Most of the main exam boards test different types of writing. All of them offer writing to argue and persuade. AQA also test your ability to explain and describe. OCR offer you a choice between argue and narrate (tell a story), WJEC and Edexcel give you a choice between persuade and explain. So lets look at these types in turn:
- Persuade/Argue
- Describe/Explain
- Narrate/Recount
WRITING TO PERSUADE/ARGUE
Persuasive writing is probably the commonest type of writing taught in school. You've been doing it since you were at Primary School, trying to persuade people to like something you like, or dislike something you hate. By year 11, you will have been encouraged to argue your point of view over a range of issues, rather than simply persuade your audience to agree with you. That's the difference. For example:Write a letter to your Headteacher arguing for or against the use of mobile phones in school.
The best way to structure your answer is as follows:
- Strong and gripping opening sentence, drawing attention to the issue
- Why you have been moved to write about this subject
- Your points of view with evidence to support them, at least 3!
- A counter argument, acknowledging the opposing view and using it to reinforce your own view
- A strong and summative final sentence.
Good openings could be:
Dear Mrs Jones,
The rule banning mobile phones in school is stupid and old-fashioned.
Dear Mrs Jones,
Let me ask you, do you own a phone? Do you find it useful to be in contact with people in case of emergency? Well so do we. That's why I'm asking you to change the ban on mobile phones in school.
Dear Mrs Jones,
The time has come to change the rule about mobile phones in school.
BAD openings are like this:
Dear Headteacher
I am writing to inform you that mobile phones should not be banned.
Dear Headteacher,
I am writing to argue against the use of mobile phones in school.
Good Endings could be:
So instead of being a stupid and old fashioned, our school could become an intelligent and modern one, where mobile phone use is allowed!
Thank you for your time,
Yours sincerely
Mary
Or
Allowing mobile phones will make school a safer place. I know you will make the right decision.
Yours sincerely,
Mary
You should always end your letter correctly, with a summative sentence and the appropriate sign off. If you don't know the difference between 'yours sincerely' and 'yours faithfully', you can find out here.
ARGUMENTS
To make your points convincing, you should use "persuasive techniques", a list of the most common can be accessed here. However, these will only enrich your writing if accompanied by "evidence". Your evidence can be made up, or can be taken from your own personal knowledge, but it should be convincing. Examples of convincing evidence:
You should always end your letter correctly, with a summative sentence and the appropriate sign off. If you don't know the difference between 'yours sincerely' and 'yours faithfully', you can find out here.
ARGUMENTS
To make your points convincing, you should use "persuasive techniques", a list of the most common can be accessed here. However, these will only enrich your writing if accompanied by "evidence". Your evidence can be made up, or can be taken from your own personal knowledge, but it should be convincing. Examples of convincing evidence:
- Anecdotes
- Expert Opinion
- Statistics and Numbers
- Facts (and opionions disguised as facts)
- Witness accounts
1. Anecdotes - "in Drama the other day, our flip camera was out of battery so we couldn't film our sketch. Wahid offered to film it on his phone but our teacher said we couldn't because of this mobile phone rule. We couldn't film our sketch and the lesson was wasted."
2. Expert Opinion - "a recent study at the University of Bradford has found that pupils are less likely to use their phones in a lesson when there is time allowed during the school day to use them without accruing a punishment."
3. Statistics and Numbers - "10% of lesson time is lost due to pupils being stopped on their way to lessons. Surely it is more important to be in a lesson than to be getting a telling off and wasting time?
4. Facts/Opinions - "you can use you phone effectively to help you learn, like using the internet, filming, looking up spellings or checking facts. It's like a portable computer!"
5. Witness Accounts - "Ms Johnson our drama teacher said, "I wish the rule about mobile phones could be relaxed a little, so that pupils can use them for filming or recording in Drama lessons."
Good use of evidence will enhance your writing and support your arguments.
WRITING TO DESCRIBE/EXPLAIN
WRITING TO DESCRIBE/EXPLAIN
Examples from past papers for this type of writing include the following:
- Write about a person you admire
- Describe a memorable moment in your life
- Write an article about your ideal home
- What's the most important thing you learned at school?
- Talk about a memorable trip or holiday
You usually have about 25 minutes to plan and write. Always plan your writing, get your ideas down quickly so you don't get stuck.
