The document outlines the structure and guidelines for the GCE O-Level English Language Writing Paper, consisting of directed and creative writing sections. Directed writing requires candidates to produce 200-300 words in various formats aimed at specific audiences and purposes, while creative writing involves crafting essays with a word limit of 350-500 words. Each writing type includes detailed marking criteria focusing on task fulfillment, language quality, and common writing errors to avoid.

1. PAPER1-WRITING
GCE’ OLevel (Revised for2018 paper)
1123 ENGLISHLANGUAGE

2. Writing (Paper 1)
 Section 1
Directed Writing
 Section 2
Creative writing

3. Section 1 Directed Writing

4. Directed Writing
 Marks: 30
 Word Limit: 200- 300 words
 Time: 30- 35 min

5. Directed Writing
Types of function/ Situational writing:
 Letters (formal & informal)
 Reports (informative, investigative)
 Accounts
 News report
 Magazine Articles
 Speeches (Persuasive & Informative)
 Leaflets

6. Directed Writing
 Only one situation is set.
 Read the question carefully.
 Underline the key words/phrases.
 Make notes with each content point specially focusing on the
ones with 2 limbs.
 Do not ignore any details and do not change important facts in
the situation.
 Elaborate all the content points equally.
 You can keep the word count to 250 words as 300 is the
maximum limit.

7. Directed Writing

8. Directed Writing
Consider the following questions:
 Audience (Who amI writing for?)
public, principal, teacher, friend, company manager, town
council, police etc
 Purpose (Why amI writing this?)
to explain, inform. instruct, convince and persuade, sell, give
an account of something I witnessed, to complain about
something, etc
 Format (How is this piece to be written?)
report, letter, account, article. statement, review. speech etc
 Language (What is the tone I should use?)
formal, informal, persuasive, suggestive, informative,
argumentative etc

9. Directed Writing

Five paragraphs should be formed.
 Introduction (reiterate the situation/state the purpose of
writing)
 Body (elaborate the three content points in
separate paragraphs)
 Conclusion
 Leave a line after each paragraph.
 All paragraphs should start from the left.
 Begin and end your write up according to the given

10. Directed Writing
 You should collect and read the samples of
each type of function writing.
 Gather helpful phrases (opening and closing
phrases; starting of new paragraphs etc.).
 Practise each type of writing.
 Create your own situational writing questions.

11. Formal Letter
Helpful Phrases
Type of Letters Opening Closing
Complaint I am a resident of the
Gulshan-e- Iqbal and I
am writing in to complain
about...
I seriously hope that you
would look into the
complaints that I have
raised and remedy the
situation as soon as
possible.
Thank you.
Invitation On behalf of the school,
we would like to invite
you to our Annual
Speech and Prize Giving
Day to be held on March
15th in the school hall.
We sincerely hope that
you will accept our
invitation and we look
forward to your presence
on that day.
Thank you.

12. Marking Scheme
 Marks: 30
Task Fulfillment (Use Band Descriptor): 15 marks
Language (Use Band Descriptor) : 15 marks
 Please indicate the TF mark first at the end of the
essay, then language marks e.g. 10 + 12 = 22/30
 Candidates who address only two points must be in
Band 3 or below for TF. (i-e they will get max. 9
marks here)

16. Language
 Variety of Sentence Structures
 Appropriate Tenses
 Correct verb forms.(subject/verb agreement)
 Wide Vocabulary
 Accurate Punctuation
 Correct Spellings
 Linked Paragraphs

17. Taskfulfillment
 Good understanding of purpose.
 Clear awareness of situation and audience.
 Suitable tone and register.
 Apt beginning and ending.
 Given information used to justify personal opinion.
 Inclusion and elaboration of the 3 content points.
 Suitable tone and register.

18. Section 2
Creative writing

19. Creative writing
 Marks: 30
 Word Limit: 350- 500words
 Time: 45min – 55 min

20. Creative writing
 Types of Essay
 Descriptive
 Narrative
 Argumentative
(choose, plan, write, check)

21. Creative Writing
 Five topics are set.
 Candidates will choose any one of the five topics.
 This part should be started on a fresh page.
 You should put the topic number at the head of the composition.
 You should read the questions carefully and choose the topic which gives you the best
chance of writing an essay of the required length.
 It is advisable to decide a cleartheme and make a plan.
 Planning orany rough workshould be crossed out with a pencil.
 Putting the word count at the end of the essay is a wastage of time.
 Avoid religious topics or references in your write ups.
 Don’t use the words assalam oalaikum, insha allah ormashallah in any of yourwrite
ups.

22. Creative writing
 Minimum 6 and maximum 10 paragraphs should
be formed.
 Introduction: The essay must have a good
beginning to capture the attention of the reader.
 Body: The middle section of the essay should
convey the main steps in the story or the details of
the description or the main points of the argument.

23. Creative writing
 Conclusion: Finally, the essay should have a
strong ending. It may provide the conclusion to an
argument, or it may move to the general view
after some precise description of details, or it may
provide the climax or round off a story.
 Use transitions(linking words or phrases) to
connect the points and paragraphs.

24. Marking Scheme
 The 'best fit' principle is applied, as in the
following table.
 Emphasis is on quality of Language;
comments on Content used to adjust mark
within 8 Bands.

25. Creative Writing

28. Language
 Variety of Sentence Structures
 Appropriate Tenses
 Wide and precise Vocabulary
 Accurate Punctuation
 Correct Spellings
 Linked Paragraphs

29. Content
 Compositions should be interesting and
consistently relevant to the theme.
 Discursive and argumentative essays are well
developed, logical, based on facts and figures.
 Descriptive essays have well-developed imagery
(mental picture).
 Narratives are complex, sophisticated and may
contain devices such as flashbacks.

30. Common Errors in Writing
Paper
 Incorrect use of since/for
 Writing Principle instead of Principal.
 Using full stops instead of commas or vice versa.
 Use of capital letters for common nouns and small
letters for proper nouns.
 Ignoring use of speech marks while writing
dialogues.
 Joining individual words together like 'alot',
'eventhough', 'atleast'
 Consistent errors in the use of tenses and
subject/verb agreement.
 Misspelling common words like separate or
continuously.
 Use of third form of verb after did e-g 'did not