Exam Preparation

• writing for different audiences and for different purposes

• conventions and features of letters, articles, speeches, journal entries, interview transcripts, news reports and formal reports

• descriptive and narrative composition

• what is required for the comprehension and short answer questions, writer’s effects and summary writing tasks

*Week 1: 

Paper 1 – Extended response task: writing an interview transcript

*Week 2: 
Paper 1 – extended response task: informal and formal letters 

*Week 3: 

Paper 1 – extended response task: writing a journal entry

*Week 4: 

Paper 2 – directed response task: writing a speech

*Week 5:

Paper 2 – composition task: descriptive writing


*Week 6: 

Paper 2 – Directed response task: writing an article

*Week 7: 

Paper 2 composition: Narrative writing

*Week 8:

Paper 1 – writer's effects and comprehension

*Week 9: 

Paper 1 – extended response task: newspaper reports, formal reports, summary

*Week 10: 

Paper 2 – composition: descriptive writing

* Skimming, scanning, explicit and implicit meaning

* Emotive and sensory language

* Recognizing and distinguishing fact, opinion and bias (looking at feature articles, opinion pieces etc)

* Analyzing and evaluating, looking at form and purpose in a range of texts

* Deducing audience

* Understanding how to match tone to audience and purpose.

* Technical skills – grammar, punctuation, use of reported and direct speech, structuring writing, paragraphing and paragraph cohesion, audience and levels of formality, assuming voice and role.

* Speeches/talks

* Interviews

* Diary journal entries

* Reports

* News reports

* Magazine articles

* Letters

* Writing to inform, explain, persuade, argue, explore and discuss.

* Applying skills – locating and selecting information, literal and inferred meaning, practising exam-style comprehension questions and looking at sample responses

* Summary writing – identifying the focus of the question, selecting and ordering points for a summary, writing a summary, practice questions, sample answers

* Analyzing language – synonyms and literal meaning, explaining connotations and associations

* Extended response to reading and directed writing exam tasks – how to plan, structure and write pieces, including understanding the question’s focus, assuming a role, practicing with exam-style questions

* Composition – descriptive and narrative tasks, organizing ideas, structuring your piece, using different types of imagery, including sensory details, varied sentences and punctuation.