Cambridge IGCSE English Revision Guide

Revision Guide

IGCSE ENGLISH

®

CAMBRIDGE

Directed writing questions

Understtanding directed d writing g tasks

Understa anding directed writing ta asks Knowing what to expect Directed writing tasks are often presented in a similar way.

Here is an example task with the key the features labelled:

Imagine that you are a local council member. (1) You have just attended the meeting described in Passage A. (2) Write a letter (3) to the local newspaper (4) expressing your feelings about the meeting. (5) In your letter you should: • • •

Explain what the meeting was about and what happened.

Explore your ideas and feelings about the meeting.

Discuss the possible effects of the decisions taken. (6)

Base your letter on what you have read in Passage A (7), but be careful to use your own words. (8) Address each of the bullet points. (9) Begin your letter: ‘Dear Editor, I am afraid that my conscience cannot allow the events of last night’s Town Council Meeting to go without comment.’ (10) You should write about 250–300 words allowing for the size of your writing. (11) Up to 15 marks will be available for the content of your answer (12) and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing. (13)

1. The role you should write in.

2. The material you should use in your writing.

3. The form of writing you should create.

4. The audience for your writing.

5. The purpose of your writing.

6. The precise topics you should include in your writing.

7. A reminder that you must only use material from the passage in your answer.

8. A reminder that you should not copy out whole sentences.

9. A reminder that your answer should be balanced.

10. An opening sentence.

11. A word guide.

12. A reminder that the task is mainly testing your understanding of what you have read.

13. A reminder that there are some marks for how you write your answer.

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Using what you can work out from the question Reading through the question carefully can help you to avoid common pitfalls. Look at the diagram below which shows how each of the thirteen pieces of information can help you to improve your answer.

How it can help you

1. The role you should write in.

This will lead you to choose the correct register and voice.

2. The material you should use in your writing.

This will keep your answer relevant.

3. The form of writing you should create.

This will help you to earn the five writing marks.

4. The audience for your writing.

This will help you to create the correct level of formality.

5. The purpose of your writing.

This will help you to structure your writing.

6. The precise topics you should include in your writing.

This will keep your answer relevant.

7. A reminder that you must only use material from the passage in your answer.

This will keep your answer relevant.

8. A reminder that you should not copy out whole sentences.

This will keep your answer relevant.

9. A reminder that your answer must be balanced.

This will help you to access the content marks available.

10. An opening sentence.

This often contains hints about the attitude or angle you should develop in your answer.

11. A word guide.

This helps you to manage your time.

12. A reminder that the task is mainly testing your understanding of what you have read.

This will keep your answer relevant.

13. A reminder that there are some marks for how you write your answer.

This will help you to gain as many marks as possible.

SKILLS BUILDER

Piece of information

Revision tip Don't rush into answering a question – take some time to read it through carefully.

Can you create a mnemonic and learn the 13 pieces of information to look out for?

Directed writing questions

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Gatherin ng Inform mation Knowing what you need to find Directed Writing tasks often tell you what to write about.

Revision tip

This information is featured in the bullets which are given within the task.

These bullets can be used as sub-headings for you to make notes under when you are reading the passage before you start your answer.

Plan your answer by writing your own notes for each of the bullet points given in the task.

Look at the following example of a student’s planning in response to a task: Task Imagine that you are a secondary school student.

You have been asked to write a speech to give at your awards day.

Plan

Write your speech, in which you: •

Explain what students have had to do to win awards.

•

Explore the qualities and skills that they have demonstrated in order to win.

•

Discuss how they could motivate other students in the school.

What the students did Their qualities Their skills How they could make others change

SKILLS BUILDER

Now try making a set of sub-headings using the sample task below.

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Imagine that you are the mother of two toddlers. You have listened to the proposal to build a new community centre in your village and decide to speak to the other parents who attend a local toddler group and see if you can get them to back this plan.

