nye essay seemed to fit better into its theme (transformation) than the Jane Eyre essay (communication), even though I had struggles with both while writing.
Write a reflection of at least 300 words where you review your process and reflect in detail about the draft you have submitted for your IB Language & Literature grade and how well you think it applies to the expectations of the HL essay.
For my IB HL essay, I submitted an essay about conceptual transformations in the poetry of Naomi Shihab Nye, specifically the poems “Valentine for Ernest Mann”, “Trying to Name What Doesn't Change”, and “Kindness”. I honestly did not imagine this would be the draft I would end up submitting. This was in part because I already had a draft I was happy with—my essay about the representation of the worker's struggle in Jane Eyre. Although the HL essay draft about Nye's poetry dealt with more abstract ideas, I feel that I was able to organize my thoughts effectively.
After selecting my essay about Nye to be the essay I would submit, my main challenge was articulating my line of inquiry. Because this essay was broad in scope, I had to refine my idea for my line of inquiry (only in the introduction, I didn't need to adapt my wording throughout the entire essay). I had to introduce some central ideas of my essay in the introduction (transformations through time in one person and transformations through different people) in order to contextualize what I meant by “conceptual transformations”.
My one worry is that I didn't apply my analysis well enough to the form of a poem, rather focusing more on the ideas she presents. However, throughout my editing process prior to submission, I couldn't identify any other ways to include these elements in the essay. Instead, I attempted to emphasize the times I do mention the elements of a poem (like when I identify 3 realizations, one for each stanza).
I feel that the content of this essay is up to par with the expectations of an IB HL essay. I imagine that the organization is the primary strength of the essay, while connections to the textual type is the primary weakness of the essay.