The cops have not found the hostages

yet
He helps the people from his own
pocket
He understood the secret
The car was bumped by Ahmed

Hostages are yet to be found

He helps the people, who are needy,
from his own pocket
He understood the secret immediately
Ahmed bumped the car. (Ahmeds
Responsible)

Narrative writing Example

Paula had a beautiful dress. She had bought that dress last night with her mother
from a carnival. She wanted to look best at the party which would be held next
week. She never had such a beautiful dress before. She was dying to wear that
dress.

Almost every sentence begins with a pronoun She, thus, no variation.

The passage is about a young girls innocent wish; however, this one lacks
emotions.

Paula belonged to a poor family and had never worn an expensive dress before. Her
mother had taken her along to a grand carnival held nearby last night. While she
closely latched onto her mothers shirt, she noticed girls her age, or even younger,
scooted around in lavished dresses. Barbies dress, she has a Cinderella dress on,
that there, hers is a!, and the thoughts reeled on. Dresses, were the only thing
to catch her young clean slate mind. I wish I had a pink dress for my school party
too, she sighed silently. With a lowered head, she dazzled through the whole
carnival. To implore for one, it was of no use; she followed her walking steps back
home. As she retired for the night, the customary load shedding marked its
quotidian attendance. Sleep, just sleep! It was then when her hand ran over a silk
seamless something on her flint-bare bedding. Her eyes gleamed.

It has a variety of simple, complex and compound sentences.

There are adjectives/adverbs:

Can you tell what the last line suggests?... There is suspense and
persuasion to think for reader.

Let the readers judge through the characters actions or dialogues of what
entails.

Do not bore them with clear informative sentences.

ACCOUNT WRITING
1. An account may not have any subject line at all.
2. Accounts must direct the reader in the right order as what and how
things had exactly happened.
3. The first paragraph must necessarily answer the questions of What,
Where and When.
4. NOTE: The candidate should not jumble the sequence of the event,
they should be presented in the right order.
5. The tone of an account totally depends on to whom the account is
written. If the question clearly states that the account should be written
to a headmaster or an inspector/a police personnel, then it is pretty
obvious that the tone should be formal, polite and respectful. On the
other hand if the question does not mention the recipient at all then the
examiner expects the candidate to self-assume his /her recipient and
write abiding by the rules of using a suitable register for the recipient
(formal or informal).
6. An account can have personal feelings. The candidate may, therefore,
choose emotive language and sensational words and phrases as far as
those assist in providing relevant information to the recipient.
(Remember! Here the purpose is to inform not to entertain)
7. There isnt much restriction of first person in account writing unlike
reports.
8. Accounts also require a detailed analysis of the event witnessed
through the eye of the spectator (you/candidate) restricting within the
boundaries of providing factual details.
9. The candidate is free to give his opinion about the event. He may
provide suggestions to certain matters even if he/she isnt asked to.
10. Unlike other reports an account can be written in an active voice.
11. Avoid contractions and use past tense to write the account. (as the
event has already occurred)

Report Writing:
1. It begins with a subject underlined about what the report is actually about. In CIE
Examiner is more concerned with how the report is addressed to the recipient. What
matters most is if appropriate tone is used or whether the candidate uses an accurate
register.
2. In the above example the first paragraph answers the questions of What, Where and
When and the incident took place.
3. Students often confuse the beginning of a report with letter writing and begin with
Respected Sir, Madam, (this is a big error. See the below example as well).
4. This would be wrong to begin by, I was asked to write a report to you on the incident
that
5. In a report you must not directly address the person to whom you are writing.
6. In the next paragraph the student tells Why and How the incident took place, Who
was involved.
7. Reports are supposed to be unbiased. The candidate is expected to write details keeping
aside all his/her emotions. In this example you would see that the last rubric demands an
opinion from the observer to write about what went wrong on that day.
8. Reports often end with a signature of the writer. Thus, the candidate complies with the
format and closes with his signature.
9. The I pronoun is strictly prohibited when the reports are to inform about certain topics
like corruption, price hike, growth rate, education, inflation etc. On the contrary, if
some incident is witnessed by the candidate and he/she is asked to report on it then, the
candidate can use the I pronoun and in that case it would be appropriate to use it
sparingly and avoid adding any personal emotions (as illustrated above in the example).
In the above example it is seen that the student, in spite of using the I pronoun, keeps
her tone completely impersonal and only gives her opinion where she is asked to.
10. Try to keep the information simple and precise. Do not plunge in describing unnecessary
details because remember this is not a descriptive essay. Do not get carried away in
providing extra/irrelevant information. In the above example the student provides all
required information in a terse manner.
11. The incident is sketched in an indirect way the stallholder said that, the bus driver asked
usinstead of adding any direct speeches.
12. Use simple vocabulary (the purpose here is to inform not to entertain).

