Transcript for:
IGCSE English Paper 2 Guide

this is a free video Lesson by to.co for IGCSE first language English paper 2 which is the writing paper this is probably my most requested video so I finally gotten around to it um there will be more videos coming out soon including a dired writing video um and what else have I got coming also a formal report writing video and extended metaphors for descriptive writing so do make sure that you have subscribed to my channel if you want to be notified when those new videos are published download all of the resources for this video Lesson over on my website to.co it's linked within the description and within the comments so you'll be able to download this PowerPoint and also take a review quiz over there as well as check out my other fre video lessons for IGCSE first language English and if you are a teacher there's also some teaching resources on there too so do check out my website beginning first of all with some information about your paper 2 paper 2 is your writing paper and it is worth 50% of your overall grade for IGCSE first language English it is a 2hour handwritten exam that is worth a total of 80 marks um and for those 80 marks you will do two questions which are equally weighted so section A everybody does that is directed writing worth 40 marks um in which you will have to read two different articles and respond to their arguments evaluate their ideas in an argumentative or persuasive speech letter or article then section B is composition also worth 40 marks but here you get a choice so you can either write a narrative or you can write a description so that is your choice not everybody sits paper two some of you might be doing coursework so if you are doing coursework maybe this lesson isn't quite as relevant for you but do check out my narrative and descriptive video lessons which would be useful for whether you're doing exam or cour workk group onto timings next and as I said this exam is equally weighted um so question a is worth 50% question B is worth 50% therefore I imagine it's going to be no surprise that I say to you for timings spend 1 hour and section A and 1 hour in section B do split your time equally so you can maximize your marks in both halves of the exam if you have to spend a little bit longer on one section and the other I would say section A perhaps five minutes more just because you've got those two texts to read but don't spend any much longer than that I really do highly recommend that you do split your time roughly equally on this exam so for section A the directive writing 1 hour in total 10 minutes to read and plan uh 45 minutes to write your response and 5 minutes to proof read at the end and then for Section B which is composition 10 minutes to plan your narrative or description 45 minutes to write it and five minutes to proof read those are my timing recommendations but really I suppose my biggest recommendation is keep an 9: when it gets to halfway start moving on to your next section don't be one of those students who spends an hour and a half in section A and then half an hour in section b um as a teacher who sometimes has to invigilate her own students that drives me crazy um I was invigilating the Literature Exam quite recently and it was an equally weighted exam and it got to halfway and the students were still writing their section A got to like 60% still wri in section a 70% of time done still right in section A oh drives me crazy so I think that's my number one tip just keep an eye on that time and be with yourself now on for grade boundaries so these are the grade boundaries from Summer 2023 um so you can see that unlike on the reading paper where each variant of the paper can vary quite wildly in summer 2023 at least the gray boundaries were the same no matter what paper you did um so to get an A you needed 55 out of 80 to get a B 49 out of 80 and to get a c43 out of 80 so the gray boundaries are kind of low that is because in my experience Cambridge they are quite harsh or let's not say harsh let's say Discerning picky selective uh to who they give the the top band to so you will find with paper one and with paper two that you will drop a lot of marks and that's okay you'll get what you deserve at the end essentially so when you go into these exams if you're like oh my God that was so hard remember that you only needed like 60% to get an A anyway beginning first of all then with directed response our section A for directed response then the exam will give you two short text that have differing opinions on a topic so it's usually like the texts are having a kind of argument or a debate about a topic um so usually a for and against here are some of the past topics that have come up on the paper two listening to podcasts at work this was uh November 2023 I marked this one the podcast one it wasn't a fun one to Mark um whether or not an individual can make real environmental change aome about that one too that was 2021 2022 um whether we should give gifts um whether we should make New Year's resolutions and whether online friendships are real so these are the kinds of topics that you'll get and like I said at the start for section A you are usually writing something persuasive and argumentative so you can see how these topics easily lend themselves to allowing you to be a little bit more argumentative now for directive writing you get two marks you get one mark for reading and one mark for writing before we get stuck deeper into the mark scheme you guys need to know what Cambridge mean by this use of the word here evaluate because you can see it comes up in the mark scheme so before we can unpick what is evaluation to Cambridge then um so Cambridge view evaluation as you recognizing implicit attitudes ideas or logical fallaces at the heart of a writer's argument and then thereby allowing you to give an effective counterargument so evaluation in the normal World means you look at an issue and you look at the for and the against and you weigh up the strengths and weaknesses and then you make a final judgment right by looking at the whole product you give your overall opinion but actually from marking this exam I would say that evaluation is more about recognizing the perspective that Cambridge want you to have and then kind of attacking the writer implicit like holes in their logic giving effective counterarguments if you look at the mark schemes you can quite clearly see that actually evaluation is I recognize this idea this is why it's wrong and that's where you get your evaluation marks we're going to go more into depth about this in a second but basically it is making an effective counterargument against a specific point that a right makes so you say this and this is wrong because of this right um so Cambridge will often have one side that they expect you to argue for more than the other it's not usually very balanced and in fact in that podcast one that I said that I marked in November it even says on the exam like question um write a letter to your boss arguing the reasons why you should be allowed to listen to podcasts at work so the question was telling you what perspective to have and therefore you had to go through the text see all the reasons why the writer says you shouldn't be allowed to listen to podcasts and then be able to evaluate why those ideas were wrong there are some questions where it's like 80% of the evaluation points come from one perspective and 20% the other so you could get some marks for seeing both sides of the argument but you get most of your marks for arguing the Viewpoint that Cambridge want you to do we're going to have a look in a second about how can you figure out what Cambridge want you to argue but let me show you now why this matters so much by going back to the mark scheme now I'm going to start here in this band because in this band it says some successful evaluation of implicit ideas includes a range of relevant explicit details now why this is really important is because if you identify one evaluative counter argument just one The Examiner has to put you in the bottom of this band they have to so you will score at least 10 points if you just get one evaluation Point that's all that you need right so 10 marks is basically you get one evaluation Point 11 you get two evaluation points and 12 you get three evaluation points up here it's like you get four plus evaluation points that's a little bit crude there is a bit more to it than that but that's basically how the examiner will award your marks as well as are you putting in lots of details from the text are you saying this text St D D D D D D sorry I don't know what noise that was but are you actually referencing the text that's another thing that's taken into account um so then down here this is you've got lots of details and you give your opinion on the on the uh Topic at hand like oh listening to podcasts can really help us um learn more about the world and I really enjoy listening to podcasts but you're not evaluating no evaluation and here it's like a very general summary with no opinion so that's basically how your reading marks are awarded which is why it's so important to try and find one of those evaluation points because then you force The Examiner to give you at least 10 out of 15 for reading and as you've seen with those grade boundaries that can really make a big difference to your final overall grade now let's have a look at four different examples of directive writing questions and see if we can figure out what perspective Cambridge want us to argue so that we've got a better chance of getting those evaluation points um so here is the one that that I was talking about this is the November paper that I marked um imagine you are an employee of a business in which listening to podcasts is not allowed write a letter to persuade your boss that staff should be allowed to listen to podcasts in their workplace so here Cambridge are literally telling you that you should be in favor of podcasts therefore all of the evaluation points for this particular exam were you arguing for podcasts that podcasts are helpful in the workplace and when you argued that they weren't helpful you didn't get any evaluation marks um some other Clues are the final bullet point said suggest some of the benefits of Staff listening to podcasts based on what you've read for both staff and the business um so this question was very kind because it was very obviously telling you what to argue like I said this is the most recent paper