Section B: Composition Answer one question from Section B. Write about 350 to 450 words on one of the following questions. Up to 16 marks are available for ...
Question 1 Report
Section B: Composition
Answer one question from Section B. Write about 350 to 450 words on one of the following questions. Up to 16 marks are available for the content and structure of your answer, and up to 24 marks for the style and accuracy of your writing.
Narrative Writing
Write a story that ends with these exact words: She had been right about the weather, and right about everything else. These words must form the last sentence of your story.
[Total: 40 marks]
Answer Details
What this question is testing
A description is organised by perception and holds time still; a narrative is organised by consequence and has to move through a complication to an end. This task tests the second skill under an additional constraint, and the constraint is not decorative. The words She had been right about the weather, and right about everything else. must appear exactly as given, word for word and with the same punctuation, and they must form the final sentence of the story. Nothing may follow them, and they may not be adjusted to fit. Altering the wording or continuing past the sentence is penalised directly on the content and structure strand, and it is the easiest mark on the paper to throw away.
Building backwards from the given sentence
Read the sentence for what it obliges you to supply. It contains two claims and a relationship. Somebody, a woman, predicted the weather and was right; she was also right about something larger, which the sentence pointedly does not name; and the narrator is the person who did not believe her. A story that earns this ending has to deliver all three. Decide before writing what her larger judgement was, since the ending is worth nothing if the reader cannot infer it.
Sustaining 350 to 450 words
- Opening, about 70 words. Begin with the disagreement, not with the weather. Put her prediction in early, in one line of speech or one remembered remark, and let the narrator dismiss it lightly.
- The decision, about 80 words. Something is done against her advice: a journey begun, an event held outdoors, a job accepted, a person trusted. This is what makes her rightness cost something later.
- The weather arrives, about 100 words. Use it precisely and briefly. It should change the situation rather than become the subject.
- The larger thing, about 90 words. The second half of the given sentence is earned here, through what the weather exposes about the decision or about the person she warned against.
- Close, about 60 words, ending on the given sentence. Write two or three quiet lines and then the sentence exactly as printed, with nothing after it.
Technique keyed to this task
- Give her rightness a cost, for the narrator or for her. An ending in which being right is simply satisfying has no weight; an ending in which it is lonely, or too late, has a great deal.
- Keep the weather working as more than scenery. Rain that cancels something, wind that keeps somebody on a platform, heat that makes a room impossible to stay in: weather that acts on the plot rather than decorating it.
- Show her judgement rather than reporting it. One line of speech in the first paragraph, remembered exactly in the fourth, does more than a paragraph of characterisation.
- Leave the last sentence something to do. If the paragraph before it already states that she had been right all along, the given sentence merely repeats what has been said and the ending falls flat. Stop the narration one beat earlier than feels comfortable.
- Check the sentence letter by letter before handing the paper in, including the comma after weather.
Where responses usually lose marks on this task
- Altering the wording of the given sentence, changing its tense, or writing a further paragraph after it.
- Bolting the sentence onto a story that has nothing to do with weather or with anybody being right.
- Making the weather so extreme that the piece becomes a disaster report and the relationship between the two people disappears.
- Explaining the meaning of the ending in the closing paragraph, which leaves the final sentence with no work.
- Errors in the punctuation of speech, which fall on the accuracy strand.
Content and structure: 16 marks (W1, W2)
W1 articulate experience and express what is thought, felt and imagined. W2 arrange and shape ideas so the order itself works for effect. W3 draw on varied word choices and sentence patterns that fit the situation. W4 pitch formality and tone to suit the situation. W5 spell, punctuate and use grammar accurately.
| Level | Marks | Description |
| Level 6 | 14-16 | Sustained and original. The story is complete and deliberately shaped: it opens where it needs to, develops through a genuine complication and closes with control rather than stopping (W2). Character and situation are conveyed through what is shown, and the reader is placed inside the experience (W1). The requirement set by the task, whether a title, an opening or a closing sentence, is honoured and made to matter to the whole piece. |
| Level 5 | 11-13 | Effective and well organised. The narrative has a clear line and a real development, and it ends rather than trailing off (W2). Character and setting are established with some care (W1). The requirement set by the task is met, if not fully exploited. |
| Level 4 | 8-10 | Clear but ordinary. Events follow one another intelligibly and there is a beginning, a middle and an end, though the shape is conventional and the ending is rushed or explained away (W2). Character is stated more than shown (W1). |
| Level 3 | 6-7 | Straightforward and thin. The piece recounts a sequence of events with little development and no real climax, or spends so long on preliminaries that the story never arrives (W2). Characters are names rather than people (W1). |
| Level 2 | 3-5 | Limited. The narrative is fragmentary, or so crowded with incident that no part of it is developed (W2). Little is conveyed about anybody in it (W1). |
| Level 1 | 1-2 | Minimal. Occasional narrative material with no structure, and the task is barely engaged. |
| 0 marks | 0 | Nothing in the content or structure is worthy of credit. |
Style and accuracy: 24 marks (W3, W4, W5)
| Level | Marks | Description |
| Level 6 | 21-24 | Assured. Vocabulary is wide, exact and used with evident pleasure, and the images belong to the writer rather than to common stock (W3). Sentence lengths and structures are varied for deliberate effect and the rhythm of the prose supports what is being said (W3). The register is sustained and right for the piece throughout (W4). Spelling, punctuation and grammar, including the punctuation of any speech, are almost entirely accurate (W5). |
| Level 5 | 17-20 | Effective. Vocabulary is varied and usually precise, with some ambitious choices that come off (W3). There is real sentence variety, even where the effect is not always calculated (W4). Errors are minor and do not obscure meaning (W5). |
| Level 4 | 13-16 | Clear. Vocabulary is adequate and mostly correctly used, though ambitious words sometimes miss (W3). Sentences are mainly simple and compound with some variation (W4). Errors are noticeable, particularly in complex sentences and in the punctuation of speech, but the writing remains readable (W5). |
| Level 3 | 9-12 | Straightforward. Vocabulary is plain and repetitive and expressions are often second hand (W3). Sentence structures are simple and repetitive and punctuation separates them only intermittently (W4). Errors are frequent and occasionally blur the sense (W5). |
| Level 2 | 5-8 | Weak. Vocabulary is narrow and often imprecise (W3). Sentences are frequently faulty or run together (W4). Errors are persistent and impede reading (W5). |
| Level 1 | 1-4 | Very weak. Only occasional phrases communicate. Range and accuracy are both severely limited. |
| 0 marks | 0 | Nothing in the style or accuracy is worthy of credit. |
These lists are indicative, not a checklist.
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