IB English A: Paper 2 Start to Finish Video #5 - Thesis and Outline

Summary

In this video, Andrew and Dave guide students through the process of preparing a strong comparative essay for IB English Paper 2. They break down the importance of understanding the exam question, specifically analyzing the key terms such as 'how,' 'struggle,' and 'understood.' By focusing on two texts, 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' the presenters discuss comparative thinking, family conflict, silence, shame, and father-son dynamics. They emphasize authorial choices, developing a thesis, and structuring an outline for the essay, while encouraging students to engage deeply with their chosen works.

Takeaways

• 📝 Before writing a strong Paper 2 response, it's crucial to break down the question and understand its key components.
• 🔍 Analyzing the question thoroughly involves identifying command words, nuances, and understanding what the question is asking.
• 🤔 Important questions to consider include: who is trying to be understood, who is doing the understanding, and what message the characters want to convey.
• 💡 Comparative analysis should focus on key themes and motifs in both texts to answer the question effectively.
• 🛠️ The authors' choices, such as characterization, symbolism, and the ending, are central to analyzing how the struggle to be understood is portrayed.
• 👨‍👦 In both 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' family conflict, especially between fathers and sons, is a major theme linked to the struggle for understanding.
• ⚔️ In 'A Family Supper,' the father's silence and conservative background create a barrier to understanding, while in 'Stones,' PTSD and shame are central obstacles for the father.
• 🍽️ Symbolism plays a significant role in both stories, with cooking symbolizing indirect communication in 'A Family Supper' and the hammer representing anger in 'Stones.'
• 📜 The thesis statement for the essay should compare the two fathers’ inability to articulate their emotions, leading to family discord and fragmentation.
• 🗂️ Organizing the essay requires discussing the fathers’ characterization, symbolism, and the resolution of their struggles, ensuring a structured and coherent response.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the video?

The video focuses on preparing to write a strong Paper 2 response in IB English, specifically discussing how two works portray the struggle to be understood.

Why is it important to break down the essay question before starting the response?

Breaking down the essay question is crucial to understanding the key terms, command words, and nuances in the question. It ensures the response addresses all aspects of the prompt effectively.

What is meant by 'how' in the essay question?

The word 'how' in the essay question refers to examining the author's choices, including narrative techniques, literary devices, and stylistic elements, to convey meaning and themes.

Why is the concept of 'struggle' emphasized in the question?

The concept of 'struggle' emphasizes the difficulty characters face in trying to be understood, exploring themes of conflict, communication barriers, and emotional expression in the stories.

What are some key questions students should ask when analyzing the question?

Students should ask who is trying to be understood, who is doing the understanding, what message the character or author is trying to convey, and whether the struggle to be understood is resolved in the text.

What role does family conflict play in the comparison of the two stories?

Family conflict is central in both stories, where characters face struggles to be understood by family members, often due to generational differences or cultural contexts.

How does silence function in both stories?

Silence is a recurring element in both stories, symbolizing unspoken tension and emotional barriers. In 'A Family Supper,' the father's silence reflects his conservative background, while in 'Stones,' silence is related to the father's PTSD and shame.

How is the theme of shame explored in both stories?

In 'A Family Supper,' shame stems from cultural expectations and family failures, while in 'Stones,' the father's shame is tied to his war trauma and inability to reintegrate into his community.

What are some differences in the endings of the two stories?

The ending of 'A Family Supper' is ambiguous, leaving unresolved tensions, while 'Stones' provides a more definitive sense of closure, particularly in the father's death and his final wishes.

What is the thesis statement created for this comparative essay?

The thesis statement is: 'While the circumstances of their struggles are vastly different, the two fathers in A Family Supper and Stones both struggle to articulate their feelings and cope with their emotions. This struggle has dire consequences for the family dynamic and in both cases results in fragmentation and discord.'

Outlines

00:00

🎬 Introduction to the Paper 2 Response

Andrew and Dave introduce the topic of preparing a strong Paper 2 response in IB English. They've already discussed the stories 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' and how to approach comparative analysis. They emphasize the importance of breaking down the question to understand its components, such as command words and nuances. The question they focus on is: 'How do two of The Works you have studied portray the struggle to be understood?'

05:01

🔍 Breaking Down the Question

The presenters dive into the key terms of the question, beginning with 'how,' which prompts an analysis of authorial choices. They discuss the word 'struggle,' associating it with conflict, and examine the idea of being understood. This leads to a deeper exploration of who is struggling to be understood and by whom—whether it's the characters, the reader, or the author. This analysis is critical to forming a thoughtful response.