The key words here are DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN. You're not arguing or using persuasive devices, and you're not telling a story.
You are trying to get your reader to see, feel, hear, even smell or touch the same way you did. So create images, using similes, metaphors, etc.,
but also good, strong verbs and nouns. Adjectives and adverbs should be used sparingly, as too many can clog up the image you're trying to create.
For example:
"J.K. Rowling is the luckiest author alive. Not only is she blonde, beautiful and bright, she has also created the most successful and financially rewarding character ever written. Yet she started off on benefits, writing in a cafe while her young child slept in his car seat at her feet."
"Most first days of school don't end with the Head Teacher having to call the fire brigade because one of the new pupils got locked in the toilet. Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened to me, that memorable September day in 1979."
"If I had an unlimited supply of money, time and resources, I would build a house under the sea. It would have huge circular windows so that I could watch the comings and goings of the sea creatures; be close to the predatory sharks and lethal stingrays, but as safe as though I were in a cocoon."
and finally -
"Don't upset your teachers is the most valuable lesson I have learned from school. Teachers are all highly trained, educated people, who have usually gone to University and who have studied their subject at a sophisticated level. Having to explain the subject they love to a classroom of pupils who mostly wish they were somewhere else, must be soul destroying and mind numbingly frustrating. So if you're the kind of person who likes to wind people up, like I was, rest assured that those highly trained, frustrated academics are going to find a way to get you back, and it will hurt."
I've highlighted in pink the descriptive language, and blue for the explanatory language.
NARRATE/RECOUNT
Everybody knows what a story is, but trying to do it yourself can be challenging. A story, whether made up or from your own experience, needs a plot that develops, interesting characters and a descriptive setting. Unfortunately, many of the stories that are written under exam conditions often do not have these features and read like the summary of a story, rather than engaging the reader (examiner) on a narrative level. For example, in answer to the question: "Write story entitled, The Long Walk Home":
I missed my bus, so now I had to walk all the way to my house. It was dark and dreary, and I was very scared. I started walking down the street, then I saw one of the worst bullies from school. He crossed over the road and starting hitting me. I hit him back and tried to defend myself. I shouted for help, and the shop keeper from the shop across the road from the bus stop came out and pulled him off me. He ran off and the shopkeeper took me into the shop and gave me some water to drink. He asked me if I needed an ambulance, I said no, and I asked if I could borrow his phone to call my mum. My mum picked me up and said thank you to the shopkeeper. She drove me home. I was so relieved I didn't have to make the long walk home.
This story has great potential for action, character and adventure, but it's really just a list of facts. Here is a better beginning:
The bus pulled away as I reached the stop, gasping for breath. For a second or two, I was doubled over; the run from the school gates had just about finished me. As the roar of the engine faded into the night, the road was suddenly very silent and dark. The normally busy, bustling street was now an echoing chamber with the dim street lights and shadowy trees threatening to close me in. I started walking in the direction of my house, when I became aware of footsteps behind me.
I've tried to set the scene and create an atmosphere of tension. I've used descriptive language both of the scene and the character.
Narrative writing also needs dialogue to develop the characters and help move the plot along. In the first version of this narrative, all four characters say things, but the writer doesn't let us hear them, so it is very hard to imagine the characters.
I shouted for help, and the shop keeper from the shop across the road from the bus stop came out.
"Help! Help!" I screamed, but no-one could hear me.
"I'm going to kill you, you ugly bastard!" Craig, the Bully hissed, half laughing at my fear. He was pounding at my head and face, I tried to cover them with my arms.
"Help!" I sobbed, barely audible. I thought I was going to die.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing? Get off him!" From out of nowhere, the deep voice of a stranger, and the feeling that Craig was no longer hitting me.
Finally, you need a good ending. In the first version, the writer doesn't develop the story so the ending just falls flat. The bully runs off, his mum picks him up. The End. If you've developed the characters and the plot, then the ending should resolve the main conflict, but also leave the reader with something to take away.
My mum picked me up and said thank you to the shopkeeper. She drove me home. I was so relieved I didn't have to make the long walk home.
We sat in the car outside the shop for a while. Mum was crying quietly. "I'm so sorry, Kevin," she was saying, over and over again. "I am such a bad Mother!"
