Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences
Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts
Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation
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It is important to remember that writers plan their texts deliberately to make the reader respond in certain ways, and think and feel certain things. This task in Question 5 asks you to think about how you can effectively engage your reader and produce a cohesive piece of creative writing.
When you reach Question 5, you will already have read an example of creative writing. You can use the ideas and structure to inform your answer. You should spend some time thinking about the question: not only the content, but also the order of your ideas. An effective piece of creative writing considers plot, setting and characterisation .
In your answer you must:
Question 5 tests your ability to create a text which is constructed in an appropriate manner.
The creative writing question assesses your skill in crafting a convincing piece of creative writing or short story. The question will be worded according to a specific task, for example:
It is worth remembering that you will be given a choice of two tasks in the exam: one will be a creative writing task, and the other will be a descriptive writing task. One will also give you a picture as a prompt for your piece of writing, but this could be to write a story or a description, so it is important that you read both options carefully.
Below are some points on how you might approach the task “Write a story with the title ‘Abandoned’”. It is divided into plot, setting and characterisation.
This task asks you to write a short story. This means you are required to plan your response carefully as you have limited time to create a cohesive plot. It is best to plan how your story will end before you begin writing so that you are in control of your story. Writing a response which has not been planned is likely to have an abrupt ending, or no ending at all, which does not satisfy readers or get you high marks. Your character development will lead the plot; you should decide if your story ends with a clear resolution or with a cliffhanger. Your resolution could be happy, or you can create a tragic ending.
There are lots of different narrative structures or arcs you could use to plan your story. Bearing in mind you only have 45 minutes, including planning time, your story needs to be controlled and concise. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is to consider Freytag’s Pyramid:
| Stick to one main setting and start at the location: |
Hook your reader: | |
Decide which narrative perspective and tense you are going to write your story in: | |
Employ the five senses to create an atmosphere: | |
This paragraph could end with an “inciting incident”, which prompts the rising action and moves the story forward | |
| This paragraph should build tension, drama or interest: |
This paragraph should also develop your character(s): | |
This is the turning point of your story: | |
Your protagonist could face an external problem, or an internal choice or dilemma: | |
You should vary your sentence structure, length and language here for dramatic effect | |
What happens in this paragraph should be as a direct result of the climax paragraph: | |
It also should focus on your characters’ thoughts and feelings as a result of the climax of the story: | |
You can choose to resolve your story, or end on a cliff-hanger: | |
Your setting and atmosphere could reflect a change from the setting or atmosphere you established in your opening paragraph: |
As this task assesses the ability to communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, it is important to consider how to use language constructively in a short story to convey an atmosphere or mood. Building an effective setting is key as it contributes to atmosphere and mood.
Remember, Question 5 requires an extended written response. Therefore, the most effective stories will demonstrate a well-planned response which has considered what information is relevant to the reader and the most effective way to order and structure the narrative.
This question asks you to create a short story and therefore you will need to build some elements of detailed characterisation. This means you need to consider what your character(s) represent. They may represent an idea, such as being the victim of abandonment, or as a villain to represent injustice or evil. It is best to limit yourself to two characters in the time you have.
