Plz: some A grade story examples A level.

Original post by methewthomson

Hi

,

Plz, plz, give me some examples of stories that you wrote for A level Eng, and you got A grades or higher in them. I am confused as to what an A grade story would have.

I would be very thankful to you for this as I am self-studying and do not have any conventional help.

By the way, I am taking CIE English Language at A level.

Thanks in advance :smile:

.

Hi I wrote a story for which I got an A. The story to reach an A needs to have a good plot, perhaps with a twist at the end. The best thing to do is to write about "what you know". I'm Asian so I ended up doing a story about an Asian girl who was forced into marriage by her parents. I can't personally relate to this but I've heard a lot about it and understand a bit about this type of thing. So try and write about something that you "know" about. That's how the best stories come about. If you think about it, it does make sense imagine trying to write a story about a Japanese girl living in Africa trying to adjust to African life. It'd be quite hard for me because I don't know anything about what its like to be japanese or about African life etc.
secondly getting an A grade requires meeting all the AO's and meeting them well. So I would highly recommend getting a copy of the assessment objectives and having a look at what a band5/6 story requires. When planning and writing your story make sure you always have the AO's in mind. When re drafting make changes according to what the assessment objectives are asking for. Hope this helps!

Reply 2

OP

Original post by koko345

Hi I wrote a story for which I got an A. The story to reach an A needs to have a good plot, perhaps with a twist at the end. The best thing to do is to write about "what you know". I'm Asian so I ended up doing a story about an Asian girl who was forced into marriage by her parents. I can't personally relate to this but I've heard a lot about it and understand a bit about this type of thing. So try and write about something that you "know" about. That's how the best stories come about. If you think about it, it does make sense imagine trying to write a story about a Japanese girl living in Africa trying to adjust to African life. It'd be quite hard for me because I don't know anything about what its like to be japanese or about African life etc.
secondly getting an A grade requires meeting all the AO's and meeting them well. So I would highly recommend getting a copy of the assessment objectives and having a look at what a band5/6 story requires. When planning and writing your story make sure you always have the AO's in mind. When re drafting make changes according to what the assessment objectives are asking for. Hope this helps!

Thank you soooo very much for writing soooo detailed a reply; very few people here at this TSR have such patience!

Yeah, your reply has indeed proved very helpful to me. I was kind of discouraged as no one else was replying to my similar threads. So your reply has been a sign of hope and encouragement.

I have the mark scheme which explains the features possessed by 5/6 bands, so i will definitely try to look at it and understand it.

BTW, if you ever have some good story written, please, send it over to me.

Thanks a lot again. :smile:

Reply 3

Original post by methewthomson

Thank you soooo very much for writing soooo detailed a reply; very few people here at this TSR have such patience!

Yeah, your reply has indeed proved very helpful to me. I was kind of discouraged as no one else was replying to my similar threads. So your reply has been a sign of hope and encouragement.

I have the mark scheme which explains the features possessed by 5/6 bands, so i will definitely try to look at it and understand it.

BTW, if you ever have some good story written, please, send it over to me.

Thanks a lot again. :smile:

I threw out all my A level stuff including the story i wrote when I finished college. But if you need help with anything else like understanding the assessment objectives and how to meet them or anything else then do let me know! :smile:

Reply 4

OP

Original post by koko345

I threw out all my A level stuff including the story i wrote when I finished college. But if you need help with anything else like understanding the assessment objectives and how to meet them or anything else then do let me know! :smile:

It is indeed very kind of you to offer extra help. Actually, I do need help with understanding the AOs of the Band 1(the bracket of 22-25 marks).

The AOs I am confused about are:

1. Imaginative, possibly original, appropriate to task, engaging audience;
2. Tightly controlled, appropriate structure;
3. Language used imaginatively to create specific effects on the reader.

The 2nd AO is particularly confusing for me. How can I practice tightly controlled structure? What does it mean?

Thanks for being so helpful.

Regards,
Methewthomson

Reply 5

OP

Original post by koko345

I threw out all my A level stuff including the story i wrote when I finished college. But if you need help with anything else like understanding the assessment objectives and how to meet them or anything else then do let me know! :smile:

I am writing to kindly remind you that I am still waiting for your reply.

Thanks.

Reply 6

Original post by methewthomson

I am writing to kindly remind you that I am still waiting for your reply.

Thanks.

