Paper 1

Monday 16th May

What will you be asked to do?

Section A: Reading

You will be asked to read a piece of prose you have not seen before and then answer a set of questions on it.

(40 marks)

Section B: Writing

You will be asked to complete two pieces of imaginative writing.

B1 – Descriptive writing (20 marks)

B2 – Narrative/personal writing (20 marks)

Section A - Reading

• You will read an unseen passage from a story and answer a series of questions designed to test your understanding of what you have just read.

• You will have about 55 minutes to complete this section

• Spend 10-15 minutes answering each question

• Each answer should be about two-thirds of a side in length

Types of question

There are five types of question in the Reading section.

• Locating and retrieving information

• Personal response

• Character response

• The craft of the writer

• Empathetic response

Important tips

• Read the text really carefully to make sure you are clear about what happens.

• Make sure you write about the section that the question asks you to. For example, if it says write about lines 1-35 then ONLY write about lines 1-35!

• Read the question carefully and do exactly what it asks. You could use the phrasing in the question to start your answer.

Locating and retrieving informationTypes of questionWhat clues or details can you find to prove something?What evidence can you find to prove something?

This is asking for INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Remember • Work your way through the suggested lines of the passage• Track the text, going through it step by step. Each point

you make must count.• Always stay within the specified lines to find your

information.• Use only information from the text. You could use a

highlighter to mark the points you want to use in your answer.

Personal response

Types of question• What are your thoughts and feelings about a character or

relationship?• What impressions do you get of a character, or

relationship or place?• What do you learn about a character or relationship?

• Use the wording of the question to get started on the answer. Also, link the evidence with the comment. It’s always useful to have this ‘evidence and comment’ pattern in your answers wherever you can.

• Use ‘I think …’, ‘I feel…’, ‘I get the impression that…’, ‘I learn…’, ‘the reader learns…’ or ‘We learn…’ and support your points with reference to the extract. You need to make clear what effect the text has on the reader, and, as always, it is sensible to start at the beginning and work your way carefully through the lines.

Character response

What are the character’s thoughts and feelings?

Your answer should include a lot of sentences that begin ‘He or she thinks…’, ‘She or he feels…’ or ‘they think/feel…’

What is going through the character’s mind?Your answer should include a lot of sentences that begin

‘He is thinking…’ or ‘She is thinking…’. It is particularly important to establish a sense of sequence in your answer. People tend to think in a logical order and your answer should follow the thought process of the character.

Character response 2How does a character react, or behave or change?

‘How does a character behave…?’ is fairly straightforward and requires you to focus mainly on the character’s actions.

‘How does a character change…? Suggests something different and you need to be alert to developments in the character.

‘How does a character react…?’ requires you to look at what they do, say, think and feel. In other words, you need to cover that character’s actions, thoughts, words and emotions.

The craft of the writerTypes of question• How does the writer convey, create, make or

suggest?• What happens in these lines? How and why do

you react to what happens?• How effective is the ending?• What are your thoughts and feelings as you read

these lines?Simply identifying literary devices, such as similes willnot increase your marks. You must try to comment onthe effect of particular uses of language. Identifyspecific examples of any features you spot, andcomment on how they work.

The craft of the writer

• With this type of question, it’s useful to deal with a short section of the text, maybe just a few lines. Explain how you react to what has happened- your thoughts and feelings- at that point in the story. Repeat this pattern as you work through the text. This will allow you to explain precisely how your thoughts and feelings change as the story develops.

• It’s useful to begin some of your sentences with ‘The writer…’, then go on to explain what the writer (rather than the character) is doing. Opening some sentences like this will help you to focus on the question and stop you slipping into just re-telling the story.

Imagine you are a character• Make sure your answer actually deals with the events in the

passage. This is not an opportunity for creative writing.

• Ask yourself how would the character feel about the events?• What would the character know?• What would be important to the character?• How would the character react to events?

• Your answer should include what happened to the character but must also concentrate on their thoughts and feelings. You should write in the first person (I). Carefully select points that would be important to the character and finally try to sound like the character.

• Remember you must use quotes in this section !!!

Writing section B

In this paper you will have to produce two pieces of writing

• B1 a piece of descriptive writing• B2 a piece of narrative/ personal writing• You will have about one hour to complete this

section• B1 spend no more than 20 minutes (aim for one

page of A4)• B2 spend at least 40 minutes (aim for two

pages of A4)

What are you marked on?

“Candidates will be required to demonstrate their ability to:

• communicate clearly and imaginatively, using and adapting forms for different readers and purposes;

• organise ideas into sentences, paragraphs and whole texts using a variety of linguistic and structural features;

• use a range of sentence structures effectively with accurate punctuation and spelling.”

B1 Descriptive writing

• Plan your writing before you start.

• Ask yourself: Who would I see here and what would they be doing? Imagine you are a camera zooming in on particular features.