Write a transcript of the conversation that you have with the other parents, in which you: • • •

Explain the proposals Give your opinion on the advantages of the scheme Anticipate their objections and fears about the plans.

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Finding the information which you will use in your writing Once you have the sub-headings that you need to shape your notes you are ready to start reading.

Revision tip

You can save yourself a lot of time if you make sure that your notes are brief, but also include relevant details.

A good way to make sure that you do this is to make a grid for your notes before you start: Sub-heading

Point

Detail

What the students did

1) Gardening for elderly

• • • •

Student name – Jo Flowers Helped 20 people 1 hr each per fortnight Weeding, planting vegetables, pruning.

Details are pieces of information such as: • Numbers • Names of places and people • Times and dates • Descriptions such as how something looked or sounded.

Revision tip You can make a grid for your notes, like this one on the left.

Qualities Skills How they could make others change

Begin a set of notes for the sample task in the Skills builder on page XX using this extract from the p passage: g

SKILLS BUILDER

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to represent Go Faster Trading, a new company set up to transform your village. My fellow directors and I have seen your old school buildings and have decided that the time is ripe for change!

Picture the scene: no more crumbling bricks and peeling paint; the old ruins will be re-awakened and the woodwork will shine with varnish, the windows glistening as they reflect the happy faces of hundreds of users every day.

You, madam, will be able to take your little boy to enjoy a soft-play centre and indoor adventure playground any time you wish to, whatever the weather. You, sir, could use the computers in the business centre or access the internet free of charge!

Ladies, would you enjoy a yoga class each week, or maybe judo is more your style? We will have at least three exercise-ready rooms for hire and there’ll be a crèche with well-qualified assistants, to leave your little ones while you get fit.

We’ll be open until 9pm so even the teenagers will be able to come in and enjoy the facilities!

Perhaps they’ll enjoy the café?

Directed writing questions

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Exam-sttyle pracctice que estions Directed writing question ns Read the following passage: Passage A

The Daredevils attempting the climb of the century Just how difficult is it to scale the Dawn Wall of El Capitan, the 3,000 ft rock face in Yosemite National Park, California? Not to drill bolts into its sheer, smooth, granite and heave yourself up with ropes, but to free climb, using nothing but steely fingers and rubber-soled climbing shoes, with a harness only to prevent catastrophe in case of a fall. The climbers Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson are finding out right now, in an attempt that has gripped the world, as the pair tweet and use social media to broadcast live updates of their progress. Not since hardy Bavarians set out to conquer the north face of the Eiger in the 1930s have climbers so publicly defied death.

Then, an audience looked on from the comfort of chalets at the foot of the mountain; today, spectators look up agog from Yosemite’s valley floor or keep track around the world on their mobile phones.

Caldwell and Jorgeson have split the immense Dawn Wall into 32 “pitches”, or sections, of varying length and difficulty. On pitch 16 of their route, which has taken them seven years to map and devise, there is what is known in the mountaineering game as a “dyno”, or dynamic manoeuvre. It requires the climber to jump six feet horizontally, then seize hold of a minuscule rock edge, which actually slopes downwards, in the hope that this pitiful handhold will prevent their momentum from carrying them off the granite and into the void. It is a move from the fevered imaginations of Hollywood screenwriters, who employed something similar in the opening credits of Mission: Impossible 2, starring Tom Cruise. Except that Caldwell and Jorgeson do not benefit from special effects.

But pitch 16 is not the hardest pitch of the ascent. With its devilishly demanding combination of handholds and footholds, pitch 14 is. That’s how hard it is to climb the Dawn Wall.

Rock climbers grade ascents using numbers, from 5.0 to 5.15. Steep ascents with good holds are rated 5.0–5.4. The hand and footholds at the upper end can be literally razor-blade thin, so that climbers slice open their fingers as they cling to the face. Pitch 16, with its almost absurd “dyno”, is rated 5.13 (or, as one outdoors website puts it: “If you can climb upside down on a glass window, these climbs are right up your alley”). Pitches 14 and 15 are both rated one notch higher, at 5.14.