that's just gone so maybe summer 2024 might be as obvious and as kind to you who can say yet we just have have to pray to the Cambridge guards that the question will be good okay the next one then example two your friend has been asked by their boss at work to apologize to a colleague for missing a meeting your friend isn't sure whether to apologize and how to apologize so that their boss is satisfied write a letter to your friend giving advice on what they should do in your letter you should evaluate the ideas about apologizing given in both texts explain why your friend should or should not apologize and how to deal with the situation at work so this one is less obvious but what perspective can you figure out that Cambridge might be more likely to think you should probably take in order to get those evaluation points let's see um so if you look at the keywords we can see the question is saying how to apologize how to apologize so that their boss is satisfied therefore probably the question and the evaluation points are going to be more more Falling Towards yes you should apologize and these are the reasons why because it's saying in the question how to apologize now if you're not going to apologize you wouldn't need to know how or the methods of doing it right and also in the final bullet point it says how to deal with the situation at work so that it's implied there that you should be doing something to deal with the situation so the evaluation points for this question were mostly on the favor of how you should apologize different methods what are the benefits of apolog izing and you know taking accountability at work um so there you can see that Cambridge have kind of hidden the perspective that you should have in that question here's another example example three um write an article for your school or college Magazine with the title Small Change big difference in your article you should evaluate the views in both texts about saving the planet give your own views based on what you have read about whether your school or college can make a difference and how what side does Cambridge expect you to argue here okay here are the clues um so the title of the article is giving you a big hint Small Change big difference I know it's got a question mark so you know but it is seemingly implying that if you make a small change it will have a big difference so it seems to be um pushing you in that way and also whether or not your school or college can make a difference and how now if it was that you couldn't make a difference then why would Cambridge put in the H so on this exam paper once again all of the evaluation points were you arguing that schools can make a difference individuals can make a difference because the two articles one was basically saying individuals can't make any difference whatsoever only big companies and governments can and the other one was saying every little helps um so basically Cambridge wanted to say no every individual can make a difference and those were the clues within the exam question now for our final practice question we're actually going to have a go at doing this one together um so practice question write an article for young people advising them what they need to consider when deciding on a holiday destination in your article you should evaluate the ideas opinions and attitudes in both texts suggest what young people should consider in order to make a responsible decision so what perspective is Cambridge expecting you to have here well it assumes that you will be going on holiday so this article isn't against tourism it's in favor of responsible tourism um so you are going to be looking for ideas in the text you know what problems can tourism bring but what are the ways of solving or improving these problems so those will most likely be your evaluation points these are the issues but these are the possible solutions this is why young people can still go and holiday if they do x y and Zed responsibly and the clue in the question um so it is implied what they need to consider when deciding on a holid destination it's implied you are still going on holiday it's just that you need to be responsible in that decision and down here once again a responsible decision I will link the Full Pass paper for this down in the description so that you can do it um but here are the first two paragraphs to Tex a and textb and as we read them I want you guys to think what are the two different sides to the debate and how can you make it so that you are counter arguing that young people can still make a responsible decision right so this is the this the point you that you're trying to argue text a can the world be saved from over tourism we've officially entered the era of too much tourism sand has been removed by tourists from famous beaches and cities impose fines on weary tourists just for sitting down in crowded hot spots as local people fear being priced out of their towns and cities stringent rules and limitations are imposed on holiday rentals in Thailand one popular destination has been closed in defitely to allow its ecosystem to recover from the millions of tourists who have V visited over the years tourism taxes are becoming more common and in some areas are being used to restrict access to all but wealthier clientele so this article seems to be suggesting that tourism is um destroying the environment destroys environment and it also destroys the local economies so for example here are some of the problems sand being removed um that well that cities aren't actually like the city officials aren't being very kind to tourists either that local people can't buy housing there because they're being priced out perhaps because of the amount of holiday rentals um that in Thailand the ecosystem needs to recover because it's had over a million tourists come to visit and that tourism taxes are being put in place but that the end result of this is restricting access to only very very wealthy people so how are we going to counter argue so maybe it might be something like we need a public campaign about respecting environments sorry I find it hard to to write and uh talk at the same time um maybe we could ban holiday rentals and young people need to uh choose hotels or or choose more traditional like really think about the the venues in which they're staying at so that they're not affecting local people maybe in terms of millions of tourists we could have limits on numbers and for young people that could be that you choose um less popular destinations so that you're not overburdening one area but that also there are benefits to the local economy of tourists um so tourists obviously keep businesses going and pay tax value added tax on local products um so there needs to be like uh we need to re reinstate Harmony between locals officials and tourists and since the question was asking about like what can young people do when they're making the decision I imagine that Cambridge would want you to be more highly focused than like young people's choices so perhaps one way to ensure that you having harmony with locals and officials is uh better behavior um not sitting down in on the street sit down at a bench not buying expensive holiday rentals um not going to places that are already overly busy not going to places where the ecosystem has been destroyed like the the uh Barrier Reef for example might be one where you'd say you know I'd avoid going to the Barrier Reef because I know that that ecosystem needs to recover so there are some of the ideas that we could put in for the first text let's have a look at the second text now text B text B is taken from a magazine article about living in a famous tourist destination in the summer Paulo Santini shares his hometown with three million temporary residents a cultured man Palo has worked 40 years in the city's Museum curating the Region's ancient Treasures for exhibit for the visitors indeed the day I interviewed him the museum was packed with weary families wanding aimlessly through Paulo's beloved artifacts so here it seems to be arguing a little bit more in favor of Tourism if I can just find my pen for tourism and so these are some ideas that we could use to counter argue this one but we need to add on to them for it to be counted as um evaluation so this one here is has once again got 3 million tempor residents but here what's what's the benefit of these temporary residents that they like we said before pay money to local attractions and people like Paulo like his Museum um they also because it's in the museum and we're talking about culture and treasures keep local history and treasure alive so that's like one of the benefits right if nobody was visiting Paulo wouldn't have any money presumably other Museum curators and restaurants also wouldn't have any money but also all of these local people are bringing a lot to the city beside money because they're they're learning about the culture um and they're getting involved in that culture because it even says you know 3 million visitors and that it's packed so the people who are visited who are visiting his hometown are just going there to sunbath they are actually engaging so here between us in the first two paragraphs we've already picked out lots of problems with tourism but perhaps how we could begin to counter argue it of how actually young people could still go on holiday but in a more responsible way so this is what I mean when I say you need to identify in the question what perspective did Cambridge want you to have and then when you reading those two texts apply that perspective now I've linked text a and text B in fact the whole past paper as I I said in the description do pause the screen and go away and highlight those two texts so highlight firstly any explicit details from the texts what points do they make about tourism so just like I did here and I highlighted about the sand being removed and being priced out and holiday rentals and 3 million temporary residents those are your explicit details from the text remember in the mark scheme if we can zoom back um in the mark scheme it talked about a range of explicit details uh here right so that's what I mean when I say explicit details things that you can actually highlight and identify in the text then after you've highlighted the explicit details about tourism like I did in the margins can you begin to think of counterarguments or solution to these issues how can young people still go on holiday but in a more responsible way based