Writing Tasks - Piece Layout

1.
Read the Question! It will reveal three key things for you:
PURPOSE - Inf/Exp/Des or Arg/Pers/Adv or Ana/Rev/Comm
AUDIENCE - Peers, teachers, parents, public, readers (you'd write very differently if it was your friends than if it was a group of teachers!)
FORMAT - What style are you writing in? Speech, Plain Writing (where it doesn't give you a format), Letter, Article, Talk.

2.
Now plan!
Plan at least FOUR points you will cover - these will be your descriptive paragraphs.
E.g. - "The moon is made of green cheese" Write the words of a speech defending your point of view.
Plan
- Look of the moon
- Cheese chunks falling to earth
- Americans on moon - cheese secrets
- Preserved in space

3.
Introduction
This is where you grab your audience. Try one of these techniques
- Short one/two word sentences (Moon. Cheese. Moon Cheese. These fit together)
- An alternative idea (The moon is just a piece of rock. This might be what you first think but ...)
- Addressing Audience (You may think ...)
- Exaggerated Start (Everyone everywhere eats moon cheese)
- Anecdote (I first had moon cheese when I was ...)

4.
Writing main
Each paragraph should be:
- Descriptive
- Start in an interesting way
- USE A VARIETY OF SENTENCE LENGTHS.
- Have a wide range of punctuation.

5.
Ending
Some techniques to try
- Summarise your points
- Reiterate your point from the introduction
- Moral of the story ... (i.e. what have you learned)
- What you want your audience to do/take away.

6.
CHECK
- Remember you can always:
- Add punctuation
- Alter paragraphs
- Add in extra words/take out useless ones
- Correct spellings
- Re order sentences
(Unfortunately this does mean re-reading your work but that one extra semi-colon/paragraph/descriptive word could make all the difference)

Literature - Essay Writing Paragraphs Guide

Point - Your point should be:

• A particular feature or technique
• A content point
• In a Play: a character revelation, a truth revealed, a technique, a plot point, symbolic item/phrase
  
• In a Novel: characters, plot points, symbols, repeated images
  
• In Poetry: techniques, descriptions of subject, structure
  

Quote - Your quote:

• Must be taken directly from the text
• Should be embedded (Jim argues "we should ...")
  
• Should link to your point
• Can have an ellipsis (...) to take out middle bits of longer ones

Comment/Explanation Options

1. Must link back to the point and question (how does what you found link to the idea you had?)
   
2. Should explain how the quote demonstrates the technique you found.
3. Should explain the significance of the quote
4. Should have the key words selected to show language (e.g. the use of the word ...)
5. Could mention audience response.

For example in Empire of the Sun:

Point - In the extract, Ballard uses Mr Maxted to show how independent Jim has become.
Quote - In the extract, Jim "calmed himself, then wormed his shoulders from Mr Maxted's embrace"
Comment Options
1. The fact that Jim wants to move away from Mr Maxted just as the Japanese soldiers patrol shows that he has broken away from his older life, as he really admired Mr Maxted earlier in the novel.
2. Before, Jim admired Mr Maxted and talks about becoming him and now he is trying to get away from Mr Maxted.
3. This quote is significant because it is the first time Jim has deliberately rejected Mr Maxted's kindness to stand alone.
4. This used of the word "embrace" indicates Mr Maxted's kindess for Jim and the fact that Jim "wormed" away shows how he is rejecting his old life.
5. This is significant as the audience realises that Jim is rejecting kindness from others in order to remain independent.

Non-Fiction and Media Paper Advice

Non-Fiction and Media Paper
1 hour 45 minutes

3 questions (=35 mins per question)

Question 1: putting aspects of a text into your own words

1. Read the question and underline the aspects they’re asking you to focus on (e.g. pleasant aspects, unpleasant aspects)
2. Number these aspects (1= pleasant aspects, 2=unpleasant aspects)
3. Read the passage and underline relevant parts and put a number in the margin saying which of the aspects it’s relevant to
4. Start writing. Go through all the 1s then all the 2s etc.
5. DO NOT QUOTE; USE YOUR OWN WORDS; LINK RELATED POINTS

Question 2: analysing a text

1. Read the question and underline the key aspects they’re asking you to focus on (e.g. language, detail and humour).
2. Number these aspects (1=language, 2=detail, 3=humour)
6. Read the passage and underline relevant parts and put a number in the margin saying which of the aspects it’s relevant to
3. Start writing. Go through all the 1s then all the 2s etc.
4. Use POINT-QUOTE-COMMENT e.g. The writer uses language to give a negative impression of other people who ‘patronised’ him [point]. He refers to one as a ‘crone’ [quote], which contrasts with his earlier description of her as ‘a well-meaning soul’ and is a result of this ‘crone’ appearing frightening to Susie [analysis].