10:02

🧠 Asking Questions to Clarify the Topic

Andrew and Dave encourage students to ask questions about the question itself, such as who is trying to be understood and what the message is that needs to be understood. They also reflect on whether the struggle for understanding is resolved by the end of each story. They suggest focusing on key themes, motifs, and comparing beginnings and endings to address the question.

📊 Using Comparative Charts for Analysis

The presenters refer back to the comparative chart created in previous lessons to identify key relationships between the two texts. They emphasize the importance of comparing themes such as family conflict, generational differences, and silence. These elements are critical in both stories, and understanding them is key to answering the question about the struggle to be understood.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family Conflict in Both Texts

Family conflict is at the core of both 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' with characters struggling to understand one another. The presenters highlight how flashbacks and cultural contexts contribute to this lack of understanding, and how generational conflict plays a significant role. They also discuss the silence that exists between characters as a form of unspoken tension.

😶 Silence and Shame in the Struggle to Be Understood

The presenters analyze how silence in 'A Family Supper' is tied to the father’s inability to express himself due to cultural and emotional barriers. In 'Stones,' silence stems from PTSD and shame, preventing characters from communicating. They further compare the themes of shame in both stories, linking it to the families' breakdowns and decisions regarding self-harm and emotional detachment.

📜 Comparing Endings and Resolutions

Andrew and Dave compare the endings of the two stories. While 'A Family Supper' has an ambiguous conclusion, leaving the struggle unresolved, 'Stones' provides more closure with a definitive ending. They reflect on how these different endings reflect the characters’ struggles and the authors' narrative choices, highlighting the importance of authorial decisions in shaping the stories.

🧩 Crafting a Thesis Statement

The presenters create a thesis statement focusing on the similarities between the two fathers in 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones.' Despite their different circumstances, both fathers struggle to articulate their emotions, which has destructive consequences for their families. They stress the importance of clearly structured, concise thesis statements, encouraging students to focus on both similarities and differences in their analysis.

✍️ Structuring the Essay: Authorial Choices

They guide students on how to structure their essays, starting with character analysis. They suggest focusing on the characterization of the fathers in both texts, using broad authorial choices as a framework. The authors’ portrayal of the fathers’ struggles to be understood through narrative and symbolism will be the core of the analysis.

🔨 Symbolism and Indirect Communication

Symbolism is explored as a key element in both stories. In 'A Family Supper,' the father expresses his emotions indirectly through cooking, a reflection of cultural traditions. In 'Stones,' the father's emotions are conveyed through violent outbursts, with the hammer symbolizing his anger. These symbolic choices illustrate how the fathers’ inability to communicate directly reflects their internal struggles.

📚 Analyzing the Endings for Meaning

The final part of the analysis focuses on the endings of the two stories. In 'A Family Supper,' the ambiguous ending reflects the unresolved nature of the father's struggle to be understood. Conversely, in 'Stones,' the father’s final wish to be buried as a stone among stones symbolizes closure and acceptance. This comparison emphasizes the different narrative approaches taken by the authors.

📝 Preparing for Writing the Paper 2 Response

The presenters conclude by summarizing the importance of planning and preparation before writing a Paper 2 response. They encourage students to break down the question, refer back to their comparative charts, and focus on authorial choices when crafting a thesis. The process of drafting an outline is crucial to structuring a coherent, well-argued essay.

Keywords

💡Paper 2

Paper 2 is the second written exam in the IB English course, focusing on comparative analysis. Students must choose a question and write a comparative essay based on two literary works they have studied. In the video, the presenters emphasize the importance of breaking down the question and comparative thinking to prepare for this paper.

💡Struggle to be understood

This concept refers to the difficulty characters face in conveying their emotions, thoughts, or feelings to others. In the video, the presenters analyze how this struggle manifests in two works of literature—'A Family Supper' and 'Stones'—through themes like family conflict, silence, and emotional repression.

💡Authorial choices

Authorial choices are deliberate decisions made by writers to shape meaning, such as characterization, symbolism, and narrative structure. In the context of the video, understanding these choices is key to analyzing how authors portray the 'struggle to be understood' in their works.

💡Comparative analysis

Comparative analysis involves examining similarities and differences between two literary texts. In this video, the presenters guide students on how to compare elements like characterization, themes, and endings in 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones' to create a coherent essay response for Paper 2.

💡Breaking down the question

Breaking down the question means analyzing the key terms, command words, and nuances of an exam question before answering it. The presenters stress that this step is essential to writing a focused and accurate Paper 2 response, as it ensures a deep understanding of what the question is asking.

