SPM English 1119

[y_benjie]

Hi guys!

I m going to take SPM this year, but I was quite uncertain about the 1119 paper. Could anyone of you please provide me with more info on:-

1) Paper 1 : As we know, it consists of 2 parts, which is directed writing and continuos writing. I was told that 1119 paper are mainly based on your continuos writing, and one need to write preferably, stories like narrative,descriptive to gain more points which would earn him a better chance to get an A1. How true is that?

2) Normally, how high is the mark to get an A1? I understand it depends on the standard on that particular year, but normaly it ranges from ? - ?

3) Some friends of mine told me if I write facts, argumentative, discussion, you will have to be VERY VERY OUTSTANDING, to get an A1. Is that true?

Thanks!

[youngyew]

Originally Posted by y_benjie

Hi guys!

I m going to take SPM this year, but I was quite uncertain about the 1119 paper. Could anyone of you please provide me with more info on:-

1) Paper 1 : As we know, it consists of 2 parts, which is directed writing and continuos writing. I was told that 1119 paper are mainly based on your continuos writing, and one need to write preferably, stories like narrative,descriptive to gain more points which would earn him a better chance to get an A1. How true is that?

2) Normally, how high is the mark to get an A1? I understand it depends on the standard on that particular year, but normaly it ranges from ? - ?

3) Some friends of mine told me if I write facts, argumentative, discussion, you will have to be VERY VERY OUTSTANDING, to get an A1. Is that true?

Thanks!

I don't know much into the depth of marking scheme in 1119, but here is what I can tell:

1. Basically there is no set threshold score for A1 in 1119 paper, the marking is purely based on impression, not on grammar, points, contents etc.

2. Stories and narrative writings have historically been preferable for scoring A1... I think this is mainly because of its originality and authenticity. When you write narrative piece, it tends to be more creative and interesting, so it in turn would better impress the examiner. Whereas for argumentative or factual writing, it's more or less the same thing for everyone, so you have to be really outstanding to score an A1.

3. Very Very outstanding.... hmm.. I am not sure how outstanding you have to be. Just take the level of english in ReCom as an example. I think the majority of people who post here would obtain A1 with their command of english language. (For the record, I got A2 with an argumentative piece)

4. Don't follow all tips and trends blindly; instead, follow yourself - do what you do the best. If you can't write story (like me), there's no point forcing yourself to write one. It just wouldn't work.

Hope that helps.

[chenchow]

I agree with youngyew regarding the matter. Write on the type of essays that you know you would write best. I, personally wrote argumentative as well, as that's what I am writing much better in, if in comparison with writing stories.

So, it would depend on you. On writing argumentative essays, include some convincing points, as well as with concrete arguments and examples. Those will set you apart.

[gohweihan]

On factual (or argumentative) essays, it's not actually all about convincing points, solid arguments and concrete examples. You may give the most convincing point in the world, the best arguments that are unrefutable, and the most solid and clear examples, but if that all don't come into a nicely packaged essay, it wouldn't work.

It is possible to end up scoring with an essay without any one of the components. What is needed is actually analysis of the topic, and a piece of work that is directed towards the analysis. Basically it's about asking questions - the five Ws' and one H, and writing based on that to create a package of which makes an impact in the end.

I've written factual essays without examples or arguments - just points based on analysis, and it turned out well in the eyes of the people who marked them.

But for 1119, I wrote a combination of a story and factual analysis. It was a story based on World War II in the eyes of a soldier and the analysis was in the form of the ideas about World War II in the eyes of the people at that time.

[youngyew]

Originally Posted by gohweihan

I've written factual essays without examples or arguments - just points based on analysis, and it turned out well in the eyes of the people who marked them.

But for 1119, I wrote a combination of a story and factual analysis. It was a story based on World War II in the eyes of a soldier and the analysis was in the form of the ideas about World War II in the eyes of the people at that time.

It's interesting but I can't make out the picture of a factual essay with only analysis and no examples. Can you give me a brief description of your essay?

By the way, I am impressed by what you wrote in the 1119. It's cool, telling WWII from the eyes of a soldier? It looks like a novel to me!

[gohweihan]

Originally Posted by youngyew

It's interesting but I can't make out the picture of a factual essay with only analysis and no examples. Can you give me a brief description of your essay?

By the way, I am impressed by what you wrote in the 1119. It's cool, telling WWII from the eyes of a soldier? It looks like a novel to me!

Examples, in my point of view, are concrete, readily available, already happened situations that can be used to back-up an analysis, something like this:

"Man is capable of space travel. With the landing on the moon in 1969, it is proven that indeed if NASA were to focus more on space exploration, a base in Mars is possible within the middle of the century."

The statement "landing on the moon in 1969" would therefore be the example in the piece. If I were to write something without an example, it would be something like this:

"Universities today are conducting lessons in a way that focuses on acquisition of knowledge. However, employers today look not only on the knowledge of the graduate, but on human capital as a whole (which is more than knowledge)."

This paragraph has no examples (or at least in my definition of examples). It has analysis of the situation - i.e. what universities are doing, and what employers want. To create more impact, I would probably contextualize the thing to a nation, say Malaysia or Singapore.

And that WWII piece I wrote for 1119 wasn't what I wanted to write actually, but I decided to after my teacher recommended that I do not go ahead with my original idea.

That one would be about a man who runs a joint venture in a company providing international security management, and found out that his partner backstabbed him, so he killed his partner and ran to Cairo.

[vseehua]

for the matter, i also prefered argumentative essays...but it is only for those who are informed with updates info about the world, even if its quite remote. The infos must b accurate, if you don't remember the date, jus give a time frame...you'll never know if the person who is marking your paper know what are your writing about..

and as chenchow's remark, go and do the type of essay that you have the most confidence in...don't worry about what others' are writing, worry about what you can do best, and all will be fine

[Anduril]

Well, I always write argumentative or factual essays, regardless in what languages. Not that I am good at that, but I can be really boring and long-winded with stories. So, every time I took my paper, those story topics were shut away straight. (kind of dangerous, eh?)

I don't know. I think to write argumentative or factual essays, one needs to be clear and precise. Just keep it simple and nice. That's my strategy. It works wonderfully (to my utmost surprise, of course).

[HappyCat]

for 1119 paper, my English language teacher had told us that we must very good in vocabulary and never make mistake for grammer, then we can score well in 1119 paper.

[youngyew]

Originally Posted by HappyCat

for 1119 paper, my English language teacher had told us that we must very good in vocabulary and never make mistake for grammer, then we can score well in 1119 paper.

In my opinion, although good vocabulary is undeniably an important way of giving good impression, it is not a neccessity. I have friends who write superb argumentative pieces and stories, but they write it with normal range of vocabulary, not out-of-world bombastic words.