Question 3: writing to inform, explain, describe

1. Read the question carefully. What is the purpose and who is the audience?
2. Plan your answer carefully: what are your main points, what examples are you going to use, what order are you going to put these points, how are you going to start, how are you going to finish.
3. Start writing very carefully. Remember the following:
Paragraphs
Sentence variety (a mixture of simple, compound, complex)
Imaginative vocabulary
A range of punctuation (including semi-colons)
4. Watch your time. Allow enough time at the end to finish and check through your work for mistakes. It’s better to correct what you’ve written than to write more.

Simplified Essay Criteria

Simplified Essay Marking Criteria

A*
Satisfies all of the requirements of the band below, but with impressive
• flair
• articulation
• originality

A
Answers the question with structured analysis, close attention to language in the explanation section of each paragraph, and: balanced examination of alternative examples or interpretations, sophisticated awareness of context, independent perception, insight and judgement.

B
Answers the question with structured analysis and close attention to language in the explanation section of each paragraph: focuses on style and language, paying attention to individual words and details from the evidence quoted, explains their effect clearly and fully, explains how this supports the overall line of response to the Q

C
Answers the question with structured essay technique: i.e. clear line of response to Q and brief statement of key points, deals with one key point per paragraph; uses PQC in every paragraph, concludes succinctly
D
Makes some sound observations in answer to the question but without effective structure, textual support and analysis

E
Shows some effort and understanding of the text, but does not really engage with the question or with the process of structured of essay writing.

Rules of Essay Writing

The standard structure of an essay (in this case with three major points) should look like this:

• Be direct: get straight to the point and cut out unnecessary waffle and background material.
• Be precise: think carefully about exactly what you mean and how best to say it. Don’t hope that a vague thought will work itself out as you write it.
• Be economical: Think of words as money: you need to spend enough to get the point across, but you want to spend no more than you absolutely have to.
• Be formal: this is an essay and all essays are formal. Being colloquial or casual in your writing gets you no marks and makes you look like you don’t know your stuff.
• Don’t re-narrate the story: the examiners will already know what happens and don’t need you to tell them. It simply shows you cannot analyse.
• Be objective, or impersonal: say “Willy’s speeches suggest that he lacks self-confidence”, rather than “I think Willy lacks self-confidence”. The first is a strong statement presented as fact; the second is mere opinion. Examiners are not friends; they need to be told properly!
• Write about literature in the present tense: say “Willy lacks [present] confidence throughout the play and his confidence is [present] in dependant on other characters such as Ben.”, rather than “Willy lacked [past] confidence in the. We do this because the text exists now and we are reading it text now so the characters exist now.
• Remember names and titles: The amount of students that get the title of the play wrong, the author wrong or names of characters wrong is quite shocking. Make sure you know who wrote the text, who the characters are and most importantly what the title is.

Map of an Essay

The Map of an Essay
An Introduction
• This is essentially your essay plan in sentence form.
• Begin with a clear, direct line of response to the question.
• Then briefly state the main points that will become your paragraphs.
• Your introduction should be short and should get straight to the point.
• Unless the question asks for it, do not waste time outlining the plot of the text, explaining the relationship between characters, or providing pointless details about the author’s biography – it wastes time and that’s what Wikipedia is for!

A Body of Logical Paragraphs
• In every paragraph, begin with a statement that identifies the point of the paragraph
• Then provide evidence (quotes) or examples to support your statement
• Then explain (comment) how your evidence supports your statement, and analyse the language and details of your example by focusing on:
• specific words, images, techniques, etc.
• what effects they have
• how they support your point
Optional Extra you can also follow this with a related subpoint (which might be another example, a closely related argument or a counter-argument) or simply move onto your next paragraph. (you will not lose marks if you don’t do this!)

A Conclusion
• Briefly re-state how your main points support your overall line of response to the question.
• Do not introduce any new points.

Essay Writing

All I wanted to know about writing an essay but were afraid to ask

Being able to write a good essay is vital to the exam because you will be assessed not only on what you write, but also on how you write it.

Therefore, you should:
1. analyse, think, plan and draft
2. write with a clear structure: introduction, body, conclusion
3. use evidence and quotations (you will get a very low mark if you do not quote!)
4. leave a minute or two at the end to check your work (an examiner will ignore crossing out and will read any additions you make as long as you make your corrections clear!)

The first step is to analyse the question in order to determine exactly what you are being asked:
• Underline the key words in the question: e.g. Willy’s relationship with Biff is the most flawed one in the play. How far is this true?
• Think about what each word means and what it is looking for. The example question is obviously asking you to argue for a point and consider any other points of view.

Then think about your response the question:
• Brainstorm between three and six points you could analyse: e.g. Willy’s expectations of Biff, Willy’s morality issues, influence of Ben on Willy, Willy’s arguing with Biff, Biff’s lying and responses.
• Put these points into a logical order by numbering them.
• Consider alternative interpretations: e.g that Willy’s relationship with Biff is NOT the most flawed one in the play.
• Consider what sections you could relate to this to: e.g. restaurant scene, flashback to the ball game.
• Decide on a clear line of response that actually answers the question. This will become the first sentence of your essay: e.g. In Death of a Salesman Willy’s relationship with Biff is the most flawed one in the play.