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The focus of this website is to prepare candidates on how to write directed writing. A total of 35
marks are allocated for this question (normally being the first question for this paper) 15 marks
for content (which include marks for format) and 20 marks for language.
Students do not have the luxury of choice, as compared to which they are given in the
continuous writing section.
Common pitfalls
1. Poor time management. Do not spend more than the
allocated 45 minutes on this question. Otherwise you will not have enough time for
the second question. Remember the second question carries more marks.
2. Lengthy essays.Do not write too much. As mentioned earlier, this question does
not make many demands on a candidate. Directed writing is a succinct piece of
writing. All you have to do is use the given points and provide a sentence or two
(maybe three) to elaborate on them.A response of 1 - 2 pages is more than
sufficient. After all, the more you write the more mistakes you are likely to make.
Some candidates make the mistake of writing one paragraph for each point. If you
do this, your essay is going to be very lengthy. Save the time and energy for
Continuous Writing.
3. Usage of Informal language.This paper tests your written English. Do not use
spoken language. Avoid using slang words (such as guys, dudes, bligetty, breaky,
toastie), contractions (cant, mustnt etc) and informal language (such as informal
idiomatic expressions or informal phrasal verbs).
4. Too many idiomatic expressions.
5. Some candidates tend to use as many idiomatic expressions as they can in their
piece of writing. I understand this is a required practice for the Bahasa Melayu
paper.It may work to your advantage for the Bahasa Melayu paper but not in an
English paper. Reading a piece of writing littered with such expressions devalues
the merits the piece of writing may have.
6. Poor punctuation.Some candidates do not punctuate their sentences correctly.
Make sure you end your sentence with a full stop and not a comma. Also, make
sure that the pronoun (I) is written in upper case and not lower case (i) as is the
practice among some candidates.
1. Speech/Talk
2. Report
3. Informal letter
4. Formal letter