Writing task
Section B: Comprehension
You should spend 30 minutes on this section.
You are reminded of the importance of clear and accurate written English and of careful presentation in your answer. All questions carry equal marks.
Question 1: Describe a place that you know well and enjoy visiting or a place that you greatly enjoyed when you went there for the first time. Write in a way that creates a clear picture in the reader’s mind of what happened and how you felt. [25 marks]
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
A Place I Love Visiting is a personal descriptive narrative task that tests personal response, sensory detail, imagery. Use a particular moment to make the location personally meaningful.
- personal response
- sensory detail
- imagery
- paragraph control
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 30 minutes (as indicated in the paper/section); Writing marks: 25 (subject to separately awarded SPaG marks); Published task/option: 1 (where the source offers alternatives, pupils answer the paper's specified number, not all)
Plan your response
- Use a particular moment to make the location personally meaningful.
- 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 little bookshop smelled of paper, coffee and polished wood. I had visited it many times, yet every trip felt different because the shelves always held a surprise. On a rainy Saturday I discovered an old atlas with a cracked green cover. Its pages were filled with handwritten notes beside faraway islands. The owner let me sit by the window and examine it while the storm tapped at the glass. I left without buying anything, but I carried its strange places in my imagination all the way home.
Learn from the example
- The voice connects experience with thoughts or feelings, making the response personal rather than a detached report.
- Develop the link between a particular detail and the narrator's reflection. Keep the requested diary, recount or monologue form in your own answer.