PAPER 1WRITING

GCE’ O Level

1123 ENGLISH LANGUAGE

By Saima Abedi

WRITING (PAPER 1)

Section 1Directed Writing

Section 2Creative writing

SECTION 1

DIRECTED WRITING

DIRECTED WRITING

Marks: 30

Word Limit: 200- 300 words

Time: 30- 45 min

DIRECTED WRITING

Types of function/ Situational writing:

Letters (formal & informal) Reports (informative, investigative) Accounts News report Magazine Articles Speeches (Persuasive & Informative) Leaflets

DIRECTED WRITING

Only one situation is set.

Read the question carefully.

Do not ignore any details and do not

change important facts in the situation.

Elaborate all the content points

provided as each point is of 5 marks.

DIRECTED WRITING

DIRECTED WRITINGConsider the following questions:

Audience (Who am I writing for?) public, principal, teacher, friend, company manager, town council, police etc

Purpose (Why am I writing this?)to explain, inform. instruct, convince and persuade, sell, give an account of something I witnessed, to complain about something, etc

Format (How is this piece to be written?)report, letter, account, article. statement, review. speech etc

Language (What is the tone I should use?)formal, informal, persuasive, suggestive, informative, argumentative etc

DIRECTED WRITING

Five paragraphs should be formed.

Introduction (reiterate the situation)

Body (elaborate the three content points in

separate paragraphs)

Conclusion

Leave a line after each paragraph.

Paragraphs should all start from the left.

DIRECTED WRITING Students should collect and read the

samples of each type of function writing.

Gather helpful phrases (opening and closing

phrases; starting of new paragraphs etc.).

Practise such type of writing.

Create their own situational writing

questions.

FORMAL LETTERHELPFUL PHRASES

Type of Letters

Opening Closing

Complaint  I am a resident of the Gulshan-e- Iqbal and I am writing in to complain about...

I seriously hope that you would look into the complaints that I have raised and remedy the situation as soon as possible.

Thank you.

 Invitation On behalf of the school, we would like to invite you to our Annual Speech and Prize Giving Day to be held on March 15th in the school hall.

We sincerely hope that you will accept our invitation and we look forward to your presence on that day.

Thank you.

MARKING SCHEME Marks: 30

Task Fulfillment (Use Band Descriptor): 15 marksLanguage (Use Band Descriptor) : 15 marks

Please indicate the TF mark first at the end of the essay, then language marks e.g. 10 + 12 = 22/ 30

Candidates who address only two points must be in Band 3 or below for TF.

LANGUAGE

Variety of Sentence Structures

Appropriate Tenses

Wide Vocabulary

Accurate Punctuation

Correct Spellings

Linked Paragraphs

TASK FULFILLMENT

Inclusion and elaboration of three content points

Appropriate format

Suitable tone and register

Apt beginning and ending

Given information used to justify personal opinion

A clear understanding of the task and content

SECTION 2

CREATIVE WRITING

CREATIVE WRITING

Marks: 30

Word Limit: 350- 500words

Time: 45min – 1 hour

CREATIVE WRITING Types of Essay

Descriptive

Narrative

Argumentative

Discursive

Abstract / one word / themeless

Personal Opinion

CREATIVE WRITING

Five topics are set.

Candidates will choose any one of the five topics.

They should read the questions carefully and

choose the topic which gives them the best

chance of writing an essay of the required length.

It is advisable to make a plan.

Planning or any rough work should be crossed out

with a pencil.

Minimum 6 and maximum 10 paragraphs should be

formed.

Introduction: The essay must have a good

beginning to capture the attention of the reader.

Body: The middle section of the essay should

convey the main steps in the story or the details of

the description or the main points of the argument.

CREATIVE WRITING

Conclusion: Finally, the essay should have a

strong ending. It may provide the conclusion to

an argument, or it may move to the general

view after some precise description of details,

or it may provide the climax or round off a

story.

Use transitions to connect the points and

paragraphs.

CREATIVE WRITING

The 'best fit' principle is applied, as in the following table.

Emphasis is on quality of Language; comments on Content used to adjust mark within 8 Bands.

MARKING SCHEME

CREATIVE WRITING

LANGUAGE

Variety of Sentence Structures

Appropriate Tenses

Wide Vocabulary

Accurate Punctuation

Correct Spellings

Linked Paragraphs

Compositions should be interesting and

consistently relevant to the theme.

Discursive and argumentative essays are well

developed, logical, based on facts and figures.

Descriptive essays have well-developed

imagery (mental picture).

Narratives are complex, sophisticated and may

contain devices such as flashbacks.

CONTENT

Reference:www.cie.org.uk