Composition 13+
Paragraphing
If you feel that your child needs more formal practice in structuring paragraphs, you might like to click here to find some basic information and practice exercises.
Essay writing
The final link in the chain for composition is essay writing, which is essentially the combining of several paragraphs framed by an introduction and conclusion. Writing essays effectively is essential not only for English but for literature, history and most other humanities subjects and it is a skill worth really working on. There are plenty of books available which will help your child to write better essays but in a sense the basic structure of any essay is quite simple to grasp and then it is just a question of getting plenty of practice.
Interestingly, my own sons, who are all bright and write English perfectly well, have disliked English Language lessons. To them, writing is something one should do for pleasure and only when one actually has something to say about a subject. It can be a torture to be told you must write a 500 word essay on 'The town in which I live' or 'What we did on our holidays', or to be asked to write a sonnet about trees (how would we like to do it, and how well would we do?). Unfortunately the subjects offered for GCSE practice are often not much more inspiring than this. However, as in earlier stages of the curriculum, there's no reason why you shouldn't set essays which have more personal interest for your child - as long as he realises that for a few hours in the exam he'll just have to knuckle down and write whatever is required, inspiring or not!
Click here to find some basic information on structuring essays, with example titles and plans which could be used for practice.
Paragraphing
If you feel that your child needs more formal practice in structuring paragraphs, you might like to click here to find some basic information and practice exercises.
Essay writing
The final link in the chain for composition is essay writing, which is essentially the combining of several paragraphs framed by an introduction and conclusion. Writing essays effectively is essential not only for English but for literature, history and most other humanities subjects and it is a skill worth really working on. There are plenty of books available which will help your child to write better essays but in a sense the basic structure of any essay is quite simple to grasp and then it is just a question of getting plenty of practice.
Interestingly, my own sons, who are all bright and write English perfectly well, have disliked English Language lessons. To them, writing is something one should do for pleasure and only when one actually has something to say about a subject. It can be a torture to be told you must write a 500 word essay on 'The town in which I live' or 'What we did on our holidays', or to be asked to write a sonnet about trees (how would we like to do it, and how well would we do?). Unfortunately the subjects offered for GCSE practice are often not much more inspiring than this. However, as in earlier stages of the curriculum, there's no reason why you shouldn't set essays which have more personal interest for your child - as long as he realises that for a few hours in the exam he'll just have to knuckle down and write whatever is required, inspiring or not!
Click here to find some basic information on structuring essays, with example titles and plans which could be used for practice.