Sorry.
Tightly controlled structure means exactly that - having a tight control on the structure of the narrative. The way English lit works is that everything is seen as deliberately done by the author. So the order of events, the use of time etc are all seen as deliberately done to create some effect on the reader. In the commentary discuss your own choices to show that you have a tight grip in the way your narrative unfolds. So explain why certain things happen when they do and what effect it' is supposed to have. You can talk about the order of events, any foreshadowing that you used, the use of time in the narrative, any flashbacks, and what effect they create and why you chose to include this. E.g in my commentary I talked about my use of flashbacks to create a juxtaposition between the girls present situation (which was really bad) and her happy past. The reason for this was to mirror her feelings which were also in juxtaposition (hate and fear of her family for locking her up but also love because they are still her family).
This shows that I had some control at least over the structure as I used flashbacks to create a certain affect on my audience.

there are lots of structural devices that can be employed in the story. As long as you explain why you used them and their intended effect on the audience, that should show you have some control over your structure. Your story isn't going to be very long due to the word limit so don't worry about having loads and loads to say about structure. i think a good discussion about some of the structural devices employed would suffice.

Reply 7

1. Imaginative, possibly original, appropriate to task, engaging audience;
I totally forgot about the other two ssorry
this just means writing an interesting, imaginative story that doesn't bore the reader. The plot needs to be decent enough to engage the reader. Appropriate to task means relevant to task so doing what they are asking you to do and writing a 750 word story not a 3000 word leaflet or something lol.
The third AO is your language choices. So what type of language did you use and why/ what effect is it supposed to have on your reader/ how is it supposed to make them feel.
E.g using the first person narrator to create urgency/immediacy.
Talk about connotations of words you used. Is there a semantic field? So if you used the words 'rotting', 'decomposing' and 'corpse', you have created a semantic field of death. Talk about why you did this - what affect is it supposed to have on your audience.

one way I found to pick up marks was by saying 'I used the adjective 'rotten', the verb 'decomposing' and the noun ' corpse' to create a semantic field of death....
this way I've already used three different linguistic terms in just one sentence

Talk about any similes/metaphors/figurative language used and why they're used.. What is the effect created?
Talk about individual word choices so for example using dynamic verbs such as stomp rather than walk and what effect this is supposed to have on readers
any rhetorical questions? What is their intended effect.
triple emphasis? And why did you use this?
sentence length and type. So did you use a short sentence/ a minor sentence, a complex declarative and why?
Speech/ dialogue - any voices created? If so how are they created and why in that way. Any double meanings?
contrast/ juxtaposition and the language used to create tthem

Theres loads of things to say about language. And you'll find that structure and language can go together.
hope this helps

Reply 8

OP

Original post by koko345

1. Imaginative, possibly original, appropriate to task, engaging audience;
I totally forgot about the other two ssorry
this just means writing an interesting, imaginative story that doesn't bore the reader. The plot needs to be decent enough to engage the reader. Appropriate to task means relevant to task so doing what they are asking you to do and writing a 750 word story not a 3000 word leaflet or something lol.
The third AO is your language choices. So what type of language did you use and why/ what effect is it supposed to have on your reader/ how is it supposed to make them feel.
E.g using the first person narrator to create urgency/immediacy.
Talk about connotations of words you used. Is there a semantic field? So if you used the words 'rotting', 'decomposing' and 'corpse', you have created a semantic field of death. Talk about why you did this - what affect is it supposed to have on your audience.

one way I found to pick up marks was by saying 'I used the adjective 'rotten', the verb 'decomposing' and the noun ' corpse' to create a semantic field of death....
this way I've already used three different linguistic terms in just one sentence

Talk about any similes/metaphors/figurative language used and why they're used.. What is the effect created?
Talk about individual word choices so for example using dynamic verbs such as stomp rather than walk and what effect this is supposed to have on readers
any rhetorical questions? What is their intended effect.
triple emphasis? And why did you use this?
sentence length and type. So did you use a short sentence/ a minor sentence, a complex declarative and why?
Speech/ dialogue - any voices created? If so how are they created and why in that way. Any double meanings?
contrast/ juxtaposition and the language used to create tthem

Theres loads of things to say about language. And you'll find that structure and language can go together.
hope this helps

Thank you so very much :smile:

.
The points you mentioned are very very useful and will help me a lot in Eng Lang. They will surely help me get at least an A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Btw, may I ask which board exams you sat for at A Level Eng?
Thanks once again for spending so much of your time to help me. :smile:

Reply 9