Home > Subjects > English > English level 1 > 1.5 Formal writing > Key tips
- Subject: English
- AS: 90053
- Level: 1
- Credits: 3
- Internal
1.5 Produce formal writing
Key tips
- Use examples of formal writing and student exemplars to model your work on.
- Make sure the writing is your own. You may not use or repeat material from exemplars or samples, or work written by other students.
- Understand the focus and purpose of the task and who you are writing for.
- Plan your time wisely – don't spend all your time deciding on a topic, if you are a weak speller allocate extra time.
- Write about something you are familiar with and have an opinion about.
- Plan your writing carefully so it has a clear introduction, middle, and conclusion.
- Use double line spaces when you write your drafts so you can add corrections easily.
- Keep all your draft versions labelled and organised in a safe place.
- Indicate a new paragraph by leaving a blank line or indenting the first line of the new paragraph.
- Have a series of 4–5 paragraphs discussing the main point. Use a clear structure for each paragraph of your piece of writing.
- Include and incorporate reliable statistics, facts, examples, and opinions.
- Use formal language and tone throughout.
- Use a wide range of vocabulary and language features accurately and appropriately.
- Use rhetorical questions and/or minor sentences as a special feature rather than in every paragraph.
- Read your writing 'aloud in your head' at least once. Listen for any weak or inappropriate words, informal language, run-on sentences, or punctuation errors.
- Check that you have used the correct spelling of a word that may sound like another (there/their/they're, here/hear/hare).
- Check each new sentence starts with a capital letter.
- Read from a range of media such as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio to keep up to date with current issues and opinions to help your writing.
- To check your spelling read your work backwards, from end to the beginning. Underline possible spelling errors and use a dictionary.
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