In simple terms
A friendly intro before the formal notes — no formulas yet.
The Global Issue: Your IO's Blueprint
The global issue is the central, debatable idea that connects your two chosen texts. Your extracts are the specific, powerful pieces of evidence you will analyse to prove how the texts explore this issue. Getting this blueprint right is the most important step to building a successful oral.
Think of your IO as a legal case. Your global issue is the specific charge (e.g., 'corporate negligence leading to environmental harm'). Your literary and non-literary works are your two star witnesses. The extracts are the precise, damning quotes from their testimonies that you present to the jury (the examiner). A vague charge ('pollution') or weak testimony will lead to a flimsy case. A sharp, specific charge supported by powerful, well-chosen quotes will be convincing and persuasive.
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Step 1: Start with a broad Field of Inquiry (e.g., 'Culture, identity and community').
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Step 2: Narrow this down to a specific, debatable global issue (e.g., 'How cultural assimilation can lead to a crisis of individual identity').
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Step 3: Select one literary work and one non-literary body of work from your course that both explore this specific issue in compelling ways.
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Step 4: Pinpoint a 40-line (max) extract from each work that is dense with analyzable authorial choices and perfectly illustrates your global issue in action.
Explore the concept
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Full topic notes
Formal explanation with the rigour you need for the exam.
1. From Broad Topic to Sharp Global Issue
The IB defines a global issue as one that has significance on a global scale, is transnational, and has an impact that can be explored through its local manifestation in two texts. This is not the same as a simple 'topic'. A topic is a noun, like 'love' or 'war'. A global issue is a debatable proposition or a point of tension. It's the 'so what?' behind the topic.
To formulate a strong global issue, start with one of the five Fields of Inquiry and progressively narrow your focus. For example:
- Field of Inquiry: Politics, power and justice
- Broad Topic: Propaganda
- Sharper Focus: The use of propaganda to control populations
- Global Issue: The way in which political regimes use the manipulation of language to manufacture consent and suppress dissent.
This final version is specific, debatable, and provides a clear lens for analysis. It invites you to explore the how and why, which is the essence of literary and textual analysis.
Specific: Avoid vague terms. Instead of 'social class', try 'the reinforcement of social hierarchies through education'.
Significant: The issue should have real-world relevance and importance.
Transnational: It should transcend the context of a single nation, even if its manifestation in your text is local.
Debatable: It should be an 'issue' with complexity and different perspectives, not a simple fact.
2. Creating a 'Productive Tension' Between Your Works
Your chosen literary work and non-literary body of work should not just 'contain' the global issue; they should illuminate it in interesting ways. The best IOs often place two works in a 'productive tension', where they might explore the issue from different angles, in different contexts, or with different aims. For example, a novel might explore the psychological cost of consumerism on an individual, while a series of advertisements might celebrate that very same consumerism. This contrast allows for a more nuanced and evaluative discussion.
3. Selecting Extracts Rich in Authorial Choices
Your extracts are not merely 'examples' of the global issue; they are the primary evidence for your analysis of how the issue is constructed. A 'rich' extract is one that is dense with analyzable features. When you read it, you should immediately be able to identify multiple specific choices made by the author or creator. For a literary text, look for figurative language, tone shifts, character voice, symbolism, or structural features. For a non-literary text, look for visual composition, colour, typography, rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos), gaze, or juxtaposition of image and text. Your ability to perform a detailed, perceptive analysis for Criterion B depends entirely on having chosen extracts that give you material to work with.
Before finalising an extract, perform a quick 'analysis test'. Can you list at least 5-7 specific authorial choices within those 40 lines? If you are struggling to find techniques to discuss, the extract is likely too descriptive or simplistic. Find another one. The examiner is assessing your ability to analyse stylistic and structural features, not your ability to summarise a plot point.
4. Crafting a Focused and Persuasive Introduction
The introduction to your IO (the first 30-60 seconds) is your opportunity to establish a 'cogent' and 'focused' presentation, which is explicitly rewarded in Criterion C. A top-band introduction acts as a clear and confident roadmap for your examiner. It should concisely and precisely state your global issue, introduce both the literary and non-literary works, briefly mention the chosen extracts, and articulate your central argument or line of inquiry. This demonstrates that you have a clear plan and a persuasive interpretation to deliver.
State the global issue verbatim.
Name the author and title of the literary work.
Identify the creator and nature of the non-literary body of work.
Briefly contextualise your extracts (e.g., 'a scene from chapter 5 where...' or 'a print advertisement from the 2018 campaign...').
Present your thesis: what will you argue about how these two works treat the global issue?
Worked examples
See the formulas applied — reveal one step at a time, like the exam.
Formulate a global issue and justify the choice of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and a body of work consisting of three recruitment posters for the US Army.
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A student aiming for the top band would articulate their justification with precision, linking directly to the potential for analysis.
Analyse the following potential extract from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby for its suitability to explore the global issue: 'The illusion of social mobility as a cornerstone of the modern dream'.
Extract (Chapter 3): 'There was music from my neighbor’s house through the summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam.'
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This is an excellent choice for an extract. It is rich in authorial choices that directly serve the analysis of the proposed global issue.
How it all connects
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Tap a linked idea to see how it connects back to the main topic — that connection is what examiners reward.
Glossary
Try to recall each definition before you reveal it.
Quick check
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Revision flashcards
Flip the card. Test yourself before the exam.
Global Issue
A significant, transnational issue that has a local manifestation in the two chosen works. It must be specific and debatable. E.g., not 'war', but 'the way propaganda dehumanises the enemy in wartime'.
Key takeaways
Review these before you close the topic — retrieval beats re-reading.
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Specific: Avoid vague terms. Instead of 'social class', try 'the reinforcement of social hierarchies through education'.
- ✓
Significant: The issue should have real-world relevance and importance.
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Transnational: It should transcend the context of a single nation, even if its manifestation in your text is local.
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Debatable: It should be an 'issue' with complexity and different perspectives, not a simple fact.
Practice — then mark it
The whole point: a real Cambridge question, marked mark-by-mark.
Test Your Skills: Formulate & Justify
Test Your Skills: Formulate & Justify
Extra simulations & links
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Frequently asked
Checkpoint
One marked question is worth ten re-reads — close the loop before you move on.
Reading it isn’t knowing it — prove it.
Before you move on: do Test Your Skills: Formulate & Justify on paper, snap a photo, and get examiner-style feedback on exactly where you win and lose marks.