Section One: What is using work from other subjects?

One of the options open to you for the writing portfolio standard is to develop the work you have done for other subjects.

Not everything will work but some good options include where you have done research on an issue and written a fairly large piece written report or maybe a speech or seminar script. Some examples of this are the geographic issue from Geography or the socio scientific issue in Biology. Additionally, you could use your research from Physical Education. The options are great, so check with your teacher to make sure it will work.

Section Two: Why would you use work from other subjects?

The purpose of the writing portfolio standard is develop your ability to communicate in words really well. So the 'content' of your writing is not as important as how you are writing. So not having to think up 'what to write about', gives you the opportunity to really think deeply about 'how' to write.

While this is intended to be an opportunity to work smarter, not harder, you do need to BE CAREFUL TO DEVELOP FURTHER, which basically means make it interesting for an English teacher to read. So let's look at how you can do this.

Section Three: How would you use work from other subjects?

Learning Intention: develop your writing from other subjects so that it reads easily and fluently holding an audience's attention in order to get your idea / viewpoint across.

Success Criteria: you will have been successful when you have a piece of writing where:

• • your ideas flow logically, smoothly and as a coherent whole using connectives to join them

  • you have used language techniques to help create readability and interest

  • you have edited so that spelling, punctuation and grammar conventions are accurate

  • Here is the Level Three standard and the Level Three Exemplars to help you understand further what you are aiming for

An example

To start off, have a look at this example using a geographic issue. You will need to read the original report on the left and then see how it has been developed further in the right hand column. Pay attention to the comments which help you to understand how the piece has been developed.

Here's another example, using a biology report:

The original report...

An unvaccinated 13-year-old boy has become the first person in Britain for 14 years to die of measles. This is a sign that the disease, once a common killer, is resurfacing. The boy's death is the first since the scare over the combined measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused a drop in immunization rates. The victim, who had not received the MMR vaccine, is understood to have lived in a traveller community and was already on drugs for a chronic lung condition. He had been overlooked by health agencies. "He slipped through the net when he was younger and never caught up," said a source. People decided not the vaccinate themselves which resulted in the diseases being passed to this young boy who already had health issues. He was vulnerable and died because of one missed vaccine. We must prevent the death of more innocent kids that cannot get themselves vaccinated without parental help. We must get vaccinated. Would you want this to be your child that gets overlooked? One vaccine and this boy would be celebrating his 27th birthday this year.

How it could look in English...

The once common childhood illness measles was thought to be all but gone until recently. One case, due to one missed vaccination, killed one small and innocent 13 year old child in a traveller community. Most people think measles is something that is easily overcome. It's a right of passage through childhood. But the reality is that it is a killer lurking to pick off small children when there are other underlying health issues. These killers are hiding everywhere: polio, meningitis, hepatitis, percussis, rotavirus and the list goes on. For most children, they will pass without too much fuss. But every now and then, they will emerge from the shadows to steal a child's life. Imagine that your child was the one stolen into the shadows. What can we do to stop these sorts of silent killers? Easy. Get vaccinated. Get our children vaccinated and ensure that they will celebrate their 27th, 50th and 77th birthdays.

The way in which this was changed up was with anecdotes and emotive language to create more feeling in the reader to really rock their world. Additionally, sentence structures are key - things like rhetorical questions (but only one or two max), triple constructions (again only one or two max) and listing help make it more readable.

Checking your understanding

Now that you have had a chance to read and think about what you need to do, use this short 10 question quiz to make sure that you are onto it. Be sure to read and watch all of the feedback that you get when the quiz self marks.

Getting on with the job

Use this checklist to help you work your way through developing your writing more.

1. Start off by printing out your work. Literally chop up all paragraphs and then make sure that they have like ideas. Any bits (eg sub headings) that don't fit, they need to be deleted. If several pieces that actually fit together are scattered across your essay then cut and paste them together.

2. Watch this YouTube clip on language features and then think about how you can incorporate language features and emotive language into your piece to help grab the audience's attention and keep it.

3. Check the length of your paragraphs - keep them no longer than 5-6 lines; while you're doing this, double check that all your ideas are in the best possible place and lead onto each other.

4. Check your connectives - these are the glue that hold your argument together. Use this word bank to get some ideas

5. Check spelling, punctuation and grammar - there are some tips of the editing page.

6. Triple check everything and then compare to the exemplars (linked above) to make sure you are putting your absolute best foot forward before handing it in.