Writing Skills and Reflective Commentary

The Cambridge A Level English (9093) Paper 2, Section A, presents a unique challenge: to produce a directed writing piece and then write a reflective commentary analysing your own work. These two components are intrinsically linked and equally weighted, demanding both creative application and analytical precision.

Part 1: The Directed Writing Task

Directed writing is a task where you must create a new text in response to a provided source text (or texts). You will be given specific instructions regarding the new text's context, audience, and purpose. The key to success is to deconstruct the prompt using the G.A.P.F. framework:

• Genre/Form: What type of text are you creating? Is it a letter to the editor, a speech, a news report, a blog post, an advertisement, or an opinion column? The form dictates conventions of layout, structure, and language.
• Audience: Who are you writing for? The target audience determines the appropriate register (formal, informal, semi-formal), tone (persuasive, humorous, serious, critical), and level of complexity in your diction (word choice).
• Purpose: What is the goal of your writing? Are you trying to persuade, inform, argue, advise, entertain, or satirise? Your purpose is the driving force behind every linguistic choice you make.

Your task is to adopt a specific persona and create a piece that is stylistically appropriate for the given G.A.P.F. This involves skilfully manipulating linguistic features. You must demonstrate control over style, which is the cumulative effect of your choices in diction, syntax (sentence structure), and use of figurative language or rhetorical devices. For instance, a speech aimed at persuading young people would likely use inclusive pronouns ('we', 'our'), rhetorical questions, and a more energetic, direct tone compared to a formal report for a government committee.

Part 2: The Reflective Commentary

The reflective commentary (typically 120-150 words) is not merely a summary of what you wrote; it is a justification of how and why you wrote it. Its purpose is to demonstrate your understanding of the linguistic choices you made to fulfil the task's requirements. It is an analytical exercise performed on your own creative output.

A strong commentary follows a clear structure and uses precise linguistic terminology.

Structure for a Reflective Commentary:

1. Opening Statement: Begin by explicitly stating how you addressed the G.A.P.F. of the task. For example: "In my letter to the editor, I adopted a formal register and a concerned tone to persuade an educated adult audience of the need for urgent environmental action."

1. Body - Linking Choices to Effects: This is the core of the commentary. In a few concise sentences, you must connect specific linguistic features from your directed writing piece to their intended effect on the audience, in line with your purpose. Use a Point-Evidence-Explain model:

• Point: State the linguistic choice you made.
• Evidence: Provide a brief, quoted example from your text.
• Explain: Explain the intended effect of this choice on the specified audience.

    For example: "To create a persuasive tone, I used the rhetorical question, 'How many more communities must suffer?'. This was intended to engage the reader emotionally and compel them to agree with my argument. Furthermore, my choice of formal **diction**, such as 'imperative' and 'systemic', was designed to establish credibility and appeal to the audience's sense of logic."

1. Key Features to Discuss: You should focus on the most significant choices you made, which could include:

• Tone and Register: How did you establish a formal, informal, sarcastic, or empathetic voice?
• Diction: Why did you choose specific words (e.g., emotive, technical, simple, complex)?
• Syntax: How did you use sentence structure (e.g., short, punchy sentences for impact; long, complex sentences for detailed argument)?
• Rhetorical Devices: Did you use repetition, rhetorical questions, triplets, or hyperbole to persuade or engage?
• Structure: How did you organise your paragraphs and ideas to build a cohesive argument or narrative?

The two pieces, your directed writing and your commentary, form a symbiotic whole. The quality of your commentary is dependent on the clarity and deliberateness of the choices made in your creative piece. Therefore, you must write with conscious intent, always considering how you will justify your stylistic decisions later.