Writing task
SECTION B: COMPREHENSION
Spend about 40 minutes on this section.
Question 1: Write an imaginative description of a person whose skill or work is fascinating. Look to convey the feelings that watching this person creates in the observer. [20 marks]
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
The Person Whose Skill Astonishes Me is a character and process description task that tests observation, precise verbs, sensory imagery. Describe precise motions and a craft’s sensory details while revealing admiration.
- observation
- precise verbs
- sensory imagery
- emotional response
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 40 minutes (as indicated in the paper/section); Writing marks: 20 (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
- Describe precise motions and a craft’s sensory details while revealing admiration.
- 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 violin maker held the thin strip of wood against the light and turned it slowly between his fingers. On his bench lay small chisels, curls of pale shavings and an instrument not yet finished. He pressed a blade to the wood. A single ribbon peeled away, so delicate that I could almost see through it. He worked without hurry, listening to the sound each movement made. I had expected a workshop full of noise. Instead, I watched an extraordinary conversation between two patient hands and a piece of timber.
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.