APPROACHING THE SHORT WRITING TASK EDEXCEL IGCSECERTIFICATE Jonathan

APPROACHING THE SHORT WRITING TASK: EDEXCEL IGCSE/CERTIFICATE Jonathan Peel JLS 2015 08 March 2021

THE QUESTION Always paired with the passage from the Anthology (section A) Linked thematically Allowed to echo/borrow, but don’t quote directly from the Anthology in your writing. You have no more than 25 minutes for the task Typical: “Write a description of an event which was important to you: this could be a sporting event, a festival or a religious event, for example. ” This might be linked to A game of polo with a headless goat. (2012) Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

BEFORE YOU START: Take note of the detail of the question: What is the major stylistic requirement? Inform? Explain? Describe? Often the piece will require All three to be shown, as in a newspaper article. You need to be clear. How does the question link to the passage? Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

LINKING TO THE PASSAGE This may be no more than a thought process, but… Look at my example from a previous slide. “Write a description of an event which was important to you: this could be a sporting event, a festival or a religious event, for example. ” Since Headless Goat is about a sporting event, the obvious path is laid out for you to follow. You could write about anything you wish, but the further you stray from the Sporting event clue, the harder it will be to use the passage to help you come up with a quick response. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

PASSAGE FEATURES You would have just written about these. In Goat you have a range of : onomatopoeia, comic-style figurative language, dialogue, first person narrative, humour, imagery of sound, colour and smell… These can find their way into your writing in your piece. Another example (2015) paired Touching the Void with “We all need help sometimes” – a newspaper article. Clear features of Void: 1 s t person narrative, dual perspective from the victim and the helper, passionate and emotive language, short sentences, highly subjective response set against a dispassionate and objective summing up of the situation and language that is more considered… Make the connection. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

PLANNING Even for a 25 minute task, 3 or 4 minutes will pay dividends. 1. This is a short task, so plan accordingly. Do not just write until the time runs out 2. PLAN 3 OR 4 PARAGRAPHS ONLY. 3. Depending on the task, plan paragraphs thinking about the narrative requirement. Organise the IED needs into separate paragraphs. 4. Plan and think about TRAPPERS all the way though 5. Plan with the links between paragraphs in mind. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

EXAMPLE On the next slide is the answer I wrote in 15 minutes for the Sporting Event Question. I planned for 5 and wrote at the same time as my class. My thought process: Para 1 Setting: nail description Sight Emotive language Size of stadium against relative peace of crowd colours Para 2 Sound and lack of sound. The event itself Zoom in to a single man in crowd for effect Para 3 Sum up the experience, recap images and bring back some material – the hotdog and drink from earlier. Make it sound like the end. 2 thoughts struck as I began – split para 1 to allow a short paragraph to emerge and link the sports and religious idea. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

WRITE A DESCRIPTION OF AN EVENT… The first impression is of vastness – a huge bowl with a luxurious green base, bathed in a startlingly pure white light. Above, the dark heavens sit like a lid, closing us in and increasing the sense of anticipation. I love night games. All around, the crowd, (our fellow-worshippers at the shrine of Barcelona Football Club), sit and chat in low tones: a true congregation. A congregation eating lurid hotdogs and downing quantities of amber fluid from plastic glasses. After the excitement and awe: slight disappointment. Where was the singing? Nowhere! This is Europe, not North London, my regular temple: White Hart Lane. Here there was respectful silence, broken only by the old man to my right with a voice like a demented crow. “arbitrooooooo” he would caw at every opportunity. His beloved Barca were obviously beyond reproach. His sounds were joined by the ear-splitting whistles of 100, 000 acolytes as the “arbitro” had the temerity to dismiss one of the players for dissent. The only time passions ran high. In truth, this was not the most exciting sporting event I have ever attended. The Nou Camp is built on a scale which reduces the players to ants and which prevents a cacophony of sound developing. The colours are wonderful: the lights, the grass, the purple/red of the strips, yet the respectful silence is incongruous at one of the foremost arenas in the world. As we left the ground the silence was striking. We climbed the stairs, wading though empty hotdog cartons and slipping on discarded plastic cups – the flotsam and jetsam of another night of worship at the shrine of the “beautiful game”. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

WHERE HAVE I MADE DELIBERATE CHOICES? CAN YOU WORK IT OUT? The first impression is of vastness – a huge bowl with a luxurious green base, bathed in a startlingly pure white light. Above, the dark heavens sit like a lid, closing us in and increasing the sense of anticipation. I love night games. All around, the crowd, (our fellow-worshippers at the shrine of Barcelona Football Club), sit and chat in low tones: a true congregation. A congregation eating lurid hotdogs and downing quantities of amber fluid from plastic glasses. After the excitement and awe: slight disappointment. Where was the singing? Nowhere! This is Europe, not North London, my regular temple: White Hart Lane. Here there was respectful silence, broken only by the old man to my right with a voice like a demented crow. “arbitrooooooo” he would caw at every opportunity. His beloved Barca were obviously beyond reproach. His sounds were joined by the ear-splitting whistles of 100, 000 acolytes as the “arbitro” had the temerity to dismiss one of the players for dissent. The only time passions ran high. In truth, this was not the most exciting sporting event I have ever attended. The Nou Camp is built on a scale which reduces the players to ants and which prevents a cacophony of sound developing. The colours are wonderful: the lights, the grass, the purple/red of the strips, yet the respectful silence is incongruous at one of the foremost arenas in the world. As we left the ground the silence was striking. We climbed the stairs, wading though empty hotdog cartons and slipping on discarded plastic cups – the flotsam and jetsam of another night of worship at the shrine of the “beautiful game”. Jonathan Peel JLS 2015

I AM INDEBTED T O A COLLEAGUE FOR THIS: Jonathan Peel JLS 2015