This is general educational guidance. Check the linked official sources and your child’s school instructions for the applicable syllabus and assessment year.
Understand the three sections
For 2026 Syllabus 1184, Paper 1 includes Editing, Situational Writing and Continuous Writing. Situational Writing requires a response to purpose, audience and context using the given information, while Continuous Writing requires one developed response from the offered topics.
Check the official syllabus for the candidate’s examination year before using any revision guide.
Plan situational writing from the task
Mark the role, audience, format, purpose and required points. Decide what each point needs beyond simple mention: explanation, example, recommendation or justification.
Organise points in an order that helps the reader. Tone should follow the relationship and purpose, not a memorised list of formal phrases.
Before writing, answer these questions about the task:
- Who am I writing as?
- Who will read this?
- What action or understanding should result?
- Which details must be included and developed?
Choose a continuous-writing idea you can develop
Spend planning time testing the idea. Can it answer every part of the topic? Can it support several specific paragraphs? Is the viewpoint consistent?
For narrative writing, plan a controlled sequence and meaningful change. For argumentative or discursive work, build distinct reasons and use examples that actually support them.
Use feedback to produce a second draft
Separate feedback into task fulfilment, organisation and language. Choose one or two priorities for the rewrite instead of correcting every sentence on the student’s behalf.
Maintain a short personal checklist based on repeated errors. Review it before the next piece, then check whether those errors decreased.