on the ideas that you've read in the text so by the time that you're done your articles should look something like this do go ahead and do that for me now here are the answers from The Mark scheme of the explicit ideas so these are the details the things that you could have highlighted in the text basically a summary of the arguments that both texts make so as we read through do also be thinking in your head how could you evaluate these points what counterarguments could you make to show how actually we could solve that problem and young people could still go on holiday responsibly for x y and Zed reason so from text a it explicitly argued too much tourism is detrimentally affecting the environment um and also the people who live in the local tourist hotspots tourism texes mean that only the wealthy can travel to some areas over tourism affects different countries in different ways there are benefits to tourism for some local people in the areas and some local people don't benefit from tourism or have less access to their culture as a result in text B the explicit ideas that the text stated was that tourism has rais the standard of living for locals and given employment opportunities or better facilities some facilities are focused just on tourists and not on locals some facilities have lost or been bought up for tourism the costs for locals are high as a result of Tourism and some locals are hostile towards tourism or feel alienated from their own cities so these are the explicit details if you got a bunch of these and you gave your opinion congratulations you'll be getting between 7 N Out of 15 for reading but how do you get higher well you have to evaluate um so these are the counter arguments the evaluation points and remember if you got even one of these The Examiner has to give you 10 out of 15 so evaluation young tourists should change their behavior in tourist hotspots for example avoiding crowded cities or streets to mitigate the effects of Tourism we already got that one before didn't we so we've already got 10 well done um go only to places that will benefit from tourism um use companies who contribute to local economies visit less popular tourist sites or ones hidden from the mass media to avoid the effects of over tourism um or on the on the local residence or the destination um but you do not get any Market if you are just saying points that will benefit the tourist so if you're like oh go to this place this this Shrine because it's less busy so you'll have a better time that's not a benefit to anyone but yourself so you wouldn't get an evaluation point for that um use local businesses for services and make sustainable decisions about transport or accommodation so for example saying oh you know avoid Airbnb and temporary um tourist accommodation like pick local hotels owned by local people that would get you an evaluation Mark Young tourists should not um visit tourist hotspots at peak times to help local people and again you can't say because then you'll get better photographs because that's just about benefiting you not about benefiting anyone else um and do not just visit places just because they're on Trend I remember a few years ago reic in Iceland was super on Trend and I think that became a problem because everyone just went to rubic and then the hot springs were no longer as beautiful I feel like that was when cigaros was really popular too maybe I'm showing my age now anyway moving on um Mark scheme example Mark scheme um evaluation ideas so these are some of the other evaluation points that you could have had which are actually arguing the other side they arguing you know that tourism is a problem um just maybe there's nothing you can do um so cultures can be eroded or commercialized or become inauthentic or become ignored those are evaluation points I think I know it here in China like some places just feel like they're there to sell you things and not necessarily how they actually would have been a hundred years ago um for the local tourists um cities aren't designed for fluctuating populations think about that second text where it said in the summer 3 million residents come and then go like what happens during the winter time people just lose all of their ability to make money tourism is driven by greed not by cultural exchange over tourism is bad for both residents and tourists tourism needs to benefit both sides um or benefits to locals inevitably come with costs that you know if you're going to accept money from tourists the cost is going to be that during the winter time you're not going to be able to make a lot of money and everything will become very crowded during the summer and that tourist tax taxes are unfair to poorer tourists um do note that in order to get a evaluation points you really do need to have the mindset of how we can improve the effects of Tourism on communities rather than feed yourself selfishly as a traveler how many of those evaluation points did you get remember you only needed one and you've got 10 out of 15 this is from the Cambridge examiner report from Summer 2023 what they say made the most effective responses in terms of those reading marks more effective evaluation tended to challenge some ideas in the text rather than reproduce them and to suggest an understanding of the need for the interests of the tourists the local population and the environment to be better balanced so notice that Cambridge want you to challenge the text they want you to say why the ideas in the text might be wrong or how you could find a happy medium between the two texts they don't want you to just reproduce that means they don't want you to just copy and summarize what you've read they do want you to engage with the idea ideas within the two articles by having that counterargument by having that debate and that discussion with the ideas at the heart of those two texts moving on now to the writing marks so you get 15 marks for reading but you get 25 marks for writing obviously this is a writing paper after all um so if you've watched my narrative and description videos this is very very similar the only difference with these writing marks is now paragraphing is also includ included structure is included so to be getting the top marks it needs to be carefully structured you need to have paragraphs that effectively group your arguments by theme so you've really thought about the order of your paragraphs and what ideas you're going to include in what paragraph and why you're going to have a wide range of precise vocabulary so yes you've got sophisticated and impressive vocabulary but you are using it correctly um a highly effective register which is what I'm going to talk to about next but basically that your tone of voice is effective for the task that you've been given um I put vocabulary twice um and that your spag your spelling punctuation and grammar is almost always accurate yeah you can have one or two small errors but most of the time like 98% of the time you're accurate over here now um so your structure is secure you've paragraphed correctly you've organized your ideas pretty well maybe you haven't always thought about this idea belongs with this other idea in the same paragraph but basically your paragraphing is correct um you've got a wide range of vocabulary your vocabulary is now your register sorry is now effective but not highly effective and your spelling punctuation of grammar is mostly accurate 85 90% accurate and the errors that you've got are only minor um oh I would say over here really you've got some flare it sounds really good and over here it's like yeah this is really good it's accurate I can see some errors but it's not a big deal over here is where most people tend to fall on the exam in this band with frequent small errors so generally you are paragraphing well but you probably got some small paragraphing issues your range of vocabulary is adequate but it doesn't really ever impress me your register generally sounds like it's right for the task like you kind of sound like you're writing a letter to your boss at some points but not always and your spelling punctuation and grammar is generally accurate you have got some errors and I can see them but I always know what you mean over here then in this band which I hope none of you will be in um you have got serious errors so this is where you've got very frequent errors of spelling punctuation and grammar I can very easily spot many errors without really trying very hard and those errors sometimes make me confused what you mean I have to stop I have to pause I have to go what does this mean and sometimes I'm not sure you might copy the structure of the text you might copy the language in the text so you're not really always using your own words and your register doesn't really sound appropriate for the task so I would say up here it's flare and almost always accurate over here it's some of vocabulary and mostly accurate over here noticeable errors but your meaning is clear over here noticeable errors but your meaning isn't always clear and sometimes I am confused most students will score in the range of 14 to 18 maybe some of you might just pip into mostly accurate but on the exam that's what I tend to see the most now if you've done any of my the video lessons or my paper one video Lesson than VP will be nothing new to you v stands for voice audience register purpose and format and it is a way of taking a look at these language questions and figuring out what do Cambridge want me to do what sort of style should I adopt voice means who are you writing as whose voice are you assuming that might be quite General and vague you are an employe working at a company writing to your boss you are a journalist audience who are you writing to and register as a result of both voice and audience how formal or informal should your language be so like that podcast one you are an employee writing a letter to your boss to convince them to let you listen to podcasts at work well if you're writing letters to your boss you best believe you are going to be formal and polite and respectful and you're going to suck up a little bit right that will be your register purpose why are you writing um so we know that from paper two section A the purpose is always either to persuade uh discuss or argue um these purposes are for the other sections of your exams for composition or for paper one so you need to figure out are you more discussing persuading or arguing usually there'll be a little bit of crossover but