Well-rounded characters are taken on a journey in which a character undergoes some form of development or change. The mark scheme rewards answers which clearly and effectively convey ideas, meaning that you need to consider the most effective ways of building a character in a short piece of writing. Ideally, you should focus more on indirect characterisation than direct characterisation:
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Here, we will consider how to effectively plan your character(s) to engage your reader. This is what the examiner is looking for in your answer:
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| Your character’s appearance may not always be relevant: , remember that it is rare we describe our own appearance perspective can describe appearance more effectively |
| One of the most effective ways to describe a character is through their movements: and can be used to effectively build characterisation |
| If you use the perspective, a monologue helps readers engage with the character: will help your reader understand your character better |
| Dialogue can convey the relationships between your characters and provide insights into what other characters think about each other: |
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Sam is a graduate in English Language and Literature, specialising in journalism and the history and varieties of English. Before teaching, Sam had a career in tourism in South Africa and Europe. After training to become a teacher, Sam taught English Language and Literature and Communication and Culture in three outstanding secondary schools across England. Her teaching experience began in nursery schools, where she achieved a qualification in Early Years Foundation education. Sam went on to train in the SEN department of a secondary school, working closely with visually impaired students. From there, she went on to manage KS3 and GCSE English language and literature, as well as leading the Sixth Form curriculum. During this time, Sam trained as an examiner in AQA and iGCSE and has marked GCSE English examinations across a range of specifications. She went on to tutor Business English, English as a Second Language and international GCSE English to students around the world, as well as tutoring A level, GCSE and KS3 students for educational provisions in England. Sam freelances as a ghostwriter on novels, business articles and reports, academic resources and non-fiction books.
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Develop KS3-4 English students' confidence and enjoyment in writing for pleasure with a selection of inspiring classroom resources and activities.
One of the great pleasures – and challenges – of teaching English is helping students to develop their own 'voice' and style as writers of short stories. Assessing their creative, imaginative, descriptive and narrative writing skills at GCSE is a different matter, and can prove to be less rewarding for students, as writing on demand can test even the most confident of writers. The rich collection of creative writing resources on Teachit, generously shared by our fantastic English teacher contributors, are a testament to the creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity of English teachers as we seek to tease out the best in students' writing. Here is a selection of popular resources for writing classes and lessons, as well as some of our newly published creative and narrative writing resources:
Story building grids is a flexible writing prompt resource to help students with the first steps of planning the writing process, with suggestions for different literary devices to include (metaphors, similes, alliteration, personification, dialogue, point of view etc.).
Another writing prompt resource, Beth Kemp's Imaginative writing: creating a scene , carefully walks them through the whole planning and writing process. Like a screenplay writer, students learn how to zoom in on key scenes to create pace, tension and atmosphere, while considering point of view and their main characters' traits. This resource also focuses on the importance of re-writing and editing their piece of writing. Fran Nantongwe's delightful and hugely popular The quest for a cure is perfect for younger students and will take your class through a range of different genres and written forms over several English lessons, and also includes some non-fiction tasks.
Ditch the adjective is a great new resource by contributor Sally-Ann Griffin, which include a range of writing tips to guide students through the process of making better word choices and focuses on the importance of re-writing.
English teacher Helen Down's Turning pictures into word banks helps students to select really engaging words to use. Writing pyramids is a flexible resource for students to refer to again and again to support their writing experiments.
For inspiration for creative writing activities, try Super story starters or Engage your sleeping author! which offers students a range of examples of creative writing and opening sentences which help them to explore different forms (diary, epistolary, historical). With imaginative writing, it's important to inspire students. Stephen Mitchell's Exploring beginnings and Attention-grabbing story starters both encourage students to consider the effect of different story openings. For a series of lessons, try the thoughtful Memory-inspired creative writing . And if you are looking for more imaginative writing, creative writing or narrative writing resources, try our Writing fiction or Writing techniques collection for hundreds of classroom resources for English students and teachers on the following:
For non-fiction and creative non-fiction writing, try our Writing non-fiction texts collection.
This article was first published as an Editor's pick newsletter in January 2022.
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Unit 2 Reading and Writing: Description, Narration and Exposition gives two prompts to choose between, for an account and an essay perhaps, and Unit 3: Reading and Writing: Argumentation, Persuasion and Instructional sets up a letter, or similar. Jump ahead to WJEC Eduqas non-fiction writing prompts from past GCSE papers.
