Writing task
Composition (50 marks)
Write on one of the following in prose in either fiction or non-fictional form. Credit will be given for quality, not quantity.
You should aim to display imagination in your ideas as well as your use of English expression / imagery / style / variety.
Descriptive power and/or characterisation is rewarded more than complexity of plot.
2. The plants all lay dead.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
The Plants All Lay Dead is a atmospheric description task that tests setting, tension, sensory language. Use the desolation to suggest a cause or a human consequence without overcomplicating the plot.
- setting
- tension
- sensory language
- precision
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 60 minutes (as indicated in the paper/section); Writing marks: 50 (subject to separately awarded SPaG marks); Published task/option: 2 (where the source offers alternatives, pupils answer the paper's specified number, not all)
Plan your response
- Use the desolation to suggest a cause or a human consequence without overcomplicating the plot.
- 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
Across the greenhouse, the leaves lay folded like scraps of burnt paper. The tomatoes had shrivelled on their stems; the orange flowers that had brightened the window yesterday were little more than dust. Outside, the lawns remained green. That was the strangest part. Mrs Vale knelt beside her oldest rose and touched the soil. It was warm, almost hot, though the morning air was cold. Beneath the pot something clicked at steady intervals. She drew back her hand. The sound came again, patient and mechanical, from the earth itself.
Learn from the example
- Concrete details build an impression of the subject. Notice how those choices work together rather than reading as a list of general adjectives.
- The viewpoint controls what the reader notices. Choose details and an order that sustain the task's requested perspective and atmosphere.