Now that you know what you are going to talk about (step 1) and you have all the raw materials you need to do the talking (step 2), it's time to create an outline.  This step forces you to get closer to an actual deliverable Individual Oral.

 Possible outlines (see #1)

There’s no one right way to organize your Individual Oral.  This cannot be emphasized enough.  There are many paths to success and many very different ways that could equally allow you to achieve top marks.  Once you have completed this "unofficial" outline, you will then use the official IB form and “transfer” your ideas as needed.  Your teacher will give you the official form.

There are three more additional notes to add about the outlines.  The first is that they always list literature as going first.  This is a completely arbitrary decision.  You can and will discuss the non-literary extract first in many instances.  Literature was listed first just to create consistency among them.  However, you will need to decide, based on the argument your are delivering, whether the non-literary or the literary is best positioned first.   The second note is the outlines are meant to be modified to fit your needs. I’ve left them as Microsoft Word documents so you can download them, adjust the spacing, and revamp or revise for whatever reason.  The third note is that you might not like some of the approaches mentioned.  That's to be expected and you don't have to use what you don't like.  These are all possible approaches, but not the only approach students can take.

Possible Outlines and Approaches

Outline #1

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by first zooming into the extract and then you want to zoom out to explore the whole work or body of work in connection to your global issue.  This structure also provides a clear separation between the extract and the larger work or body of work.

Outline 1 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs)

Outline #2   

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by first beginning broadly, discussing the entire work or body of work.  Then, you can zoom in on particular details in the extracts to provide more clarity and specificity to your argument.  This structure also provides a clear separation between the larger work or body of work and the extract.

Outline 2 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs) 

Outline #3

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by combining the extract with the non-literary body of work or whole literary work all together.  In this approach, you will find that you are zooming into the extract, but also zooming out to the broader picture often.  You will go back and forth between the two making sure that there is balance in the discussion of the extract and larger whole.  in other words, you will not break up the discussion of the extract from a discussion of the whole work/text.

Outline 3 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs) 

Outline #4  

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by first discussing both extracts and then discussing the whole work and non-literary body of work.  This structure allows you to offer more comparisons between the work and the text on both an extract level and on a broader whole text/work level. 

Outline 4 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs) 

Outline #5   

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by first beginning broadly, discussing the entire work and body of work.  Then, you will move to discussing each extract.  This structure allows you to offer more comparisons between the work and the text on a broader level before getting into the details of the extracts. 

Outline 5 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs) 

Outline #6  

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by delivering the oral in almost two separate chunks.  You will first offer an introduction to the literary work and then zoom into the extract before zooming out to explore the whole work. Then, you will offer a second mini-introduction before doing the exact same thing for the non-literary text.  This structure provides a clear separation between the literary work and the non-literary text.   

Outline 6 (downloaded as a word document so you can type and modify to fit your needs) 

Outline #7

Use this outline if you find your argument works best by delivering the oral in almost two separate chunks.  You will first offer an introduction to the literary work and then remain broad, discussing the entire work.  After that, you will zoom in on particular details in the extract to provide more clarity and specificity to your argument.  Then, you will offer a second mini-introduction before doing the exact same thing for the non-literary text.  This structure provides a clear separation between the literary work and the non-literary text.