Report on the incident during School Outing

Respected Sir.
I was asked by the school headmaster to write a report to you about the incident that took place a
few days before during a school outing. We were going to visit a factory which was a long way
away and we had break on the way. It was very hot and the journey was very long so everyone
was very thirsty. There was a stall selling many lovely drinks and there was also a fridge full of
bottles of orange and Coke. Everyone crowded round fighting each other to get to the drinks first
of all.
Mr Ahmed shouted at us crossly. He told us all to make a line and stop making such a noise. We
obeyed him and waited obediently. Some of the boys were pushing and they payed money one
by one. At the end we were getting on the bus. The old man came and shouted at Mr Ahmed and
said,That boy there didnt pay me! He pointed at Irfan said I did pay you well. The buys who
had been next to Irfan in the line said he did pay Sir I saw him pay.
So Mr Ahmed said that to the stallholder I think you are mistaken because my boys swore that
this boy payed you. There were a lot of boys. To make mistake is easy for you. The stallholder
looked very angry and said again Irfan had not pay. Mr Ahmed has told us all to get on the bus
and we did and went to the factory for outing.

Paper 2 Section 1- 25 marks

i ) read and underline relevant material; count that there are at
least 15 points altogether, and preferably 20 (fewer for Paper 1)
ii) transfer the points into a plan, whilst changing them into your
own words
iii) group the points logically (using arrows/brackets); put them in
order (using numbers), and decide which ones can be combined into
one sentence
iv) write the summary in two paragraphs (one for Paper 1), using
complex sentences
Remember that summaries never include:
i) examples
ii) repetitions
iii) direct speech
iv) figurative language
v) minor details.
All these must be removed from the passage, and then you use only
the facts, which are what you have left.
Find all the points you can for each part of the question; do not
stop when you get to 15 as these may not be the same ones the
examiner has on their list. The only way to be sure of getting all 15
Reading marks is to use everything relevant.
To get all 5 Writing marks you need to show evidence of clear and
concise summary style throughout, precise focus and the use of
your own words.
Do not give your summary in the wrong form as this is penalised
i.e. do not offer bullet points or a list, or write in the first person, or

comment on the content of the passages, or present a narrative, or

use quotation.
Though you must use your own words whenever possible, you do
not have to find synonyms for technical objects e.g. solar heaters.
Both halves of the question are equally important and should be
done in the same way and given the same length of about half a
page.
Summaries much longer than half a page are no longer
summaries and will be penalized in the Writing mark.
To be concise enough for summary style and to get in all the
points you should use complex sentences containing two or three
points in each.
Do not repeat points, or express them vaguely; (these will be
given an R (repetition) or PNM (point not made) respectively in the
margin, and discounted.
There is no need to introduce or conclude a summary, and doing
so wastes time and words. Start by using the wording of part of the
question e.g. The features of the desert were
Notice exactly which part of the passage is to be summarised in
the question and do not include information from other parts of the
text.
Do not forget that 10 words for the summary are already given,
therefore try to keep the summary upto or leass than 150 words
Your summary must be in a paragraph of continuous writing, not
as a list.
Use the bullets points to help you structure your piece of writing.
You are expected to develop the ideas contained in the passage,
and add original details of your own, but your response should
remain based on the passage and not stray too far from it. This is
not a creative writing exercise.

