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story englsih lang 1

heyy
i was wondering what structure do you recommend following for planning a story for english lang. 1 question 5 ?
Im just nervous that both the questions will be narrative as i"m more confident in description

Reply 1

Original post
by sashalovesschl1
heyy
i was wondering what structure do you recommend following for planning a story for english lang. 1 question 5 ?
Im just nervous that both the questions will be narrative as i"m more confident in description
I’m also WAY more confident in description than I am at narration, but I still managed to get a 9 by revising the day before. The goal is to incorporate what you do best, into the story, whether it’s pure description or narration.

For example, I knew I wouldn’t get the best mark I could by going in blind and winging a story of the dome, so I “pre wrote” a description. The description needs to be of something enticing but generic enough that you can mood it into any prompt they give you.

My planned description was of a girl, I pre wrote then memorised ways to describe her (making sure I included tons of language techniques since I always struggled to add them in during exams). I described her blond hair, her green eyes, her skin etc. I also memorised key description that had a very high percent chance of being in the exam.

The exam is nearly always either a really bright, cheerful, sunny image, or a dark, gloomy, suspenseful one (and the narrative prompts also usually follow this pattern of hinting to something either happy or sinister). So what I did is memorised to separate sets of setting styles, for the gloomy settings, I prepared descriptions of wet amd damp floors, dark atmospheres, shadows, moon etc. And for the sunny ones, I prepared descriptions of wet of the sea (a common one), the sun (a VERY common one), foliage and more.

I then researched and created a word bank of sophisticated key words that I could use whenever I was stuck. Some of my sentences and words went along the lines of “the palatial walls ….” or “the silver visage of the moon” and so on.

FINALLY (lol) I focused on structure. I used the structure drop, zoom, flash, echo, where ‘drop’ is the broad description of the surrounding of where your character is first placed (I always recommend including a main character)-this is where you’ll describe things like the weather, the sky, the ground your in, etc., then ‘zoom’ is where you’ll describe things focus in more detail onto 2-3 max things. And by detail I mean in DETAIL-here you may go into how exactly the sun carcasses your sun kissed features, or how the grainy sand feels beneath your calloused toes-, flash is where you include a flashback (which seems hard to do but is very easy), and finally echo when you bring it back to the present time.

Each of these sections is a separate paragraph leaving you with 4 nicely sided chinch’s. For the flash, choose a trigger in the zoom section that will lead the examiner into the flashback. For example, if your character was in a cave, zoom specifically into the inactivate detailing on the wall, and then have a specific image of a mother and child trigger a memory, when in the next paragraph the flashback shows her memory of her and her mother. Make sure their is also a trigger to return back to the past, maybe the character was feeling sad or lost before the flashback, and in the memory she remembers feeling a similar way, which reminds them of the present, and bring the story back (or forwards lol).

Anyways, sorry for rambling so much lol, it seems like a lot (and maybe you knew all this stuff) but I didn’t and was stuck in 7s and 8s all year until I got my first 9 in the real thing, so I wanted to share all my tips.

Good luck!!

Reply 2

Original post
by Iamhappynt
I’m also WAY more confident in description than I am at narration, but I still managed to get a 9 by revising the day before. The goal is to incorporate what you do best, into the story, whether it’s pure description or narration.
For example, I knew I wouldn’t get the best mark I could by going in blind and winging a story of the dome, so I “pre wrote” a description. The description needs to be of something enticing but generic enough that you can mood it into any prompt they give you.
My planned description was of a girl, I pre wrote then memorised ways to describe her (making sure I included tons of language techniques since I always struggled to add them in during exams). I described her blond hair, her green eyes, her skin etc. I also memorised key description that had a very high percent chance of being in the exam.
The exam is nearly always either a really bright, cheerful, sunny image, or a dark, gloomy, suspenseful one (and the narrative prompts also usually follow this pattern of hinting to something either happy or sinister). So what I did is memorised to separate sets of setting styles, for the gloomy settings, I prepared descriptions of wet amd damp floors, dark atmospheres, shadows, moon etc. And for the sunny ones, I prepared descriptions of wet of the sea (a common one), the sun (a VERY common one), foliage and more.
I then researched and created a word bank of sophisticated key words that I could use whenever I was stuck. Some of my sentences and words went along the lines of “the palatial walls ….” or “the silver visage of the moon” and so on.
FINALLY (lol) I focused on structure. I used the structure drop, zoom, flash, echo, where ‘drop’ is the broad description of the surrounding of where your character is first placed (I always recommend including a main character)-this is where you’ll describe things like the weather, the sky, the ground your in, etc., then ‘zoom’ is where you’ll describe things focus in more detail onto 2-3 max things. And by detail I mean in DETAIL-here you may go into how exactly the sun carcasses your sun kissed features, or how the grainy sand feels beneath your calloused toes-, flash is where you include a flashback (which seems hard to do but is very easy), and finally echo when you bring it back to the present time.
Each of these sections is a separate paragraph leaving you with 4 nicely sided chinch’s. For the flash, choose a trigger in the zoom section that will lead the examiner into the flashback. For example, if your character was in a cave, zoom specifically into the inactivate detailing on the wall, and then have a specific image of a mother and child trigger a memory, when in the next paragraph the flashback shows her memory of her and her mother. Make sure their is also a trigger to return back to the past, maybe the character was feeling sad or lost before the flashback, and in the memory she remembers feeling a similar way, which reminds them of the present, and bring the story back (or forwards lol).
Anyways, sorry for rambling so much lol, it seems like a lot (and maybe you knew all this stuff) but I didn’t and was stuck in 7s and 8s all year until I got my first 9 in the real thing, so I wanted to share all my tips.
Good luck!!

what happens if i wrote ab it being snowy but in the picture it was sunny, however it was just asking to describe a town

Reply 3

Original post
by hhfjkngujbg
what happens if i wrote ab it being snowy but in the picture it was sunny, however it was just asking to describe a town

It depends, did it say “write a description of a town as suggested by the picture (with the sunny picture underneath” or did it say “write a description as suggested by the picture (with the picture underneath)” followed by a SEPARATE narrative prompt like “describe a town”?

If you were asked to write a description of a town but one that was based of of the sunny image, you’d probably loose a significant amount of marks, however if it’s the latter, then you’d be fine.

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