Writing task
Question 5: Describe a moment where you met a relative for the first time.
Practise this exact question with personalised feedback on your writing.
Understand the task
This personal descriptive writing prompt chiefly tests originality, appropriate structure and precise vocabulary. Capture a single first encounter through precise observation and a changing emotion.
- originality
- appropriate structure
- precise vocabulary
- spelling and punctuation
Requirements to keep in mind
The 50 minutes is for all five questions; not a standalone writing time; No separate mark allocation for Question 5
Plan your response
- Capture a single first encounter through precise observation and a changing emotion.
- Plan the response around the task’s specific instructions.
- Use deliberate paragraphing, sentence variety and concrete detail.
- Reserve time for spelling and punctuation checks.
- Compare with the official paper for any accompanying text or picture.
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
I recognised Aunt Miriam before she said a word. She was the only person on the station platform holding a yellow umbrella, although the rain had stopped an hour earlier. For a moment I wanted to hide behind Dad. Then she saw us and waved so vigorously that her scarf slipped from her shoulders.
‘You have your grandfather’s eyes,’ she said. Her voice was softer than I had expected. She showed me a photograph of a boy on an old bicycle, and I saw my own face smiling back from fifty years ago. I took her hand. The photograph had made us strangers for one second and family in the next.
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.