💡Family conflict

Family conflict is a central theme in both 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' where the relationships between family members are fraught with misunderstandings and tension. The video highlights how the struggle to be understood often occurs within these family dynamics, leading to emotional disconnection and conflict.

💡Cultural context

Cultural context refers to the societal, historical, and cultural backdrop against which a story unfolds. In the video, the presenters discuss how the conservative, traditional Japanese setting of 'A Family Supper' and the post-war context in 'Stones' shape the characters’ struggles to be understood.

💡Shame

Shame is a powerful emotion affecting characters' actions and communication in both stories. In 'A Family Supper,' the father’s shame over his family’s failures hinders open communication, while in 'Stones,' the father’s shame about his wartime experiences isolates him from his family and community. The video explores how shame complicates the struggle to be understood.

💡Silence

Silence is used as a narrative and symbolic element in both 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones.' It represents unspoken tension, emotional repression, and the characters' inability to articulate their feelings. The video points out how silence contributes to the characters' struggles to communicate and be understood by others.

💡Thesis statement

A thesis statement is the central argument or claim in an essay. In the video, the presenters craft a comparative thesis focusing on the two fathers in 'A Family Supper' and 'Stones,' both of whom struggle to articulate their emotions. The thesis reflects the central theme of family dynamics and emotional repression in both stories.

Highlights

Breaking down the question is crucial to understanding its components before writing a strong response.

Focus on the command words and nuances of the question to ensure a well-structured answer.

The word 'how' in the question refers to analyzing the author's choices and how they shape meaning for the reader.

The word 'struggle' indicates difficulty faced by characters, which can be explored through conflicts in the texts.

Consider who is trying to be understood and who is doing the understanding when analyzing the text.

The struggle to be understood could be seen from the perspective of the character, the reader, or the author.

Analyze the resolution of the struggle in both texts and whether it is resolved by the end of the story.

The comparative chart helps organize key themes and ideas for comparison between the two works.

Both stories feature family conflict and generational struggles, key themes in understanding the characters.

Silence in both stories symbolizes unspoken tension and the inability to communicate, impacting the struggle to be understood.

Shame is another significant theme, influencing how characters feel misunderstood or disconnected from others.

The ending of 'A Family Supper' is ambiguous, whereas 'Stones' offers a more definitive sense of closure.

Symbolism, such as the use of cooking in 'A Family Supper' and the hammer in 'Stones', reflects emotional expression in both stories.

Fathers in both stories struggle to express their feelings, which has severe consequences for their relationships.

Creating a clear, comparative thesis statement is essential, and it’s acceptable to use two sentences to maintain clarity.