• You will have about 25 minutes to write about a page. Think about four paragraphs as the ideal length for the descriptive writing task.

• The best responses establish a relationship with the reader, often using humour and other devices such as snatches of dialogue to keep the reader interested.

Use the third person

In your exam writing for Paper 1 the exam board advises that you use the third person for B1 (the descriptive task). In the textbook it says using the third person is “a good way of avoiding a narrative approach – you should be the camera, not the leading man or woman, in this drama.”

Think about the verbs you use

• The verbs you choose can dramatically change the mood of the action. For example, ‘yanking’ is much stronger than ‘holding’ and ‘demanding’ is more aggressive than ‘asking’.

Pay attention to adverbs and adjectives

• Adverbs – describe verbs and tell us how an action is performed. For example, instead of just using the verb walked, we could say: walked briskly or casually walked.

• Adjectives – describe nouns and tell us what they look like. For example, instead of describing something as just blue, we could say: navy blue or turquoise blue.

Describe but do not tell a story

This is VERY important. Do not include any irrelevant material. Remember to be the camera and record what is seen and heard, and also use the other senses too.

Try to write from memory rather than imagination

• It is always a good idea, where possible, to use your personal experience, to give your description a sense of realism. Try to include authentic details, including physical description and snatches of dialogue. Dialogue can make the scene more lively, and it is a good way of showing character.

Use proper nouns where appropriate

Proper nouns are names of things, and always start with a capital letter. Using these is a way of adding reality to the scene. For example, give names to characters( Dr Jones), places(Victoria Park) cars(BMW) or magazines(FHM).

Use language devices

• Language devices include: similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, personification, alliteration and assonance. These will impress the examiner.

Avoid generalisations

• Generalisations are not very successful as they are usually unconvincing and it restricts what you can say. Close ups can work well. Zoom in on a character and describe them in detail.

Focus on individuals who inhabit the scene

• Focus on the characters. Describe what they look like, how they are dressed, what they are doing, what they might be saying and even what they are thinking. You will probably only need to focus on three or four characters.

Sentence types

Remember that good writing uses a variety of sentence types. A balance of simple, compound and complex sentences.

In the writing tasks you are assessed on:

• Content and organisation – 13 marks

• Sentence structure, punctuation and spelling – 7 marks

B2 Personal and narrative writing tips

• You will be given a list of titles to choose from, and this is the only opportunity you get on either paper to choose what to do.

• This section of writing should be at least two pages long.

• There are three approaches to this task:1.Personal2.Imaginative and creative3.Fact with fiction• You need to be selective and think about incidents or

experiences in your life that might interest or amuse a reader.

Ideas

• Experiences of early childhood can produce delightful writing, particularly if you can capture the thoughts and feelings that young children can experience. A good memory for detail really helps.

• Experiences of your teenage years can allow you to explore your thoughts, feelings and experiences, looking back at fairly recent events but from some distance. This can give a sense of perspective to your writing.

Ideas

Remember you are not writing for yourself. You are writing for your reader and you need to capture their interest. However, you may be surprised by what you can do with an apparently minor incident. Often it is not the content of a story that makes it succeed, but the way it is told.

The different types of task

• There are four different types of title in the exam from which you will have to choose.

• continue the story

• complete the story

• autobiographical

• open title– You need to think about openings and endings,

particularly when they are given. A good opening should hook the reader, so you should think about how and when to start.

•

Chronological order?

Most stories are told in order, but you could start with a dramatic detail from the end or some vital action from the middle of the story. You need to think about sequencing events. You must also make sure your narrative reaches a logical conclusion.

Tips 1

• Readers need information, but sometimes a good story withholds information until the appropriate moment. You can create suspense by holding back some information.

• Selecting material is important, judging what to leave out and what to put in. Be realistic. You must not attempt too much in the time and space you have available.

Tips 2

• Be consistent with characters, names, relationships, tenses and perspective. Too many characters make it difficult for the reader to keep track. It is also important to make a conscious decision about using the first or third person and stick to it.

Tips 3

• Be careful with the scale and time frame of stories. Although, what happens is part of a good story, we have to care about the characters or be intrigued by the situation. A narrative in which the action takes place within an hour is a good bit of advice. A single incident works well.

Tips 4

• You need to think about the pace of a story, judge when to pause (to comment, reflect or describe) and when to move on.

• Details of people, places and events are necessary to keep the story interesting, but it must not get bogged down in these details. Think about where to put the emphasis in your story.

Tips 5

• Dialogue can be very effective but requires control of layout and punctuation. You can reveal a lot about a character through dialogue. However, avoid using too much and be careful not to make technical errors.

• Use a variety of language devices, such as: adverbs, adjectives, similes and metaphors.

Finally

A good story needs planning, or you will run out of steam after half a page. Keep these three points in mind:– You need a story to tell– You need to think about how to tell it– You need to write it as accurately as you can.