Paper II
Paper II rewards planning. Five minutes of thinking before you write is worth more than five minutes of extra writing at the end.
What Paper II is like
Paper II contains the longer work: extended writing tasks, and reading passages with fuller questions. There are fewer items than in Paper I, and each carries more marks.
In extended writing you are not marked on content alone. Examiners look at what you say, how you organise it, how accurately you use English, and whether the form and tone suit the task you were given. A letter of complaint written as a message to a friend loses marks however good the English is.
The exact tasks and choices vary between years. Read the paper carefully and check the current official syllabus for your own examination.
The five minutes before you write
This is the habit that separates a good Paper II from a disappointing one.
Read every option before choosing
Where there is a choice, read them all. The first that catches your eye is not always the one you have most to say about.
Underline the instruction words
Describe, explain, give your opinion, write a letter to, in about 100 words. These words tell you the form, the purpose and the length. Missing one of them costs marks that had nothing to do with your English.
Decide who you are writing to
The reader decides the tone. A principal, a newspaper editor, a friend and a general examiner audience each require different language.
Make a four-line plan
Not sentences — just the idea for each paragraph, in order. This is the whole plan, and it takes a minute.
Note your ending before you begin
Most weak answers stop rather than finish, because the writer ran out of time and thought. Decide the last idea first, and you will always land properly.
Dividing your time
Work out, before you start, how many minutes each question deserves — roughly in proportion to its marks — and write the finishing time for each one at the top of your answer sheet.
Then keep to it. A brilliant answer to question two and nothing at all for question three will always score less than two adequate answers. Every year, students lose more marks to poor time management than to poor English.
Before you hand in Paper II
- Have I answered the required number of questions, and no fewer?
- Have I used the form asked for — letter, email, essay, speech, dialogue?
- Is the tone right for the reader?
- Have I kept roughly to the length given?
- Are my paragraphs separate and each about one idea?
- Have I checked the verbs, the plurals, the capital letters and the full stops?
- Is my handwriting legible throughout, including at the end when I was hurrying?
Prepare for the writing tasks
Guided Writing
Read this first.
Letters
Formal and informal.
Essay Writing
Planning and paragraphing.
Model Answers
Full answers, explained.