YEAR 9 ENGLISH EXTENDED WRITING TASK JUNE 2002

Year 9 will not be taking a conventional examination in English this year as you have already taken the KS3 SATS. Instead this piece of extended writing will serve as an introduction to coursework for GCSE and will also enable us to judge your standard across the whole year group. You will have about a week and a half to complete it and you must hand it in by the deadline given below. You should work on a rough draft first which you discuss with your teacher, and then produce a final draft which may be word processed if you wish. The final draft should represent the best work of which you are capable, and should obviously be carefully proof-read and corrected.

The final draft, clearly showing your name and form, must be handed to your English teacher by 3.25pm on Friday 14th June. Work handed in late will not be marked except in the case of unavoidable absence or illness.

Choose ONE of the following tasks. Your teacher will have given you some sample material to give you some ideas, but you are not expected to continue or develop the sample material yourself.

1. (Sample material provided from Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens)
Read the sample material describing Miss Havisham, and then write a story of your own in which a child encounters a startling or unusual adult character.

2. (Sample material provided from Michael Palin's description of Egypt)
Read the sample material and then write a description of an interesting place, or of how your town might appear to a visitor from another country.

3. Explain your ideas for a stage production or a film of the Shakespeare play you have studied. Write about location, period setting and costume, supporting what you say by reference to the text.