for example if you're writing to your boss you're probably not going to be arguing you're are going to be persuading them gently respectfully and then finally what text type have you been asked to write that is your format so for section A it will always be either a letter a magazine article or a speech if you want to learn a little bit more about these text types I have got a video that goes through all of the text types that you will need to learn how to write for your IGCSE in first language English both paper 1 and paper two so we go over letter diary magazine new paper speech and interview because those are the text types that could come up on paper one and paper two so do watch that video so do have a look at your VP now let's have a look at it in terms of this question right here this is our question from before can you identify the VP of this question going over it firstly voice it's not clear we assume you're a journalist maybe you're writing an article for young people doesn't really say so we're just going to be generic journalist um who is the audience you are writing for young people so what's that 16 to 25 year old something like that um purpose to advise so you are going to be informing them and discussing the issues you're not going to be being very argumentative and judgmental like you need to do better for the planet now you're just going to be discussing around the issues um the format that you've been asked to write is an article um so if you have a look at my magazine article writing lesson you can see that an article is usually more semiformal it can be a little bit more bouncy chatty and excitable but you still shouldn't be using slang and being very very casual the register also because it's for young people we know that it can probably be more semi-formal and chatty and we are giving advice we are not arguing so you should sound more knowledgeable but not argumentative so between artical and young people we know we can be a bit more humorous we can be a little bit more emotive we can be a bit more bouncy but we also know because we are advising them and we're you know when it doesn't say You are young person we're not going to be very confrontational and we're not going to be too informal so this is our vult of this question also from The Examiner report of Summer 2023 this is what Cambridge said made a really good response in terms of writing some students attempted to engage the attention of their peers with some sense of shared values and interests assuming some shared ground with the audience in wanting to enjoy the freedom and self-determination of a holiday without parents so we are recognizing you are a young person I am a young person we both me and you reader have the same values this is why you should take what I'm saying seriously some high-scoring responses used a more rhetorical style presenting that argument in an engaging way but making their case effectively and with some impact at the highest level responses were pitched at the level of mature and environmentally responsible and socially aware young audience so just because you are writing an article for young people it doesn't mean that you need to be really cheesy like hey guys like we all really care about the environment don't we I know you do I do too what can we do about it why am I doing like this Valley Girl accent I don't know but you know what I mean like young people are intelligent young people do understand argument so you don't necessarily need to be very very hey guys in tone of your article basically you can be that that little bit more mature and socially aware in tone some general advice for writing for this paper do ensure that you are using paragraphs correctly and that you're grouping each paragraph by theme so that you're not just copying the structure of the two texts you want it to like here's an argument about local people here's an argument about the economy here's an argument about the environment you know group that way um don't copy words or phrases from the texts always use your own words I mean this is just good advice anyway um also for your question three um also for your summary like in Cambridge want to see that you can take ideas and put them into your own words and if you are copying from the text in paper one or paper two you are going to get crushed they they are going to absolutely destroy you in terms of your mark so just always use your own words the tone for section A is usually semi-formal and Lively or formal and Lively don't make up any facts or statistics it won't get you any evaluation points I roll my eyes so hard when I read answers from students which are like 80% of young people agree that tourism is is dangerous for the environment I'm like I know that some teacher somewhere has probably taught you like a forest or something and that you should make up statistics to put into your article to make yourself sound more knowledgeable but I'm just like what's the point you don't get any evaluation marks it just makes it sound a little bit random don't do it don't do it and finally um to get a high reading Mark avoid just summarizing and agreeing with the Articles should always be probing poking at it probing the and challenging the ideas and the texts you say this but hm is that right that's what's going to get you a higher reading Mark here are my key takeaways then for directive writing the revision card so always use paragraphs um and make sure that you are grouping your paragraphs by argument you will be asked to write a speech letter or article so do revise those text types be critical and probing of ideas the tone is usually semiformal but Lively or formal but Lively remember to identify the V voice audience register purpose and format don't copy words from the text always use your own words analyze the question carefully to decide what perspective Cambridge want you you to have and do include explicit ideas from both texts now on to section B and starting with descriptive writing I have been filming for 50 minutes and I thought that this video in total was going to be 50 minutes so I'm worried about what a beast of a video I'm making but never mind let's go um so descriptions firstly so what is the difference between a description and a narrative think of a description like a photograph and a narrative like a film so a description will have no events nothing will happen um there will be no dialogue and very little characterization your narrator can observe but not participate and nothing should really happen except for that observation but there can be some form of movement for example you can walk through a park and describe all of the people around you and what you see you can watch the sunet so the Sun starts off in the sky and dips into the Horizon and the night and the night sky becomes black right so change can happen but you shouldn't really be affecting that change like you shouldn't be the one causing that change whereas a narrative is like a film so much like a film it will have a plot you will have a climax you'll have dialogue you'll have characterization it will also include some description but that won't be the main purpose and the big thing is something will happen although I've read many stories in which you get to the end and you're like nothing happened and those stories score poorly um but in theory this is the difference between a description and a narrative I do go into all of this in a lot more detail in my description video and in my narrative video so if you want to do it a little bit more in depth and go over to those videos but um you get marks for content and structure and for style and accuracy so for content and structure with descriptive writing have you got many well- defined and developed ideas you know you've not just given me this list I see a candle and an elephant and a white fluffy cat how nice you are actually like the elephant's tusks reach to the sky do elephants have tusks no the elephant's trunk reaches to the sky like a hand outstretched towards God its ears glisten with sweat that has built I don't know you know you you're really like picking out lots and lots of different details about one particular image and going into depth with it and because you are doing all of that you are creating a convincing overall picture with a variety of focus so I can really imagine in my head this is what you're describing in here are all the things within it and I can picture it really well because you described it so realistically in so much depth and detail and everything flows together well in band five you are developed so you've got frequent well chosen images but notice here they might not always be super developed or super defined and your picture is mostly convincing I can basically imagine what you're describing but there are sometimes where I'm like huh right so you were describing the outside of the castle now inside of the castle now you're back outside again but you never mentioned going back outside what which happens um looking at some of my year 11 coursework there logic um and then band four you will have a selection of relevant ideas and images and details but they're not developed anymore you becoming a little bit more list-like um and it might have some elements of narrative you might have too much characterization for example and in band three it's really quite straightforward here it is just like a list and the list of images might not even go together I'm like Castle but there's a TV in the castle that doesn't make any sense or you've just straight up written a narrative so here there's features of narrative and here it's you've written a story then in style and accuracy um basically the same as for directive writing except that structure and paragraphing isn't included you've got precise and effective vocabulary a range of different sentence structures and your grammar is almost always accurate compared to mostly accurate frequent small errors and frequent serious errors so those are where we're looking at for style and accuracy if you watch my description video and it's excellent you definitely should why haven't you watched it but then this five paragraph structure will be familiar to you I'm not going to overt talk it because you've already watched that video right well basically the five paragraph structure write these five different paragraphs in your descriptive wri in and you will probably score quite well so you firstly begin with a zoom out a long shot so describe the whole scene in