IGCSE Language Assignment 1: writing to discuss, argue and/or persuade in response to a text or texts of approximately two sides of A4 in total.
The text(s) should contain facts, opinions and/or arguments. Candidates respond by selecting, analysing and evaluating the content of the text(s). They may write in any appropriate form that they wish. Different candidates in the same teaching set may choose to respond to different text(s) and/or in different forms.
In this piece, you reflect on the writing of another – but you have great freedom in your choice of format (see page 13 of the syllabus).
A newspaper opinion piece should be fun to pick apart – but you don’t have to present it as an analytical essay (It could, for example be a letter to the writer or the editor of the paper). Alternatively, you may wish to respond to an advertisement, a webpage, a couple of pages from a comic book, pages from a holiday brochure etc. Whatever the writing to which you respond, you need to ensure that you reflect on how the writer manipulates our response.
A writer’s job is to encourage us to adopt his/her views – or make us ‘believe’ in an imaginary world – or tempt us to think that our lives will be so much better if we just buy a particular brand of coffee. In a sense, everything that we read is a form of propaganda. Some of it is blatant (as in the comic books that I read as a boy)…
…and some of it is more subtle (as in adverts and political language).
Whatever you’re looking at, just remember that your chosen piece has to include facts and opinions (see the details above).
Finally, the examiner is looking to see that you are versatile in your writing. Thus, you should aim to have three very different pieces of writing in your final submitted work, demonstrating clearly that you can adapt to a variety of writing tasks and that you can utilise the most appropriate style. If you have fun with your writing, you will already be on to a winner – because the examiner will be able to feel your enthusiasm. So, Enjoy!
Don’t forget that there is a wealth of Assignment 1 stimuli material on Google Drive.
Here are some examples of good practice in essay writing from my Year 10s:
This is a strong introduction because it is clear, direct and concise. The quotations could probably be shorter (and indented) and colloquial expressions (like “sugar-coat”) and abbreviations should be avoided. However, despite minor detractions, this opening impresses because of its clarity. It covers the three essentials for commentary (or practical criticism): what, how and why.
Generally, it is a good idea to avoid weak words like “give” and “show,” substituting active terms (such as “creates; argues; describes; renders; posits” etc). Nevertheless, this is again clear, direct, concise and expressive.
Another great introduction, this one is pared-down to the essentials – there is not a wasted word. It is crisp in its exactness, expressing (again) what, how and why.
This piece contains a good example of the correct use of terms. See how “juxtaposition” is slipped in deftly as a verb (This is what you should do, where possible, in your own writing). However, take care to avoid unfounded claims (“he wants reality to become”). If you make an assertion, you must provide evidence to support it (usually in the form of a brief quotation).
Again, this is concise but meaningful.
Learn from these pupils. Look over your own writing to see how you can improve it.
While nuclear energy, global warming, deforestation and Donald Trump continue to be major threats to the environment, mobile phones can rob us of our very humanity.
Students arrive for my lessons with their phones in their hands – despite signs on the doors clearly indicating that phones are forbidden in my classroom. The very concept of leaving the phone in a locker is horrifying to most students. They even have to reach out and touch their phones periodically just to be reassured that they’re still there. This is ADDICTION. No ifs, no buts. ADDICTION. Forgot to bring your books to school? We have reading lessons at the same time every week, and yet about six students in each class forget to bring books with them. The same six students would never dream of being without their phones. This is ADDICTION.
Walk around the school. You’ll see many students playing with their phones, but very few actually talking to each other and none at all reading books. This is a change that has occurred gradually over the last few years so that most never even noticed it.
You may well think that this is a gross exaggeration – but if so, perhaps you haven’t observed the slow slide into a digital dystopia, a world of social exclusion where families stare mindlessly at their phones rather than talk to each other. Even dating couples are to be seen romantically gazing into each other’s eyes the screens on their mobile devices.
There is growing concern that as well as addicting users, technology is contributing toward so-called “continuous partial attention,” severely limiting people’s ability to focus and possibly lowering IQ.
If this weren’t bad enough, serious scientific research (not funded by the industry) indicates that mobile phones can cause cancer and “may be exposing us to harmful levels of electromagnetic radiation.”
At parent teacher conferences, I am often asked, “how can my son/daughter raise his/her grades?” The answer is simple. But like the rich man who asks Jesus how he can enter heaven, you may not like the answer – Ditch the phone and open a book. Lewis goes on to note that many people within the mobile phone and computer business severely limit their own children’s access to digital technology:
It is revealing that many of these younger technologists are weaning themselves off their own products, sending their children to elite Silicon Valley schools where iPhones, iPads and even laptops are banned.
Is buying a mobile phone a form of self-destruction? Is buying a mobile phone for a child actually a form of child abuse? The very people who design these products think so.
The write-up for the first album cited here is a very good example of how to connect form and content in poetry. This is specific and focused, a far cry from empty claims or vague references that sometimes occur in poetry essays for IGCSE and IB. Take note.
P.S. Don’t forget that these are also the kinds of comments that you should be writing about prose too – it’s not just poetry that has rhythm, repetition and so on.