 It will help you enormously to highlight the material you are going
to use in the text, and then write a quick plan in order to organise it
into a logical structure before you start writing your response. This
will enable you to avoid repetition and to make sure you are fully
answering the question.
Use everything which is relevant, not just some of the material. On
the other hand, there may be some parts which you should ignore
because they are not covered by the question.
You should not copy big chunks of text and you should use your
own words when not actually giving details.
You can either integrate the two, e.g. advantages and
disadvantages, or deal with them separately. You can decide on your
own structure for your answer, but what matters is that there
should be a structure of some kind, and one which the reader can
discern.
If you are given bullet points to remind you what should be
included, use them to check you have covered what is required, and
they can also help you to structure your answer. The material from
the passage should be put into the appropriate section and not
repeated.
Paper 2 question 2- 25 marks
Skim read the passage for gist before you look at the question.
Then scan the passage to find the answer to each of the questions
in turn.
Be aware that the questions are graded in an increasing level of
difficulty.
The answers to the questions will be found in chronological order
in the text.
Responding precisely to the wording of the question is very
important in this part of the exam.
Notice how many marks there are for each question. This will help
you to understand the length of the answer and the number of

points required. Obviously the question with 2 marks is expecting

more than the question with only 1 mark.
There is no need to repeat the whole of the question before
beginning of your answer. He means that or It is because are
enough to provide a grammatical introduction to your sentence.
Where you are asked to give a word or words you do not need to
answer with a full sentence.
When you are asked to find words they are separate not
consecutive words unless you are told otherwise. Do not give
several words if asked only for one, even if you think there are other
correct answers.
Notice which questions specifically ask you to use your own words
and do not then repeat in your answer any of the words contained in
the phrase to be explained.
source: www.cambridgestudents.org.uk
Filed Under: Quick Exam Tips, Student Resources, Teacher Resources Tagged With:
Cambridge, CIE Examiners, common mistakes, examination tips, gce english, highlight
key words, note taking, reading comprehension, scan, skim, summary writing

Revision Guide for O-Level

Students
September 30, 2012 by admin Leave a Comment

Check list designed by CIE examiners for the preparation of O-Level English
Language subject code-1123
Checklist tick if against the column you have worked on something
similar
Skill:

All students Those taking Ways in which the

should
the
skills might be
be able to:
Extended exa practised
mination
(appropriate contexts
should
also be able
to
Reading.Loca Read short
Cope with more Looking at leaflets,

ting
specificinfor
mation
asquickly as
possible
=Skimming

non-fiction
texts, such
asleaflets,
news
reportsand
advertisement
s
Reading.Loca Read longer
ting more
non-fiction
detailed
texts, such as
information;l articles from
ooking
newspapers
morecarefull andmagazines
y= Scanning

detailed
andextensive
informative
texts

reports, guidelines
Analysing brochures

Cope with
Reading similar articles
longerand more (in style and in length) to
challenging
those seen frequently in
articles
past examination papers
Reading factual articles
Extracting
relevant information from
articles
Reading &
1. Read a text Convey a
Practising using the
Writing.Integ which contains thoroughunders same material in different
rated
information
tanding by
genres
reading and andrespond
writing a
Practising writing formal
writing
using
lengthy
letters
therelevant
response in
material from adifferent
the text
genre from the
original text
2.
Select, explain Reading passages from
Understandde and analyse
literary texts and
scriptive texts the effect of
identifying the ways in
and select
the usage
which feeling or
relevantinform ofcertain
atmosphere have been
ation and
phrases in the
created
phrases from text
them
3. Adopt an
Adopt a
Practising using
appropriate
sophisticated different registers and
voice in which orofficial
styles for different aims
to express a
persona
according
response to a
to
text
specific tasks
4. Show
Target your
Practise using devices
awareness of audience
which show ability to
audience
address your audience
directly and manipulate
its response
5. Write short Summarise
Writing a summary

summaries

through Notetaking

based on a set of notes of

between 7 and 15 points
Practising the use of
own words
Becoming familiar with
the concise and precise
language of summary
style