detail and mention something that you will return to at the end of your description so like you are looking from a long distance at the thing the person the object the place and make sure you pick out something that you want to mention at the very end because that will create nice circular feeling at the end then second paragraph you're going to zoom in you're going to pick one one small detail okay we've got a castle now I'm going to zoom into a turret or I'm going to zoom into a particular room um or a person standing on the drawbridge um especially is very good if you can make whatever you're zooming into symbolic you know it represents something else so maybe we've got this Castle which is full of wealth and extravagance but I'm going to zoom into a homeless person a poper sitting by the wall right that's quite symbolic CU it contrasts doesn't it describe it in extreme depth and this could be a good opportunity for an extended metaphor subscribe so that you'll know my extended metaphor video comes out then in your third paragraph change perspective so imagine seeing Through The Eyes of somebody who is there what are they feeling so now perhaps we are a queen looking down on the land um it could also be not necessarily a person if you don't want to do that you don't have to but it could be you are now describing it from a different perspective as in from above or From Below or from within or that you're describing the same scene 100 years in the future or 100 years in the past what I really want is that that third paragraph something will shift purposefully deliberately to create an effect then in your fourth paragraph you're going to zoom in again you're going to pick another symbolic detail but pick something that really contrasts with this second paragraph detail so here if we had this poor paa um maybe we would have a queen or maybe we would have the crown jewels or something like that something that really really contrasts and then finally in the last paragraph you are going to have an emotional ending and you're going to circle back so pick something that you mentioned in that very very first paragraph and circle back to it to create this emotional atmosphere so perhaps I might at the very start of the scene I might have some birds that are flying overhead and at the end I'm going to return to the birds flying overhead and say you know in a thousand years the castle won't be here anymore but the ancestors of these birds will still be circling over the land they are the true rulers of the land or something like that I think a big thing with this five paragraph structure is to make sure that each paragraph flows into the next one it shouldn't seem like they're random or disconnected this is why I keep talking about circling back linking to something before but something has changed so you want to think about how these five paragraphs interplay with each each other to get the highest Mark the reason why this will get you a good Mark is because it forces you to do something that's called a circular description um so you know start with an image and end with an image I think one example that I gave was you could describe a coffee shop and You Begin your description with the coffee shop open sign and the door being flipped and then at the end we return to the coffee shop door and now the closed sign is being flipped that would be a circular description it's really effective because it creates a sense of unity and continuity but also it lets Cambridge know I have made a deliberate Choice even at the very start of writing my description I knew how it was going to end so it makes them think this student has really thought about the effect that they want to have on the reader which is an AAR skill to do so with you starting and ending on the same image but something has changed maybe this image is now taken on a second meaning maybe we now see it from a different perspective and that again is something that's really deliberate because you're trying to craft a piece of writing that has a particular emotional effect on your audience again showing that deliberation is a higher level AAR skill to do now on the October November paper one of the description tasks was this write a description with the title a special place inside and out so obviously this question is forcing you to write about a setting and what it looks like on the inside and on the outside now what I read a ton of was childhood homes or grandparent homes that came up a lot um and sometimes it was done really well and really effective especially if it had like an emotional effect um but what I did read a lot of was these list like descriptions where it was and inside my granddad is sitting on the sofa and he is looking at the TV and the sofa is very old and the rug is old too and next door grandma is cooking dinner she is making a lot of noise the room smells really good and it was just kind of listing listing listing but not really doing anything with it so these students they scored over okay but they didn't score very highly let me give you an example of something that you could have done on this paper that would have intrigued me more as your examiner would have let me score you a little bit higher so I am going to describe a hospital as my special place inside and out so my zooming out I'm going to describe the hospital building from the outside and I'm going to describe it probably in the early morning maybe the sun has just started to rise because it's so early and I'm going to begin with a doctor entering the building very very early just after Sunset maybe she's quite tired because she has worked a long shift the night before um and I'm just trying to create that that sense of this big busy place that's busy even when everyone else is asleep with this doctor arriving obviously you can probably imagine that my emotional ending is going to be the sun is Now setting and someone else is coming out so already I'm thinking okay how am I going to enter my description and how am I going to leave my description now I'm going to zoom in I'm going to have a symbol my symbol is going to be a hardworking doctor maybe he or she is very very worn down um they've worked 18 hour shift maybe they've got blood and stains in their clothes maybe they've just had to have a little cry because someone's died but now they've got to go to the next patient and act like nothing's happened so I really want this to be a symbol of just like how hard working and I guess in a way traumatic it can be to be a doctor so that's going to be my first symbol from there I am going to shift I'm going to shift perspective of a little boy who's inside the doct who's inside the hospital and he is looking at his newborn premature baby sister um she is in an incubator because she's been born a little bit too early um and so this little boy is also worried and stressed much like the doctor but there is this Ray of Hope that accompanies it because new life and then I'm going to zoom in again and I want my symbol to be contrasting so we're carrying on with the theme of the baby before my symbol in paragraph 2 was that doctor who is very much overworked and tired now we're going with new life rebirth like hospitals are difficult places they are places of life and death like inevitably um so I want my description to recognize both sides of this so I'm going to zoom into um the mother holding the newborn baby's hand in the hospital and then my emotional ending circling back I couldn't find a picture that really showed what I had in my head but I wanted the final scene to be a mother leaving with her baby from the hospital at nighttime um so the description is beginning sun rising doctor entering and then it ends sun setting mother leaving with her baby baby um so that was my idea for my description some general advice then so for descriptive writing do make sure that you are using paragraphs correctly this is just this is just good advice guys just really please paragraph even like if I'm on Reddit or something like that and I open up someone's post if I see it doesn't have paragraphs I go off it I don't want to read something that hasn't got paragraphs um but if you do use my five paragraph structure this will ensure that you are paragraphing correctly do try try to link your paragraphs together so that they don't sound like five disconnected random images consider how a camera would logically move through space so okay I am a camera I am outside the hospital I am following a doctor in he's very upset okay now we're swerving off we're at the ICU um newborn baby newborn baby now being taken to the mother they're holding hands she's got permission to leave camera coming out with the mother outside the building like I said I did read a description sorry one of my year 11s to throw you into the BS but I did read a description of a castle that was just like randomly inside outside inside outside and I was like how is your camera getting to all these places and it just felt really disconnected um so do think imagine you are a film director as you're right in this description consider what tone or atmosphere you are trying to create like I was trying to create this like contrast of life and death within the hospitals like hope and heartbreak that was the tone I was going for do avoid being narrative so don't have named characters or any dialogue or any actions happening you are just observing and remember that you do gain marks for having developed imagery so do describe each of your images in detail and depth to maximize your marks this is what Cambridge say um so this comes from the Cambridge examiner report of Summer 2023 so ways in which descriptive writing can be improved avoid cliched scenarios and consider a more individual and original selection of content like I was saying as an examiner I read the same description same story over and over and over and over again and oh my god when I read one thing that's even slightly different hey star well done well not actually I still give them you know the fair Mark but it makes me more excited to read their work and therefore maybe a little bit more optimistic in my marking I suppose um do choose a scenario which gives you a range of details to focus on if you pick something very straightforward you're not going to have a lot to say about it keep your focus on details which help to evoke a particular atmosphere so what tone What atmosphere are you trying to create okay what things will best create that tone write sentences with