English Language - Imaginative Writing

What do you need to do?

This is a non-examined assessment (so, in other words, coursework).

You will need to write a piece of imaginative writing based on a selected topic. The choices will be given to you by your teacher.

You are tested on two assessment objectives:

AO4 - communicate effectively and imaginatively, adapting form, tone and register of writing for specific purposes and audiences.
AO5 - write clearly, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, with appropriate paragraphing and accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation.

There is a total of 30 marks for this assessment.

Plan before you write. This will save you a lot of time later on.
Don't worry too much about the plot. Keep this simple. Think more about the descriptions you use and the feelings that you want to create. Do you want your reader to laugh, cry, be angry, be scared etc.? Think about how you can use your language to create these feelings.
Show, don't tell. Don't say "the man looked sad". Say instead something like "the man looked at the floor; head bowed and shoulders slumped". Notice how the feeling is being shown here without even having to say it.
Think about the sort of person that is going to be reading your story. This is where your form, tone and register matters.
Think about your punctuation. Whilst you of course need to follow the grammatical rules of punctuation, you also need to use a range to achieve the higher marks. Think about how you can incorporate these into your writing. Could you use rhetorical questions? Moments of exclamation? Dialogue?
Check your spelling.
Write in paragraphs! Think about how your writing flows as well (coherence and cohesion). Is it easy for the reader to follow what is going on? Again, a simple plot will help with this. Some of the best pieces of writing for this assignment have just focused on a description of one particular moment and described it in detail.

Imaginative Writing Criteria.pdf