IB English IO: How to Choose a Global Issue That Works

Most students do not run out of things to say in the Individual Oral because they failed to memorise enough techniques.

They run out because the global issue and text pairing were weak before they began planning.

A broad issue can leave you repeating the same point for ten minutes. A narrow issue may fit one extract beautifully but disappear when you move to the wider work. A promising pairing can also fail if one text gives you sophisticated authorial choices while the other gives you little beyond thematic similarity.

The strongest preparation therefore starts before the outline.

You need a global issue that survives four tests: both extracts, both wider works or bodies of work, sustained analysis of authorial choices, and ten minutes of focused discussion.

Know Exactly What the English A Individual Oral Requires

Under the current IB Language A framework, the Individual Oral lasts 15 minutes. For taught students, the first 10 minutes are your oral, followed by 5 minutes of teacher questions. It is internally assessed and externally moderated by the IB.

The text combination depends on your English A course.

In Language and Literature, you select one literary work and one non-literary body of work. You then choose one extract from each.

In Literature, you select two literary works. For English A, one must have been originally written in English and the other studied in translation.

This distinction matters when looking at online examples. Advice written for Language and Literature cannot always be copied into Literature, and English B Individual Oral guidance describes a different assessment altogether.

The task is also not primarily a comparison exercise. The IB’s 2026 examiner instructions state that students should explore how the chosen global issue is presented in each extract and the wider works or bodies of work. Direct comparison can sometimes help your discussion, but comparison is not the requirement itself.

A Global Issue Is More Specific Than a Theme

“Gender inequality” is too broad.

“Power” is too broad.

“Identity” is too broad.

These may be useful starting areas, but they do not yet give your oral a precise analytical direction.

The IB describes a suitable global issue as something that has significance on a large scale, crosses national boundaries and affects everyday local contexts.

The difference becomes clearer when you refine the wording.

Instead of:

Gender inequality

Try:

The use of social institutions to restrict women’s personal autonomy

Instead of:

Migration

Try:

The effect of forced displacement on an individual’s sense of cultural belonging

Instead of:

Media

Try:

The use of visual representation to normalise political surveillance

A stronger global issue tells you what relationship you are investigating. That gives you something to analyse rather than merely identify.

Ask whether the issue can produce a sentence beginning with “the author presents this issue through...” If you immediately have several precise answers involving voice, imagery, structure, perspective, visual composition, typography, symbolism or another authorial choice, the issue is probably giving you analytical material.

Test the Pairing Before You Choose the Extracts

A text should not enter your IO merely because it mentions the same topic as another text.

The pairing has to generate analysis.

Before committing, imagine that both extracts have been removed. Can you still explain how the global issue operates across each wider work or body of work?

Then do the opposite. Look only at the possible extracts. Can you identify several meaningful authorial choices that shape the presentation of the issue?

You need both levels.

The extract gives you precision. The wider work gives you range.

The IB examiner guidance specifically expects balance between discussion of the extracts and discussion of the works or body of work they come from.

If your entire argument depends on one powerful page or one advertisement while the issue barely appears elsewhere, the pairing is fragile.

Three Worked Global Issue and Text Pairings

These examples are planning demonstrations, not ready made IO choices. You can only use works and bodies of work that have been studied as part of your own course, and your teacher should confirm that your selections meet the assessment requirements.

Language and Literature example 1

Global issue: The use of social control to restrict women’s bodily autonomy

Literary work: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Possible non-literary body of work: Selected visual works by Barbara Kruger studied in class

Why can this pairing work?

Atwood offers control through narration, institutional language, ritual, symbolism and the regulation of the female body. Kruger’s visual work can provide a very different set of authorial choices through typography, pronouns, image selection, scale, contrast and direct address.

The useful connection is not simply that both concern women. The global issue gives you a more precise lens: how systems of control are represented and challenged.

A weak version of this oral would spend ten minutes explaining patriarchy.

A stronger version would examine how specific choices make systems of control visible to an audience.

Language and Literature example 2

Global issue: The effect of displacement on cultural identity and belonging

Literary work: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Possible non-literary body of work: A studied body of migration photography by one photographer, such as Dorothea Lange

The question to test is whether your actual studied selections give you enough evidence about displacement, identity and belonging.

In Persepolis, you might find material in visual contrast, narration, panel structure, cultural symbolism and shifts between private and public identity.

A photographic body of work could provide choices involving framing, gaze, setting, distance, composition and the representation of subjects.

The pairing works only if your discussion moves beyond “both show displaced people.” You need to explain how each creator constructs a perspective on displacement.