Each of these prompts offers a starting point for creative exploration, allowing students to develop their storytelling skills in imaginative and engaging ways. Absolutely, here are the creative writing prompts based on the themes you provided, each with a heading and suggestions for story development and potential plot lines. Galactic Storm
IIDesire. [6]Small child really wants cake but has been forbidden from taking it down from the shelf. Start this story with the child lusting after the cake, which you should describe - baking, decorating etc - in delicious detail. [ read a short, very funny version of this here]
2 Grade 9 Creative Writing Examples. I recently asked my year 11s to pen a piece of description and/or narrative writing for their mini assessment. I gave them the following prompts: Your school wants you to contribute to a collection of creative writing. EITHER: Write a short story as suggested by this picture:
READ MORE: > 10+ GCSE creative writing ideas, prompts and plot lines Mastering Narrative Structure. A good story has a clear structure - a beginning, middle, and end. The beginning should hook the reader, the middle should build the story, and the end should provide a satisfying conclusion.
In Paper 1 Question 5 you will be presented with a choice of two writing tasks and a stimulus image. One task will ask you to write descriptively, most likely based on the image, and the other question will ask you to write a story, based on a statement or title. The task requires you to write for a specific purpose and in a specific form.
Slow your writing down. Both of these writing prompts are great for s-l-o-w writing. Slow writing is the opposite of a quick write. The idea is to write slowly, precisely, carefully, selecting each word intentionally. Slow writing can take 5 minutes with one sentence and 30 minutes with a paragraph. Write these moments of action (or inaction ...
1. HAVE A BANK OF STORY PLOT LINES READY. One of our top tips for any creative writing exam, is to have a bank of easily adapted plot ideas up your sleeve. Time is precious in an exam and you need to spend minimal time thinking, leaving you with the maximum amount of time to crack on with your writing! 2.
Don't just stick to full stops and commas in your writing. As long as you use it correctly, get creative with the types of punctuation you use in your answer for a higher AO6 mark. For example, exclamation marks and question marks to create a more conversational tone between the author and the reader. Hyphens, brackets and colons are just a ...
50 GCSE English Creative Writing and Story Writing Prompts. Subject: Creative writing. Age range: 14-16. Resource type: Worksheet/Activity. File previews. docx, 220.6 KB. 50 varied and fun ideas for writing shot stories. Ideal to use individually for the whole class to write the same story or to use as a whole and let the students choose a prompt.
1. Give students the steps in the story. Sending students into an assessment or exam in which they have no idea what they're going to be faced with is counterproductive. As teachers, we know the structures required for success. In creative writing, the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful short story is a sense of a "complete ...
Focus: Description / Narrative Marks: 40 Time: 45 mins. Ideas for creative writing can come from various places. The picture. There will always be a picture to inspire you. It could be linked to a description or a narrative. Remember that you can go beyond the picture and interpret it in any way you like. It's there to help you, not restrict ...
To enhance your children's GCSE creative writing skills, allocate time for practice. Plan a structure for creative writing to guide children in organising their thoughts and managing time during the GCSE exam. Apply this structure to various exam questions, such as short stories or describing events.
Lessons and activities. Creative and descriptive writing is a great opportunity for students to explore different themes, audiences and purposes as well as demonstrate their understanding of how structure and punctuation can be used to impact a reader. From creative writing prompts to technique booklets and descriptive writing planning mats, we ...
Overview of Paper 1 Question 5. Paper 1 Question 5 is the writing question. It asks you to apply what you know about imaginative and creative fiction writing, such as in the text you read in Section A, and use these same techniques in your own writing. AO5 rewards you for your ideas, as well as the style and the fluency of your writing.
Creative Writing Prompt - Sand 1 review. Story Mountain Guide Writing Prompts 3 reviews. Explore more than 1,695 "Gcse English Creative Writing Prompts" resources for teachers, parents and pupils. Instant access to inspirational lesson plans, schemes of work, assessment, interactive activities, resource packs, PowerPoints, teaching ideas at Twinkl!
Published: 27/01/2022. One of the great pleasures - and challenges - of teaching English is helping students to develop their own 'voice' and style as writers of short stories. Assessing their creative, imaginative, descriptive and narrative writing skills at GCSE is a different matter, and can prove to be less rewarding for students, as ...