Writing task
TASK B – WRITING
Continue the story in your own words. In your writing, show that you have thought about:
- the characters we meet in the passage
- where the story is set
- the way the writer uses language to bring his scene to life
Reading extract (from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens):
“Hold your noise!” cried a terrible voice, as a man started up from among the graves at the side of the church porch.
“Keep still, you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”
A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin.
“O! Don’t cut my throat, sir,” I pleaded in terror. “Pray don’t do it, sir.”
“Tell us your name!” said the man. “Quick!”
“Pip, sir.”
“Once more,” said the man, staring at me. “Give it mouth!”
“Pip. Pip, sir.”
“Show us where you live,” said the man. “Pint out the place!”
I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat in-shore among the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.
The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside-down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself for he was so sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet – when the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread ravenously.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
Pip Meets the Frightening Convict is a story continuation task that tests character consistency, setting continuity, plot development. Remain in Pip’s first-person perspective, keeping the graveyard and its fearful atmosphere.
- character consistency
- setting continuity
- plot development
- sentence control
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 45 minutes (as indicated in the paper/section); Published task/option: B (where the source offers alternatives, pupils answer the paper's specified number, not all)
Plan your response
- Remain in Pip’s first-person perspective, keeping the graveyard and its fearful atmosphere.
- 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
The stranger bent down until his face was almost touching mine. The iron at his ankle scraped against the stone, and I felt the cold of it even through my boots. 'Have you a file, boy?' he demanded. I shook my head, though I was not sure what answer would save me. Across the marshes the wind made a thin, mournful noise. He glanced towards the distant prison ships and seized my sleeve. 'You will find one,' he said. 'And food.' I promised before I had thought what the promise meant. Then I ran, afraid to look behind me.
Learn from the example
- The response reconnects with the source characters and situation instead of retelling the extract. This helps the new writing feel like part of the same scene.
- Compare the narrator, tense and first action with the passage's final moment. Keep any compulsory opening and paragraph limit when writing your own continuation.