proper verbs and do not switch tenses both descriptive and narrative writing people are just flip-flopping between past and present tense that is the most common grammar mistake go back through and check your tenses please um and do use vocabulary precisely so many people and I also see in my YouTube comments too can you give me a list of words to memorize and use in my exam but if you do that if you just come in with like 20 complicated words that you're like I've got these 20 words and they're really hard and I'm going to get them in and you just randomly shove them in they're not going to create an atmosphere you're not using them precisely sometimes it makes me confused I don't know what you mean anymore CU you're not using these words correctly it makes you get a lower Mark so use sophisticated words but only if they fit the atmosphere and only if you're sure that you're using them correctly here is my revision card my key takeaways for descriptions use my five paragraph structure zoom out zoom in change perspective zoom in contrast and emotional ending circle back link paragraphs and ideas smoothly think about how each paragraph will flow on from the previous paragraph and connect to the paragraph after it avoid narrative features like plot dialogue and characterization remember to describe images in depth and detail consider what tone and atmosphere you are trying to create make sure that all of your images and vocabulary choices match that tone imagine you are a camera and consider the most logical route through your description and those five minutes for proof reading do always always always save time to check your spelling punctuation and grammar particularly making sure that your tenses are consistent now finally on to section B narrative writing content and structure once again so content and structure for narrative writing so much like descriptive writing yes you do also get marks for your paragraphing and how well they flow from one into the next but now Cambridge are looking to see that your plot your plot structure which we'll talk about in a second is well defined and you have got description character setting and an effective climax which is strongly developed in band five you have got a plot which is defined but no longer well defined and you have still got that description character setting and climax um now in band four your plot is relevant so it's not defined anymore maybe it meanders it wonders a little bit um and it has some features of narrative writing so it might have description or character or setting or climax so notice that to get into band five you must have a climax and to get into a band for you may have a climax but no description or you may have no climax but but some pretty good characterization then in band three your writing is straightforward there are limited uses of narrative features sometimes I couldn't even tell you it was a a narrative at all most students will score in band four or at the bottom of band five in my um experience examining this paper not very many students get into the band six um but maybe you will be one of them so notice then it's always about plot and how defined it is so what do we mean by a plot being well- defined well you would have an excellent plot structure like this so you will begin with an introduction your introduction should introduce who would have thought um the time setting in character who is the main character what are their motivations what do they want so I should have a really clear sense of this story is about this person in this place and this is what their concerns are I can't even tell you how many stories I've read where the the main character is just I and they never get given a name sometimes I'm like is it a boy or a girl don't know old or young don't know who are they don't know like I've read so many stories where the main character is just I am a generic teenager I um so that's the purpose of your introduction inight instant honestly in um exam terms it's a little bit optional cuz you haven't got a lot of time but something should happen that begins the action of a plot um usually usually an obstacle something that gets in the way from the main character from achieving what they want or what they desire um I have got a more detailed video on this which you are free to check out just search totally narrative writing um but basically I am a knight and I love this woman this woman has been kidnapped by a dragon therefore I must now go and save the woman right from the dragon so The Woman being kidnapped there would be the inciting incident was that a sexist example now the woman must rescue the knight from the dragon anyway then you will have Rising tension and the key thing here really if you're wanting to get the top marks is you should have some tension some points where I feel stressed tense curious right I should be asking questions what is happening will everything be okay so we are building tension towards the climax it will often have misunderstandings and conflict in the climax this will be the most intense or exciting part of your story it might be a physical climax like a fight or a battle or it might be an emotional climax like an argument or a realization and then a resolution once again for the exam I don't need to see this necessarily but some sort of conclusion where we answering any final questions that have not yet been addressed and in short stories do keep this brief and it is also fine if you want to have a Cliff Hanger and just finish right after your climax as long as the most important issue has been resolved like if I read a short story and the whole purpose of the short story is who stole the jewels and I get to the end of the short story and I still don't know and kind of like what was the point of that I have just wasted my time but if it's this person has stole the jewels but their reason is different than we thought and we don't it makes us question everything else then we finish there that's a good short story I know who stole the jewels but the Cliffhanger is but why right um so do make sure that you answer your main question for me to feel satisfied with you um and now on to style and accuracy it's the same it's the same as uh descriptive writing so are you consistently accurate mostly accurate frequent small errors or serious errors basically here is my big bit of advice for narrative writing and for descriptive writing too I suppose but this I see this more so with narrative writing in which is that your first idea is your worst idea like the first story idea that you come up with is what everyone else in the world is writing what your examiner is reading over and over again and it is killing them right please do not give me your first or even your second idea give me something original please um so if you do the first idea that's in your head 90% of the other stories at least will be the same your story will be less original less likely to score for content and structure more boring um so you've got those 5 to 8 minutes of planning time use them don't just go oh okay the ball I'm going to write a story about a big ball and everyone getting together and dressing up fancy and the prince marri is the princess I read that 200 times please don't do that the planning time for narrative writing should actually be you stopping thinking thinking hard writing down some ideas don't just start writing please um I think I've said this before but there was one year where what was the story it was write write a narrative that includes the words there was no signal at all and I could tell from the the stories that I was reading that I was mostly marking British kids um and Kenyan and Nigerian kids um because they mentioned like oh and G Ghan kids too they were mentioning their like hometowns and the schools and their local cities so it was obvious where the students came from and it didn't matter if it was a British kid or a Kenyan kid they all wrote about going out into the Wilderness and oh my God we're lost and my phone has got no signal at all God um so honestly like the first idea is your worst idea could it not be you're trying to hack the TV Mainframe because you are dissident and re Rebels against the dystopian government and you're trying to put out the message that will change society forever and there's no signal at all as you're trying to pump through your message to the TVs of everyone but then at the last minute you figure out the code and then the message goes out and there's a revolution or something but like just anything different would have been absolutely great some more advice is Cambridge will give you a prompt right usually it will be something along the lines of write a story that includes the words blah blah blah write a story about topic or write a story with the title title right so they'll give you two different prompts to pick from but don't stress about it if you wrote a story that was completely unrelated to the prompt you don't get a penalty for that the examiner just marks your story as how good a story is is the plot defined does it have good characterization is the dialogue there um is the spelling punctuation and grammar accurate nowhere on that Mark scheme does it say follows the prompt includes the words of the prompt is suitable for the prompt it's not there so don't freak out about oh but if I want to do something original what if the examiner doesn't see that it fits the prompts and I get penalized it won't happen so don't try to force something rather than an original idea because you're worried about that instead use that time to actually write a well-written story because this will score far higher than a boring story that is very very literal to The Prompt now you're doing an exam and so you're probably thinking well what can I really do oh God don't tell me you're one of those students that's like you can't revise for English yes you can yes you can um so what I recommend that you do is you prepare ahead so before you go into your exam you will come up with a setting and some characters that can be in your story because every story has got setting and characters and therefore when you get into the exam you can be like okay ruic Iceland and Penelope Clearwater who was a character from Harry Potter let's see what you're doing today oh write a story that includes the words the ball that is about the ball ah Penelope you're going to a ball at the old Court in Iceland at the Royal Icelandic family right you've got in and you've instantly