In Paper 2, a plan written before the first sentence serves all five criteria of the assessment.
It prevents arguments that drift from the question (Criterion A).
Ensures each paragraph commits to a named technique and its effect (Criterion B1),
It maps comparison across both texts so B2 is built into the structure rather than added as an afterthought.
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How Integrated Comparative Analysis Satisfies Criterion B1 and B2 Simultaneously
Integrated comparison weaves both texts through every paragraph.
Point-by-point structure (finishing Text 1 entirely before discussing Text 2) limits Criterion B2 marks because it reduces comparison to juxtaposition rather than analysis.
Criterion B2 marks are awarded based on the depth of analysis of the selected works, not the quantity of similarities and differences discussed.
It’s the analysis and evaluation of the similarities and/or differences that matters, which means one well-developed comparison outscores three surface-level ones.
Example
Each paragraph follows this sequence:
Point: A topic sentence naming the thematic concern and linking it to the question. Open with the idea, not a writer's name or a quotation.
Example: "Both writers present memory as a site of distortion rather than reliable testimony, addressing the question's concern with how narrators construct truth."
Text 1 (B1): Quote precisely and name the technique.
Example: "Ishiguro's use of free indirect discourse in 'I half-knew, even then' withholds certainty at the grammatical level, implicating the reader in the narrator's unreliability rather than announcing it."
Text 2 (B1): Analyse the second text the same way.
Example: "Atwood constructs instability through tense shifts. 'I would like to believe' signals aspiration rather than recollection, foregrounding the act of narration as a conscious, unreliable construction."
Comparison (B2): Compare both writers explicitly by focusing on similarities, differences, or both. Use analytical verbs: juxtaposes, reinforces, subverts, qualifies, complicates.
Example: "Where Ishiguro dissolves the boundary between knowing and not-knowing within a single clause, Atwood externalises the gap. Her narrator announces unreliability rather than enacting it, making the reader a conscious witness to the construction of narrative rather than an unwitting participant in it."
Link: Return to the thesis and the question's precise wording.