"No you're not," I said, soothingly, holding her hand in mine and stroking it. But inside, I wished our roles were reversed. I wanted her to comfort me, and tell me she'd sort it all out. It was going to be hell at school, tomorrow. I could picture Craig, smirking at my bruised arms and face, taunting me, daring me to tell on him. I wouldn't, of course, what would be the point.
"Let's go home, Mum," I said.
Here is a writing frame you can follow:
Exemplar Materials
and finally -
"Don't upset your teachers is the most valuable lesson I have learned from school. Teachers are all highly trained, educated people, who have usually gone to University and who have studied their subject at a sophisticated level. Having to explain the subject they love to a classroom of pupils who mostly wish they were somewhere else, must be soul destroying and mind numbingly frustrating. So if you're the kind of person who likes to wind people up, like I was, rest assured that those highly trained, frustrated academics are going to find a way to get you back, and it will hurt."
I've highlighted in pink the descriptive language, and blue for the explanatory language.
NARRATE/RECOUNT
Everybody knows what a story is, but trying to do it yourself can be challenging. A story, whether made up or from your own experience, needs a plot that develops, interesting characters and a descriptive setting. Unfortunately, many of the stories that are written under exam conditions often do not have these features and read like the summary of a story, rather than engaging the reader (examiner) on a narrative level. For example, in answer to the question: "Write story entitled, The Long Walk Home":
I missed my bus, so now I had to walk all the way to my house. It was dark and dreary, and I was very scared. I started walking down the street, then I saw one of the worst bullies from school. He crossed over the road and starting hitting me. I hit him back and tried to defend myself. I shouted for help, and the shop keeper from the shop across the road from the bus stop came out and pulled him off me. He ran off and the shopkeeper took me into the shop and gave me some water to drink. He asked me if I needed an ambulance, I said no, and I asked if I could borrow his phone to call my mum. My mum picked me up and said thank you to the shopkeeper. She drove me home. I was so relieved I didn't have to make the long walk home.
This story has great potential for action, character and adventure, but it's really just a list of facts. Here is a better beginning:
The bus pulled away as I reached the stop, gasping for breath. For a second or two, I was doubled over; the run from the school gates had just about finished me. As the roar of the engine faded into the night, the road was suddenly very silent and dark. The normally busy, bustling street was now an echoing chamber with the dim street lights and shadowy trees threatening to close me in. I started walking in the direction of my house, when I became aware of footsteps behind me.
I've tried to set the scene and create an atmosphere of tension. I've used descriptive language both of the scene and the character.
Narrative writing also needs dialogue to develop the characters and help move the plot along. In the first version of this narrative, all four characters say things, but the writer doesn't let us hear them, so it is very hard to imagine the characters.
I shouted for help, and the shop keeper from the shop across the road from the bus stop came out.
"Help! Help!" I screamed, but no-one could hear me.
"I'm going to kill you, you ugly bastard!" Craig, the Bully hissed, half laughing at my fear. He was pounding at my head and face, I tried to cover them with my arms.
"Help!" I sobbed, barely audible. I thought I was going to die.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing? Get off him!" From out of nowhere, the deep voice of a stranger, and the feeling that Craig was no longer hitting me.
Finally, you need a good ending. In the first version, the writer doesn't develop the story so the ending just falls flat. The bully runs off, his mum picks him up. The End. If you've developed the characters and the plot, then the ending should resolve the main conflict, but also leave the reader with something to take away.
My mum picked me up and said thank you to the shopkeeper. She drove me home. I was so relieved I didn't have to make the long walk home.
We sat in the car outside the shop for a while. Mum was crying quietly. "I'm so sorry, Kevin," she was saying, over and over again. "I am such a bad Mother!"
"No you're not," I said, soothingly, holding her hand in mine and stroking it. But inside, I wished our roles were reversed. I wanted her to comfort me, and tell me she'd sort it all out. It was going to be hell at school, tomorrow. I could picture Craig, smirking at my bruised arms and face, taunting me, daring me to tell on him. I wouldn't, of course, what would be the point.
"Let's go home, Mum," I said.
Here is a writing frame you can follow:
- Set the scene, introduce the characters.
- Introduce the conflict
- Develop to a climax
- Something the reader doesn't expect
- Resolve the main conflict, tie up the loose ends.
Exemplar Materials
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