done something more interesting because you've got an original setting and original characters in your head you can even already have a basic story idea that you tweak according to the exam prompt you shouldn't be going in blind and and when students do go in blind and do go in unprepared that is when they write the most boring stories that's when they write their generic teenage character this is this is the most common story that I read I don't know how it always manages to come up um boy is going to be in a foot football tournament and he is being scouted and this is going to determine his life and he scores the winning goal hooray like football stories I swear and so that last this November writer story with the title the ball it was either a football story or it was prince and princess at the ball story that was it that was it and if these students would have prepared ahead and had an original setting and had original characters maybe they wouldn't have felt the need to go ahead with their boring football stories I'm sorry I'm biased I don't like football I don't care and I especially don't like reading the same story over and over again um so we are going to prepare ahead we are going to think of our characterization and our settings that we can include in our paper 2 Section B composition for narrative writing now when you're thinking about your characterization you should think about the following things obviously appearance what do they look like how do they dress their actions how do they walk and move through the world do they smile do they frown are they kind to people are they rude to people um speech how do they speak quietly slow loudly slowly fast do they have an accent are they chatty are they shy and their motivations what do they care about what drives them in life and what I would also add on to this is please give your character a flaw people are not perfect the most typical character that I get is I am a generic teenager I am very pretty I am very nice and kind I have got no flaws whatsoever boring boring boring please tell me one good film that you have watched one good book that you've read where all of the characters are perfect people aren't perfect so if you make these Perfect characters they don't seem realistic so do think about giving them a flaw um so maybe um they are really rude to everyone maybe they hate animals maybe they swear at their grandmother right why does your character have to be Miss Goody Goody to shoes don't boring do something else now let's imagine that we are writing a story um from May June 2023 paper in which the prompt was write a story with the title out of time we're going to try to apply some interesting characters to this prompt so let's have a look here are some of my interesting characters what story ideas can you come up with for each of these characters with the story idea out of time and let me give you a challenge because I bet that you'll do this can you get rid of the idea of death cuz that's so easy for out of time that's so obvious so take a second now a story idea for each of these characters for a story called out of time that does not include death now how about for this old lady here so appearances can be deceptive maybe she used to work as a police officer um or in the FBI or something very very high powerered now was an older person she's not lost that personality she is still very um shrewd clever and and single-minded maybe in terms of out of time she is on the way to do a bank heist why is she going to do a bank heist maybe she's trying to cover up a crime that she committed while she was a police officer and she needs to pay someone off cuz they're trying to blackmail her or maybe her daughter is really sick and she needs to pay the medical fees so why not have this old lady in a bank heist that would be so original that would be so different now over here we have got this gothman maybe he's someone that's been living outside of society like in a broken down building outside of a big city maybe he thinks that he can see the end of the world and that could be the out of time and he's trying to convince everyone that the end of the world is coming he's going out into the streets and yelling it's going to be the end of the world you guys need to believe me and then at the end of the story will it be the end of the world I think it would be quite funny if the answer was no it's not and it just ends with something like very contrasting like an ice cream van coming that that could really be like a fun story of contrasts just to carry on with the idea of unexpected out of time this could be a baby that she has has stolen she's always wanted to be a mother but wasn't able to get pregnant one day at the park she just ripped ripped a baby out of a woman's pram and ran away and so she knows that soon her time as a mother will be up so that could be one idea stolen baby idea could we tell the story from the perspective of the child so the child is now an old woman woman looking back at her life remembering her own mother seeing parallels or something like that that could be quite interesting if you're telling it as a retrospective story or maybe let's get creepier still maybe this baby isn't real maybe it's a replica baby um you know you can get really really lifelike looking babies maybe she's in a mental institution and they're trying to gradually take away her baby and bring her back to reality maybe she's had a baby that's died okay that's that's got death in but the main point isn't death the main point is she's out of touch with reality and the baby isn't real and this baby's going to be taken away from her so see instantly we are looking at these characters we're trying to do something a little bit different with them we're trying to be a little bit more creative and and not assuming that they are what they look to be from the front and taking that prompt and just trying to do something a little bit different with it up next then you have got set in so we've got these characters and and these three characters by the way they can be your characters that you take into the exam with you why not have this cool old lady X FBI who is out to commit a crime right you can take the idea into the paper to let's have a think about what settings you can take into your paper 2 now now when I talk about setting I mean when a story is set and where it is set so it could be London in the 1800s it could be Tokyo in 2500 right uh or it could be the present day too so that's what I mean when I talk about setting but setting is also more than that it's also what atmosphere right um so obviously London in the 1800s would be very different for the wealthy versus the poor and would therefore um create a really really different atmosphere depending on what you wanted to focus on now what I see in the exam is that most students just set the stories in their Hometown that's how I can figure out what you guys are from you just tell me um but try to do something more creative Why not pick something more unique why just go for my Village full stop you know if you go in with a an interesting setting that can automatically you look at your story in a slightly different perspective once again then I'm going to show you guys some settings and think what could the story out of time mean in these settings so here we have got a Regency Era Ball Room out of time so you could steal these ideas how about your story is always set in Regency Era Pride and Prejudice exp inspired uh bridg turn inspired if you will and then you could go away and learn some vocabulary words to really describe that setting very beautifully but precisely um you know you could have some pre-prepared similis and metaphors to describe your setting that you take into the exam with you or your story could always be set within a Grand Mansion where the owners are poor or your story could always be told in a grand Manion mansion from the perspective of a servant now that would be very interesting wouldn't it that contrast of the extreme wealth of the with the poverty of the servant who is by nature serving the people that could apply to anything anything right um if if it's going to be from the perspective of a servant here out of time maybe the servant is plotting against their masters or if you're doing the second bullet point the owners are poor they know that they're out of time their way of living is soon to be over so these are some of my ideas that you could steal how about some story ideas is for this setting um I think I typed in Tokyo or Osaka to get this it looks more like Tokyo to me let me know if you know if you've been here I have been to Tokyo and Osaka before but I don't recognize this street so some story ideas so your story could always be set in Tokyo from the perspective of a newly arrived Foreigner who can't speak Japanese that could be so interesting right that miscommunication that that sense of being lost in a big city could be very very interesting you're out of time so maybe the Foreigner has only got a small amount of time to find their new job or before their visa expires you know to find an apartment or to make a friend and that could be what what is out of time or your story could always be set in a Ramen Shop in Tokyo um told from the perspective of of a shop owner who just observes but doesn't get involved this kind of like wall flower character I think I find very very interesting in stories how about story ideas for this setting this is Big Ben in London what could you come up with for out of time how about you set your story on New Year's Eve 1999 you guys are all too young to remember this but basically in 1999 everyone was scared of the millennium bug which was the idea that when we turn from 1999 to the year 2000 everything will break like all technology will break it's it's not designed to deal with going into the 2000s and then because of that Society will collapse like everyone was really scared that that would happen so I think that would make a really interesting setting um for any story London New Year's Eve 1999 millennium bug you could apply that to anything come on anything um and then the second bullet point you could if you don't like my millennium bug idea just do it the story is always set at New Year's Eve as the bell chimes so like literally Your Story begins ding ding ding ding New Year's Eve and then it could end with the Bell dinging at the start of the next day and then you would have that circular structure for your narrative and I