Transcripts

hi I'm Andrew and I'm Dave and we are

the IB English guys today is video

number five where we're going to talk

about preparing to write a strong paper

to response we've already looked at a

family supper in detail we've looked at

Stones we've talked about these two

stories individually and we've done our

comparative thinking in our comparative

chart and now we're ready to write yeah

I remember students and teachers if you

like this style of teaching and learning

this is part of our whole school

resources and students you can also find

this resource in the paper 2 exam review

it's part of our four students page now

Mr Giles today I think we want to talk

about breaking down the question can you

talk about why that's so important yeah

absolutely before we can actually write

a strong paper to response we need to

choose a question and then we need to

break down that question by breaking

down the question we're going to look at

what are the different components of

that question what are they asking us to

do yeah if we don't understand all the

command words and all the nuances of the

words in the question itself we're not

going to write a good response we have

to make sure we we take time pause and

break that down why don't you start us

off today Mr Giles yeah let's take a

look at the question that we're being

asked that we've chosen to focus on and

that is as follows how do two of The

Works you have studied portray the

struggle to be understood all right on

how do two of The Works you have studied

portray the struggle to be understood

all right Giles let's talk about some of

the key words that we want to think

about if we were answering this question

okay so one of the I mean the first word

I see that is the word how and

oftentimes we're going to be asked how

when we think about how what are we

being asked to do we're thinking about

authorial choices we're thinking about

the author's craft and how they make

deliberate choices to shape meaning for

the reader or for the audience depending

on what text type you're working with uh

Giles we must include that because we

know that's part of Criterion B of our

assessment rubric I also see some other

powerful words in there as well I think

the word struggle is really important

what might you say about the word

struggle well a struggle you know

conveys this idea of difficulty

something that that's that a character

or the author or someone that they're

they're trying to get through and of

course the struggle in this case is the

struggle to be understood and that's an

interesting idea I like to be understood

by someone else right yeah and I think

about struggles I'm immediately thinking

about the word conflict and I'm thinking

about all the different types of

conflict we can explore in our two

respective texts and again thinking

about are those characters being

understood there's a lot to think about

here just breaking down the language of

the question yeah that's right now we

want to also we want to ask questions

ask questions of the question this is

again what you need to do with your

brain and think about well how can I

tackle this question for my chosen works

so what are some questions that we could

ask of this question like the struggle

to be understood yeah I think a really

good question is who who's doing the

understanding is it the character

themself is it the reader is it the

author trying to be understood through

the character I think there are a lot of

different angles we can play when we

look at this idea this notion of being

understood that's right what are some

questions you might want to ask Mr Giles

I I might want to once I've thought

about out who is trying to be understood

and who is who is the unders who is

understanding right right we have two

sides I also want to think about well

what actually is the message that they

want to be understood I need to

understand that too yeah that's critical

you want to think about the key themes

and motifs of The Works themselves

because that's probably going to be the

main backbone that goes through your

whole response you're not going to come

up with some obscure interpretation you

want to go through the meet Mr Giles

yeah that's good and lastly I might want

to think about well is this struggle to

be understood actually resolved in this

in this story or in this text how they

resolved that yeah that's actually

really smart because we know we have

different types of endings in our two

works that we do we can think about

beginnings and endings as broad

authorial choices when we're examining

works okay that's great so that's kind

of thinking about the question so we're

thinking about that struggle to be

understood and we're thinking about how

authors are trying to convey that so now

that we've done all this heavy lifting

in our previous videos we need to go to

that comparative chart and do some

thinking about well how can we tackle

this question yeah it'd be a shame to

make that compare part of the chart and

then come back to it we made that

because we know we want to come back to

it so let's look at that comparative

chart let's look at the themes and Big

Ideas down the left hand side and let's

see if we can find some interesting

relationships that we can compare and

contrast as we go through these two

texts that's great the first thing that

we came up with when we made that chart

is family conflict we've we know that

but in both of these stories you know at

the heart of these stories are families

and they're thinking about that the

conflict that exists and within that can

be that struggle to be understood family

members trying to understand each other

sure and we think about the cultural

context of both works we think about how

flashback is used and how one character

in stones for example has experience

something other characters have not we

see many reasons for this lack of

understanding within the two respective

works yeah I love that and I think

that's interesting is generational too I

think the generations are something I

want to we're at my head around we also

talked about silence there's a lot of

Silence in both of these stories and of

course when their cylads people aren't

talking and that could convey they the

fact that there's unspoken tension yeah

you know I know I think about the father

from a family supper and his silence

really Taps into that notion that he is

not understood but because of his

conservative background and his

traditional Japanese Society he doesn't

really have the skills or the emotional

wherewithal to be understood and

communicate directly that's that's a

huge difference from the other texts

what's the the lack of understanding the

lack of speaking the other text comes

from something else yeah it's it's

mental illness it's PTSD and like the

fact that he feels this deep shame and

he can't really Express himself again

those are really powerful you mentioned

the word shame and I see that's another

big idea down the left hand side of our

chart can you talk about that comparing

and contrasting the two stories because

ultimately that's what we have to do

yeah I think in in a family supper this

idea of Shame this shame that that

Watanabe the business partner felt um

when they lost their company but also a

little bit of the shame that the father

might feel because his his kids have

left the family

and I think the shame that the mother

fell when her son left for the U.S

that's again that that is at play in