Literature example 3

Global issue: The pressure of prescribed gender roles on women’s self determination

Work in translation: A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Work originally written in English: A suitable work studied in your course, such as Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife

This pairing offers a route into dramatic structure, dialogue, characterization, irony, poetic voice, revision of traditional narratives and shifts in perspective.

Again, the global issue is doing important work. “Gender” would be too loose. The revised wording directs the oral towards the pressure created by prescribed roles and the ways women respond to them.

For English A Literature, confirm the original language status of your selected works with your teacher. The course requires one work originally written in the Language A studied and one work studied in translation.

Choose Extracts That Give You More Than a Theme

The IB guides state that extracts should normally contain no more than 40 lines. They must be continuous rather than a collage of separate quotations. Where line counts do not make sense, the amount selected should still be manageable enough for detailed analysis.

Do not automatically choose the scene where the global issue is most obvious.

Choose the extract where the creator gives you the most to analyse.

A useful extract lets you move through three levels: what is happening, what authorial choices construct the moment, and how those choices connect to the global issue across the larger work.

If your notes consist mostly of plot points, keep looking.

If your extract contains several techniques but you cannot explain why they matter to the global issue, keep looking.

The best extract is not necessarily the most dramatic passage. It is the passage that gives you a concentrated example of a pattern you can also trace elsewhere.

Structure the Ten Minutes Around Four Areas of Attention

There is no single mandatory IO structure.

The IB examiner instructions explicitly recognise different approaches, including linear, conceptual and integrated structures. What matters under Criterion C is structure, balance, focus and cohesion.

However, your rehearsal should check that you have given meaningful attention to four areas:

1. The first extract and its authorial choices.
2. The first wider work or body of work.
3. The second extract and its authorial choices.
4. The second wider work or body of work.
5. Your global issue remains the lens throughout all four areas, rather than becoming a separate topic discussed only in the introduction.

A practical rehearsal might leave a short opening to define the global issue and establish the texts, then distribute most of the ten minutes fairly evenly across the four areas before reaching a concise conclusion.

Do not treat that as an official timing formula. The IB does not prescribe a minute by minute template.

What matters is that one text does not consume most of the oral while the other receives a rushed final section.

Understand What the Four Criteria Actually Reward

The Individual Oral is marked out of 40. There are four criteria, each worth 10 marks. That means every criterion contributes 25% of the IO mark. The IO itself contributes 30% of the final course result at SL and 20% at HL.

Criterion	What it assesses	Marks
A	Knowledge, understanding and interpretation	10
B	Analysis and evaluation	10
C	Focus and organisation	10
D	Language	10
Total		40

Criterion A is not just remembering the texts. The IB expects knowledge and understanding to lead to interpretation, supported by relevant references to the extracts and wider works.

Criterion B is where feature spotting fails. Naming a metaphor, camera angle or contrast is not enough. You need to analyse how authorial choices create meaning and evaluate their significance in presenting the global issue.

Criterion C rewards sustained focus, logical development, balance and cohesion. A fascinating paragraph that drifts away from the global issue can therefore weaken the oral even if the analysis itself is intelligent.

Criterion D assesses how clearly, accurately and appropriately you communicate. The current examiner guidance also warns that an oral which sounds excessively scripted, memorised or mechanical is unlikely to access the highest levels here.

Use the Ten Bullet Outline as a Memory Map

The IB allows a maximum of 10 bullet points on the outline form. The outline should support the oral rather than become a script that you read aloud.

Build those bullets around ideas, references and transitions.

One bullet might remind you of an authorial choice in the extract. Another might point to a related moment elsewhere in the work. Another might remind you how that evidence advances your interpretation of the global issue.

The aim is to preserve your reasoning under pressure.

Do not try to compress a ten minute speech into ten miniature paragraphs.

For further practice with analysing authorial choices, read our guide to IB English literary commentary. The task is different, but the habit of moving from textual evidence to authorial choice to meaning transfers directly to IO preparation.

Finalise the Global Issue Before You Rehearse Delivery

Students often spend too much time practising how the oral sounds before proving that the underlying pairing works.

Reverse the order.

First test the global issue against both texts. Then test both extracts. Then map the wider works. Only after you have enough analytical material should you start compressing it into ten minutes.

Resources such as Clastify’s Individual Oral overview, Lanterna’s current IO guide and Revision Village’s English A resources can help you see different approaches to preparation. Revision Village’s current IO materials also emphasise building the global issue, selecting extracts and connecting them to the wider work.

Use those resources alongside the current IB guide and your teacher’s instructions.

The goal is not to find a formula that guarantees ten minutes of speaking.

It is to choose a global issue and pairing that naturally produce ten minutes of meaningful analysis.

For wider DP study support, explore Koncepts for DP students.

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