Writing composition, Year 10: description, story and narrative voice

No: the picture is only a source of ideas

HintThink about what the task wording permits you to do with the image beyond describing it.

The whyThe picture is there to start you off. You can describe what lies outside the frame, another time of day, or a different place of the same kind, as long as you write the description the task asks for.

B

HintAsk which sentence would still work if you deleted every emotion word.

The whySentence B never uses a word like 'creepy', yet the fallen horse and its open eye create the feeling. Choosing a detail that carries the mood is what lifts a description above a list of adjectives.

Fewer things, in more depth

HintThe mark scheme rewards crafting and development; consider what twelve one-sentence stalls leave out.

The whyTwo or three things looked at closely (the colours, the sounds, one stallholder's hands) give the reader a place they can stand in. Twelve names give them an inventory.

close

HintA film-shot term, the opposite of 'long', completing 'a ___-up'.

The whyPlanning a route for the reader's eye (far to near, outside to inside, morning to night) gives a description a beginning, middle and end without turning it into a story.

12

HintRecall where the mark scheme caps a response that ignores the task set.

The whyBoth papers' mark schemes carry this rule. A piece that ignores the topic set is capped however well it is written, so read the task twice before you plan.

A story, or the opening of a story

HintThink of the other main kind of imaginative writing besides description.

The whyYou choose on the day, so prepare both. From summer 2026 the narrative option may ask only for the opening, which you can shape and finish properly in the time.

No

HintConsider what the task actually asks you to produce and how much plot a few pages can hold.

The whyAn opening has to introduce a character, a place and a problem, and leave the reader wanting more. Racing through a whole plot in 45 minutes usually produces a summary, not a story.

One or two characters

HintThink about how much can be developed in 45 minutes and how many people a reader can follow.

The whyEvery character needs space to become real. With one or two, you can show what they notice, say and want; with six, each is only a name.

In medias res

HintA Latin phrase of three short words.

The whyThe Latin means 'into the middle of things'. The reader is dropped into a moment that is already happening, and the background is fed in later, a little at a time.

Staying with one of the four

HintThink about whether a rushed summary needs more content or more development.

The whyAn exam story is short, so it lives on a few moments told closely: what the narrator saw, heard and thought in the second before the explosion. A chain of events joined by 'and then' is a summary of a story, not a story.

first

HintLook at the pronoun doing the pushing.

The whyA first-person narrator is inside the story and says 'I'. The reader knows only what that one character sees, thinks and feels.

was

HintCompare the tense of each verb with the tense the writer claimed to choose.

The why'Walk' and 'turn' are present tense, so 'was' should be 'is'. A slip of tense in the middle of a paragraph is one of the commonest ways a steady voice is lost under time pressure.

The narrative voice, from third person to first

HintCompare the pronouns in the two quotations and name the aspect of writing they control.

The whyThe story started outside the character ('she') and has drifted inside her ('I'). Decide who is telling the story before you start, and check the pronouns when you read the piece through.

An omniscient narrator

HintThink of a godlike viewpoint that sees into every mind in the story.

The whyAn omniscient narrator can move from one head to another and can tell the reader things no character knows. It gives range, at the cost of the closeness a single 'I' provides.

limited

HintThink about a viewpoint that sticks closely to one mind and cannot see into others.

The whyThe story says 'he' or 'she', but the reader is kept inside one mind. It is a good choice for an exam story: easier to hold steady than a narrator who knows everything.