Writing task
Write a prose composition on the title “The ruined space station.” You may use fiction or non-fiction. Show imagination, descriptive power or characterisation; quality matters more than quantity.
Time: 60 minutes (as indicated for this published task).
Marks: 50.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
The Ruined Space Station is a science-fiction description task that tests world-building, precise sensory language, atmosphere. Make the station’s abandoned technology and the silence vivid; imply a history through objects.
- world-building
- precise sensory language
- atmosphere
- consistent viewpoint
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: 3 (where the source offers alternatives, pupils answer the paper's specified number, not all)
Plan your response
- Make the station’s abandoned technology and the silence vivid; imply a history through objects.
- 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 station turned slowly against the darkness, one solar panel bent like a broken wing. Mira guided her small craft towards the docking ring. Inside, pens floated beside an unfinished game of chess. A spoon drifted through a shaft of blue light, turning end over end. Someone had left a birthday card fixed to a wall with tape. Its cheerful colours seemed almost unbearable. Mira switched on her radio. Nothing answered except the gentle hiss of static. Then, from somewhere deeper in the station, a door opened and closed.
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.