Examination Reports 2014 and 2015
AO1
Students should be regularly interrogating their work- and
referring back to the detail of the question- from the planning to the writing
and through to the final checking and editing to ensure that it is fulfilling
the requirements. They may want to try to position themselves as the publisher
or the reader and ask if what they are producing would be suitable. This may
require encouraging students to think about the content and structure of a
range of different writing briefs as they progress through the course.
BE SELF CRITICAL – EDIT YOUR OWN WORK – TRY TO VIEW IT AS
READER OR THE PUBLISHER
Content and structure are key… HOW COULD YOU ENSURE THESE
ARE EXCELLENT
‘development’ of ideas
This involves having an independent and lively voice, which
is why ‘confident development’ appears in the Band 4 of the AO1 mark scheme.
Responses should have a clear and engaging opening and a
sense that the writer knows where they are going.
Signposting can be achieved by simple links between
paragraphs, or it can be more complex and subtle use of repetition or
reiteration of a particular idea or theme. DISCUSS
In 300 words it is expected that a tight and clear focus is
going to produce better results than trying to tackle a wide range of ideas and
issues. THOUGHT: IF YOU WANT TO SOPHISTICATED IN WRITING HOW CAN WE BE SIMPLE
WITH JUST ONE IDEA?
SIMPLE WAYS TO SHOW DEVELOPMENT:
1
2
3
It is also important that students are ambitious and
imaginative in their responses and in their use of language, in particular.
Confident approaches might include using puns or cultural references in the
titles or feeling confident to make jokes or comments that the particular
readers would understand. For example, confident responses to Q4 described
specific and idiosyncratic aspects
of education establishments in an engaging way.
HOW TO GENERATE ‘AMBITIOUS’ USE OF LANGUAGE
1
2
3
Responses that are written in a mundane or inappropriately
informal style, for example, even if the brief is requiring a first person
voice, are unlikely to be demonstrating ‘crafted’ writing.
At this level it would be expected that students would be
very much aware of the crucial nature of thoughtful and controlled punctuation
and sentence structures alongside flexible use of paragraphing that will guide
the reader.
Students who have been have been explicitly encouraged to
vary sentence types and punctuation are more likely to demonstrate these high
level skills in their responses.
SUBJECT:
GENRE:
LONG SENTENCE, SHORT SENTENCE, LONG SENTENCE, SHORT SENTENCE
AO2
Examiners reported a particular disappointment that some of
the most imaginative and absorbing writers were not writing in grammatically
secure structures, or were paragraphing in the most perfunctory and mechanical
manner.
Avoid: being tautological*; over-writing; over use of
cliché; not recognising cliché; using idioms; misusing words – usually
ambitious in language, but not secure. (Top range of pupils)
There was still a lot of cliché (this issue was raised in
the Examiner’s Report 2014) such as the ‘roller coaster ride’ of education.
Although clichés play an important role in vernacular conversation, for
example, they are generally edited out of good quality professional
writing.(2015)
Demarcating sentences was also a disappointing weakness 2015
(shape your writing)
WHEN IS IT BEST TO MAKE MISTAKES? WHAT PURPOSE DO MISTAKES
SERVE?
AQA recommends following sites like
Why? DISCUSS
It was also felt that some of the less successful responses
were very generalised. The most engaging responses offered actual
names/pseudonyms, dates, sensory descriptions and gave an impression of
noticing detail, such as a relative in Florida emailing home about their
diabetes medication, a person looking in the mirror wondering if they will see
Philip Larkin’s face looking back at them. This detail makes a piece of writing
specific and much more “highly developed”.
It essential that students are very firmly encouraged to be
self-reflective and editorial in approach.
Following simple rules such as avoiding passive
constructions, using adverbs and adjectives with caution, and maintaining
viewpoint in writing can be taught and practised in quite a straightforward way
and can provide helpful technical signposts for young writers.
·
Big Dog chased the police car.
·
The police car was chased by Big Dog.
·
We ate every bite of food.
·
Peggy ate the bone.
·
The bone was eaten by Peggy.
·
Every bite of food was eaten by us.
Active or passive?
Edit
your work (show the examiner what you’re doing)
There were a surprisingly high number of
scripts that were submitted with virtually no evidence of planning or drafting,
such as crossing out or alterations. Although it is up to the individual
students to decide how to approach the planning and completion of the tasks,
examiners raised a concern that quite a number did not appear to be
self-editing. It is worth reminding reluctant editors that professional writers
would never submit an unaltered first draft for publication.
General advice
Students
should be encouraged to clearly label, and preferably cross through, all draft
work. Some students provided two or three very full drafts that were not
labelled as such and examiners were not sure which to mark. Drafts will only be
considered if final pieces are left unfinished, but otherwise will be ignored.
Students should also leave some space between each response so there is room for
examiners to write their comments and place their marks - students could for
example start a response on the next page. All pages are checked so work will
not be missed if there is a gap and it would be very helpful as part of a
smooth examining process.
Word
count was an issue for some students and we would like to emphasise that
students should be adhering to the 300 word advice, in order to produce sharply
focused writing.
The
majority of responses were in the form of prose non-fiction/fiction, but there
were some successful poetry and script responses and so students are still
encouraged to consider these forms as writing options in the examination. DON’T
BE SCARED.
No comments:
Post a Comment