this story and they're not expressing

that shame in a in a positive way and

unfortunately they choose self-harm as a

way to express that yeah it's that's

damaged and I think about that lack of

understanding in a family supper now

conversely if we look at Stones the lack

of understanding yes it has to do with

the family but it's also between the

father and this community at large as

well uh when he comes back from diep he

doesn't feel like he fits well he feels

a great sense of Shame and that prevents

him from successfully interacting within

his community so I think those are

similar but they're also a bit different

as well yeah that's good why don't we

move forward and talk about the ending a

little bit as well yeah that's right the

endings we know again we we see this

sort of ambiguity in a family supper and

how things are kind of left hanging

again perhaps things haven't really been

resolved like we talked about and then

in in Stones is a much more definitive

sense of closure and and and and and and

a more a less ambiguous ending so we

have other things that we talked about

we talked about the use of Darkness that

could convey in a sense history we

talked about different settings and how

settings sort of tap into that idea I'm

being understood based on where the

authors chose to put their two works

yeah and then lastly we talked about

lonely fathers and we thought about you

know the fact that these fathers are

very isolated and and I think the

stories are very much about Fathers and

Sons uh and in both stories these these

fathers can't express their feelings now

I think this is again where we ended up

focusing on this idea of the Fathers as

characters now remember when we start

actually getting into this rudimentary

outline which we're going to construct

in a moment we want to think about the

how how are the authors showing these

connections we want to think about the

keyword struggle and we want to maintain

our focus on the word understood as we

go down Giles now that we've sort of

gone through and done this comparative

thinking we have some ideas where we'd

like to go what do you say we get to

that thesis statement yeah absolutely

let's do that so again we're thinking

about a comparative thesis statement

we're focusing on the wording of the

question that idea of struggled to be

understood and in this case we're

focusing on the fathers hopefully all of

our comparative discussion got you like

showed you how we eventually arrived at

that idea so here's the thesis statement

we came up with well the circumstances

of their struggles are vastly different

the two fathers in a family supper and

Stones both struggle to articulate their

feelings and cope with their emotions

this struggle has dire consequences for

the family Dynamic and in both cases

results in fragmentation and Discord

okay Giles first of all some things I

notice I love the fact that this writer

has opted for two sentences in the

thesis statement that's perfectly fine

don't try to smash a bunch of ideas

together and sacrifice your grammatical

accuracy I love how the initial sentence

starts with the word while then we have

a comma then the second half of that of

that Clause I I think we've done well

they're putting in ideas and would you

say this writer is going to focus on

similarities or differences definitely

similarities I mean although there's

there's situations are different and the

way that they struggle is different we

clearly both fathers are unable to

articulate their feelings great now that

we've sort of taken you through our

thesis statement for our texts again

you're thinking about okay you're doing

the comparative work with your attacks

you're thinking about a thesis for your

two texts we'll show you our rudimentary

outline and then we'll encourage you to

do the same Giles how might our writer

organize this response after the

introduction they're going to move into

their first set of body paragraphs yeah

we have to think about what are our

comparative points the first comparative

point is just the characterization of

the Father the way that that father is

characterized again through that first

person narrator in both cases it's a

stun talking about their fathers and

again that's first we're going to talk

about how the character of a family

supper is characterized in relation to

that struggle to be understood and then

we're going to look at the

characterization of the father that

we're going to do that in Stones as well

looking at the characterization of the

father in stones and his struggle to be

understood notice folks that

characterization is a broad authorial

choice we're sort of pinning our idea

into that broad authorial choice of

characterization then we're going to use

other supporting elements and textual

references to talk about how the authors

characterize the respective fathers yeah

the next comparative Point really is

looking at symbolism in fact it's it's

another broad authorial choice and we're

going to look at actually how the father

and a family supper does kind of

communicate his feelings not through

words but through cooking and through

kind of that indirectness that is again

I think typical of sort of traditional

Japanese culture yeah there's some

really rich symbols there and similarly

in Stones we see some more Rich symbols

how the father expresses his anger and

emotion more in a violent way I think

I'd be focusing on the symbol of the

hammer uh with respect to this emotional

characterization and then finally Mr

Giles when we're out of characterization

we're out of symbols I think the last

place I'd want to focus on would be the

ending that's a broad authorial Choice

as well what might we say about the

endings of these two respective works I

think the final like struggle that that

that ability to kind of overcome the the

that struggle at the end of a family

supper the sort of ambiguity of that

um and then his his attempt to discuss

Watanabe is again his way to kind of

show that that he loves his kids and

he's not he was not he doesn't condo

what not Watanabe did that's important

and then and similarly we see in uh

stones that his final the father's final

wishes to kind of be buried his for his

to be a stone among Stones I think

that's part of the closure yeah I think

we've done well here Mr Jaws we've

looked at the both these stories in

detail we have some broad authorial

choices that's the how the authors make

choices to show that struggle to be

understood and we're thinking about how

those choices shape meaning folks now

we'd like to encourage you to go through

a similar process uh we'd like you to

take a paper two question we have some

sample questions in the video

description below we'd like you to go

back first we'd like you to choose a

question and then go back to your

comparative table and start playing with

ideas craft a thesis and think about

what are the broad authorial choices in

your two texts that can help answer the

question create that rudimentary outline

and then Giles we're going to see them

back for our next video when we start

finally with the writing process in the

end we want you to remember that it

takes a lot of planning and a lot of

preparation don't just jump right in and

start writing break down the question

reference all that great work we've done

and we believe you're on your way to

paper 2 success thanks for watching and

we'll see you next time on the channel

thanks guys