Writing task
Write a story or descriptive composition on the theme “Arriving in a Strange Country”. Choose your own approach and spend some time planning.
Time: 45 minutes (as indicated for this published task).
Marks: 25.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
Arriving in a Strange Country is a travel description task that tests cultural sensitivity, sensory details, narrative viewpoint. Give the new place a distinctive texture; depict unfamiliarity without relying on stereotypes.
- cultural sensitivity
- sensory details
- narrative viewpoint
- atmosphere
Requirements to keep in mind
Recommended writing time: approximately 45 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
- Give the new place a distinctive texture; depict unfamiliarity without relying on stereotypes.
- 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 airport doors slid apart and warm air wrapped itself around me. Beyond the taxi rank, signs glowed in an alphabet I had only begun to learn. A man selling flowers called out to passing commuters, while small yellow buses rattled down the crowded road. I clutched my suitcase and searched for my aunt among the faces. For one alarming moment I saw nobody I recognised. Then a voice called my name. She stood beside a fountain, waving both arms, and suddenly the strange city contained one familiar smile.
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.