Although Caldwell first conceived the idea of free climbing the Dawn Wall in 2007 (he was joined in the venture by Jorgeson, the less experienced climber, in 2009), it was not until 2013 that he managed to free climb pitch 15. And finally, last November, Caldwell completed the dreaded pitch 14, leaving the pair ready to put their years of practice and research to good use and tick off one pitch after another in a single expedition, thus becoming the first men to free climb the entire Dawn Wall in one go. Caldwell has done 12 practice free climbs on El Capitan. For Jorgeson, this is the first.

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Exam-style practice questions The pair began on 27 December, preferring the cold weather because it improves the skin’s adherence to the rock. Indeed, the two men sometimes climb at night to further enhance their grip. They have even sandpapered their fingertips and shoe soles to extract the maximum advantage. On such tiny margins is the success of their venture based. When they need to rest, the men fix slings to the sheer granite wall and sleep there, suspended hundreds of feet up in tiny windswept hammocks. Underneath, they hang their kit and victuals.

“There are downsides of trying to free climb El Cap midwinter,” wrote Caldwell on 3 January, alongside a picture of him eating a very large sandwich. “Falling ice, looming storms, raging ice wind, and numb toes to name a few. But there are upsides too. We have the best chunk of rock in the world all to ourselves. The razor-sharp holds feel way bigger (when we can feel them), and we are living in a refrigerator so fresh food doesn’t spoil!” He had every right to sound positive. Two days before, on New Year’s Day, both men had inched their way, bandaged fingernail by bandaged fingernail, across pitch 14. The hardest was apparently behind them.

El Capitan encapsulates the challenge that modern mountaineers set themselves. Where amateurs, even tourists, can now pay huge sums to be portered up to the summit of Everest, mountaineers are not preoccupied with altitude alone. “It has irritated climbers for a long time that Everest and the bigger peaks have dominated public notice,” says mountaineering journalist Tarquin Cooper. “What actually interests climbers is finding new paths, and bettering what has been done before, in a cleaner style.” When, in 1958, a team led by Warren Harding climbed the “Nose” of El Capitan, they used ropes and pitons hammered into the face. Such methods are part of so-called “aid climbing”, and they are frowned on by many modern climbers, who wish to propel themselves up under their own steam alone. “There is a strong athletic component to rock climbing today,” says Cooper. “It epitomises the Olympian ideal: faster, higher, stronger.”

Imagine that you are the producer of a television discussion show. The title of this week’s programme is ‘Free Climbing – a step too far?’

Write the script of the show in which the host and guests, including the two climbers, discuss this issue: •

Explain about Caldwell and Jorgeson’s climb.

•

Explore the attractions of free climbing.

•

Explore the dangers and pitfalls of free climbing.

Base your script on what you have read in Passage A, but be careful to use your own words. Address each of the three bullets.

Begin your script: ‘Good morning viewers, ladies and gentlemen in the studio. Today we are going to be meeting two of the bravest, or possibly, most fool-hardy, men I believe I have ever had the pleasure to introduce…’

You should write about 250–300 words allowing for the size of your writing.

Up to 15 marks will be available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the quality of your writing.

Directed writing questions

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Revision n checkliist Consider your confidence levels when approaching this exam-style task.

Any issues?

Did you know how to set out a script?

Re-read pages XX–XX

Did you know what register of voice a discussion show would normally use?

Re-read pages XX–XX

Could a reader get a sense of personality from any of the people who ‘spoke’ in your script?

Did you select an even number of pieces of information for each bullet?

Re-read pages XX–XX

Did you use specific details, such as facts/ figures/times/places in your script?

Re-read pages XX–XX

Did you organise your script so that characters interacted and discussed ideas?

Re-read pages XX–XX

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