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You have to be very perceptive when it comes to GENRE – you have to show the examiner that you understand that different genres follow different rules and conventions. The VERY FIRST thing that you need to do is to set yourself a mini-brief by detailing which features and conventions you are going to include. This is like the recipe/buying ingredients stage of baking a cake. If it gives you a really unusual genre, and there’s no way around it (ie, the other question is even worse) then you simply use your common sense. For example, write a section of a short story where a battle is taking place during a mass-war. Brutal imagery, clear enemy who we are supposed to dislike, semantic field of weapons and destruction, ß I have no idea if these ARE key conventions of the war-literature genre, but they certainly SOUND sensible to me, so I’m going to use them as my mini-brief. Now, I will feel a lot more confident in putting my writing together. THE SECOND th...

*Remember there is a CHOICE of questions. Choose wisely. (You cannot mix and match) *Be ESPECIALLY prepared for MONOLOGUES and SHORT STORIES as these have both been up multiple times. *Key word the question PRECISELY. If you even SLIGHTLY answer the question wrongly, it will ruin your mark. *Take you time. Take your time. Take your time. You have PLENTY of it - this is definitely a QUALITY over quantity exam.

 Following an established convention of guidebooks, I have used lots of fronted imperatives in order to influence my target audience where to go. The dynamic imperative verbs, ‘Stride’, ‘Walk’ And ‘Wander’ all advise the audience how best to enjoy the attraction in an active way. Similarly, I have met the conventions of the genre by showing a voice of expertise, visible through the verb and first person pronoun, ‘trust us’ and enumerator ‘100’ before the noun phrase ‘years experience’. Both of these examples would imply the organisation was reliable and make the reader more likely to follow the guide. An educational tone, another convention of guides, can be seen where I state ‘This was Shakespeare’s favourite hideaway’ - the proper noun ‘Shakespeare’ and compound noun ‘hideaway’ implying that the audience are being given secret and informative knowledge about the place. Similar to other guides I have read, I have.... Etc etc etc Notice how the paragraph follows the same pattern re...

  Here is a pretty complete overview of what we discussed in the lesson today - read it and make sure it all makes sense. *EMBRACE THE CRINGE - For years, I have witnessed students hiding, ripping up very good creative writing work because they get cringed out by their work once they have put feeling and effort into it. This is one time where you MUST NOT be ashamed of your efforts. THe whole point of creative writing is that you are expressing yourself and being creative. Sometimes this may feel cringey when you are the one who wrote it, but you need to GET OVER this. What will get you the best marks in this exam is ADOPTING STRONG VOICES, being CONFIDENT and making AMBITIOUS language choices. If this makes you cringe, so what? Just write it, and be safe in the knowledge you have given it your all. *You are given a choice of questions, each with 3 parts (a,b,c). You choose one and answer all parts. So EITHER 1abc or 2abc. NOT BOTH. *Each question comes with a stimulus extract. For...

 1hr 45 mins long. Spend about 35-40 mins on section (a) Spend about 35-40 mins on section (b) Spend about 35 mins on section (c) The task will ask you to construct 2 short creative pieces by naming GENRES. For each task just do the following: The 2 pieces *Look at the genre *Decide on 5 conventions you would find in this genre. *Write a piece which includes these conventions. SIMPLE! *If the question requires you to take close inspiration from the stimulus text, make sure you include 3-4 details from the stimulus text. The Commentary *Write one big paragraph or a few smaller where you talk about all of the genre conventions you included in your work. Name each convention, give an example, analyse key words with terms and discuss the effect on the reader. *Write one big paragraph or a few smaller where you talk about all of the attitudes you included in your work. Name each name each attitude, give an example, analyse key words with terms and discuss the effect on the reader. *Writ...

In past years we looked at a number of potentially confusing or obscure genres that could come up: a tourist guide, a sci-fi/fantasy novel extract, children's literature... I have provided you with some resources which outline suggested conventions of some of the more likely genres. However, it is possible they might throw you a bit of a 'curve ball' and give you a genre that makes you think, 'What the heck is that?' or 'How the flip am I supposed to know what the conventions of that are?' Again, remember our number one rule - REMAIN CALM. If this happens, it is likely they are testing your common sense. It is also likely that everyone up and down the country is feeling the same as you. So, the best thing you can do is to think it through logically, be decisive, and come up with your conventions anyway. One example question in the SAMS says, 'Write the opening to a murder mystery novel...' Being totally honest with you, I have never read a murder mys...