think an examiner would really be impressed by that and then finally if you want to get a little bit political um or you enjoy politics why not have your story set in UK Parliament or or like your local government doesn't have to be the British government um and your characters can always be politicians I think you could have a lot of fun with that too um it could be a prime minister out of time on the night of a general election because he knows he's going to get voted out of office oh I would love that that would be such a good story idea for out of time how about here for out of time this is a photograph of the York Shores um if you've read weing Heights you know you just know um so your story could always be set on the craggy oan Ms with this kind of Gothic era about it or your story could always be told from the perspective of someone who was camping why are people always within civilization isn't it quite interesting if you take them out of society and see what happens then for this one how about a story that's always set in the wilderness but told from the perspective of a survivalist who believes that the world will end you guys just know I've been watching lots and lots of survivalist documentaries recently um but yeah I I find this really quite an interesting idea just in terms of it really changes your perspective on life and and the way that you live your life and the way that you view the world if you think that the world is going to end and then what happens if it does end Bo what happens if it doesn't um or get emotional how about your story will be set in a cabin in a forest by a man who has recently been heartbroken oh right so any of these story ideas you can imagine you have them in your head you develop them a little bit you come up with some similes and metaphors and you practice them then all you need to do when you get into the exam you've got that story idea just tweak it a little bit so it matches the prompt here's another one this one's a bit more dystopian um so why don't you have a story that is set in a post-apocalyptic dystopian Wasteland the world has ended it has been destroyed by nuclear war or climate change or something what then what would out of time mean then if time doesn't exist anymore like literally clocks don't exist anymore people can't count the days people aren't sure what the current date or time is that would be so interesting or how about you tell a story that is always set in an abandoned warehouse from the perspective of a homeless person again that would give you both an interest in narrative perspective and a setting or think about the weather could you not have a story that's always set in the middle of a storm or a flood and then you could come up with some some really nice descriptions of storms and floods that you can take into any exam I hope you guys can see that actually you can really prepare for narrative writing um by doing something like this and just taking in a few interesting ideas with you um like I said in November I was marking the paper with the the story write a story with the title of the ball um and the there was one paper that stood out to me it was still prince and princess fall in love in a in a ball right but the student made really interesting because they had um one group of characters were werewolves and one group of characters were vampires and so it was like these two Waring families these two Waring aristocratic families that were trying to get together their son and daughter to form an alliance between the werewolves and the vampires at this ball and that was so interesting and so unique and like the story wasn't it wasn't like amazingly written or anything like that but just the fact like oh you've actually tried to do something different like I was really really really impressed by that um so be that student for your examiner cheer them up a little bit on the rainy night when they're marking your exam and just come up with a setting and a character that you can apply to your story that will make it more unique and make you stand out now one of the most common mistakes that I see um is with dialogue right so this can affect both your content and structure mark because of paragraphing and also your style and accuracy mark because of punctuating so this is the the the big thing that I want to point out to you guys so firstly for structure a new speaker means a new line so every time you have someone new speak that makes a new paragraph and sometimes I read paragraphs where it's like this long and it's two people talking and there's no separation and it makes it hard to read and it's incorrectly paragraphed it's poorly structured so you're losing some marks and do make sure that you revise dialogue punctuation it is the most common eror with punctu situation so let's have a look at this example and then we'll unpick it a little bit I really think you're making a mistake whispered James his eyes firmly fixed on the floor I paused gritting my teeth before speaking what other choice do I have we stood for a moment neither of us able to meet the other's eye the clocks incessant ticking the only noise in the room and making our silence seem all the louder you could be with me he burst out finally you could say to hell with propriety to hell with inheritance okay you might not be Lady of the manner anymore but you could be happy we could be happy what's the point in living in such wealth if you go to bed every night alone Rich certainly but alone I shook my head blinking back tears come and be poor and happy with me Lizzy be with me Lizzy that that was I wrote that one um as an example of characterization for the ball right this this Rich poor kind of theme so firstly in terms of structure notice new speaker new paragraph so here we've got James speaking here we've got the narrator speaking here we've got a description of both of them what they're doing we've got James we've got me uh me narrator and here we've got James again um so each time you've got someone new speaking or something new happening you need to have a new paragraph then in terms of punctuation notice you need to have a comma and it should go inside the speech marks and then it should be a small letter here not a capital letter because this is all part of the same sentence um you can also have here exclamation mark even though this would normally begin a new sentence we still got a small H sorry um and once again the punctuation mark goes inside the speech marks you can also vary up where your dialog tag goes a dialogue tag is what tells you who is speaking so here we've got the dialogue followed by the dialogue tag here we've got the dialogue tag followed by the dialogue right I paused blah blah blah and then down here we've got the dialogue tag in the middle you could be with me he burst out finally you could say to hell with propriety so it's nice to vary up so you're not repeating the same structure not just blah blah blah he said blah blah blah she said blah blah blah he said blah blah she said you know very up a little bit and even sometimes if it's obvious who's speaking you don't need to have a dialogue tag at all so down here we've got no tag because it's it's obvious that it's James who's speaking here also notice that for good dialogue we're describing what's happening too whispered James comma his eyes firmly fixed on the floor um and down here I shook my head blinking back my tears so don't make it like a script where you're just reporting what people are saying you should still be describing how they're saying it what their body language is like what is going on whilst this dialogue is being said now from cambridge's Summer examiner report this is what they say about how narrative writing could commonly be improved on that paper 2 exam so think about how to interest and Intrigue your reader in shaping your narrative so things like doing an original idea having a circular structure those are ways of interesting a reader consider imaginative ways to tell your story apart from a chronologic iCal account why does it have to go beginning middle end can't It Go end middle beginning like that story idea of the baby right the baby's telling the story as an old woman remembering back so that could be very interesting develop your character's thoughts and feelings to help engage your reader do not rely on events so we need to care about the characters and why would I care about a character who doesn't even have a name um do check your writing for errors which will affect your mark such as basic spelling and punctu creation mistakes and again like I said for descriptive writing tense tense is a huge one in narrative writing cuz you guys all begin in past tense then you get to your Climax and you get excited and you change to present tense so do check that your tenses are consistent try to use some complicated vocabulary with precision and consider the power of simple words and sentences to create particular effects so simple basic words but used in a powerful way can have more of an effect than a very long and complicated word where you've not really thought about how to use it to bring this all together then here is my revision card of key takeaways for narrative writing prepare ahead by considering interesting settings and characters before the exam that you can apply to any exam prompt when you get in there your first idea is your worst idea actually use your planning time to come up with something more original dialogue remember a new speaker means a new paragraph build tension and mystery to make your climax more effective double check your paragraphing remember tiptop change paragraph every time you have a new time person topic or place avoid generic teenage protagonists with no personality and no flaws and do always save time to check your spelling punctuation and grammar especially with your dialogue punctuation and making sure that your tenses are consistent if you like this lesson you can find more like this on my website to.co like I said I've got a descriptive writing lesson a narrative writing lesson a paper on breakdown I explain how to write all the different text types that you'll need for your first language exam so subscribe to my YouTube channel and head on over to to.co do.uk leave a comment if you've got any thoughts or questions that you want to ask thank you so much for joining me on this monstrously long revision video I can't believe I thought it was only going to be an hour thank you all right guys see you in the next one