Writing task
Eton College King’s Scholarship Examination 2022 — CREATIVE WRITING (40 minutes)
1. A traveller has a time machine. They can travel to any time and place but they can take at most three journeys. Write an account of the traveller's voyages and difficulties.
You can choose to write this from the perspective of the traveller, the time machine, or a third-person narrator.
[25]
Up to five of the 25 marks available will be awarded for spelling, punctuation, quality of grammar, originality, elegance, and flair of expression.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
Three Journeys of a Time Traveller is a science-fiction narrative task that tests imaginative world-building, story structure, narrative voice. Keep the time-hops connected by one meaningful question; the viewpoint choice is central.
- imaginative world-building
- story structure
- narrative voice
- coherence
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 40 minutes (as indicated in the paper/section); Writing marks: 25 (subject to separately awarded SPaG marks); No more than three time-travel journeys; permitted narrative perspectives listed in the paper
Plan your response
- Keep the time-hops connected by one meaningful question; the viewpoint choice is central.
- Plan a clear beginning, development and ending within the time available.
- Use precise vocabulary and vary sentence lengths where appropriate.
- Proofread spelling, punctuation and paragraphing before finishing.
Check your response against the task requirements. Leave time to review sentence clarity, punctuation and spelling.
Short atoply teaching example
Written by atoply, not an official school answer or mark scheme. This short illustration shows selected techniques. It does not set a target length or expected mark for the timed task.
Reveal example and teaching notes
My machine objected to the year 2140. Its copper panels rattled as though it were afraid of the future. We landed in a silent London where vines climbed the railway bridges. My second journey took us backwards, to the morning my grandfather first stepped off a train. He carried a suitcase with one broken wheel and a letter offering him a job. I understood then what I had been searching for. On my final journey I returned home, not to change history, but to ask him the question I had always been too busy to ask.
Learn from the example
- The example focuses on one situation, keeping the action easy to follow. Notice how a detail, action or decision moves that situation forward.
- Use the task's requirements to plan the development and ending of your own response; an opening alone does not demonstrate a complete story arc.