HOW TO ANSWER THE NEW

WRITING PAPERS?????
RULE OF THUMB 1:    Understand What is CLT
(Communicative Language Teaching) Approach
If you are a teacher, you might just need a little bit of flashback , then you will know the idea of it. I am not
going to go into how the famous linguists started all this, but if you’re interested, you can go ahead and
read more about it. THE NEW FORMATS BASE A LOT ON THE IDEA OF CLT. (please correct me if I’m
wrong)
But, if you’re a parent, I’ll give you a simple idea about this approach and how you can help guide your
children in their learning.
One word,
‘NATURAL’
Every answer should reflect ‘natural English’. This is a very vague idea because what is considered natural
and what is not can be subjective. Especially when the situation now is that we still do not have a written
guide.
I’ll give you more examples as you read on…

RULE OF THUMB 2:   It’s Okay to Have Some Slips

One thing teachers have to get used to is that, we should be okay with little slips here and there. Not that
we want to encourage students to do them, but we should remind ourselves to focus on the
‘communication’
“Did the student successfully convey the message?”
if yes, why punish so bad?
And because I do not want students think it’s okay to make certain mistakes, I shall not give any examples
here. Rule of thumb is, give the best form of English you know.

HOW TO ANSWER PART 1

1. Go Sraight To The Point
Previously, many teachers, even I am guilty of this.
We ask students to start with greetings.
“Hi, how are you? I hope you are fine. I am fine here.”
That is considered BAD in the new format. Why? Because it’s NOT NATURAL. Think about this,
A:   “What are you going to do this weekends?”
B:   “Hey, how are you? Im good. By the way, I am planning to go to the library this Saturday.”
or
A:   “What are you going to do this weekends?”
B:   “I am thinking to go to the library this Saturday.”
Which is more natural in your daily life? There you go. Remember, natural language wins. 
So in the new format we want to take away all the not so natural greetings and go straight to the point.

 "Hi, how have you been Alex. I hope you are doing fine. I have read your message and I want to give
you some advice. I think you should choose cooking. ..."

That’s how we all should respond to part 1.

2. Explain All the Good Things and Some of the Bad Things
One way to help students elaborate is to get them to think about the good things about their choice and the
bad things about what they have rejected.
For example, from the question, lets choose cooking.

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It
is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the
time. Plus, when you have time, you can cook for your family. Oh, and you can cook for me!" [62 words]

You already have  62 words – only by listing down all the good things about your choice of hobby.
What if the students don’t have so many ideas?
Then, write some negative things about the others

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It
is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the
time. I think cycling is expensive, because you need to buy a bicycle. And if you start painting, you
also need to buy brushes and paint. " [69 words]

3. A Short and Sweet Ending 

Again, write as natural as you can.

"I think you should choose cooking. If you know how to cook, you can always make yourself some food. It
is also cheaper to cook at home. You do not have to go out and eat at the cafe and restaurants all the
time. I think cycling is expensive, because you need to buy a bicycle. And if you start painting, you
also need to buy brushes and paint. So I think cooking is the best for you. Hope this helps.  " [82
words]
HOW TO ANSWER PART 2

1. No more format (Maybe?)

This looks like the new direction but again I can’t tell for sure. Most likely, no format.

2. Use the guide questions. (WH-questions)

This sounds like a cliche, but if you learn to build sentences around WH-questions, you should be able to
build a solid form 3 level essay. Just imagine building 3 sentences for each question, how many words can
you get from there?
3. A freer topic means more room to focus on the language.
The new question seems to be giving more room for students’ own idea, you can use the opportunity to
focus on things that your students can relate to, and get them to write. For example, you no longer ask
them to write about Hari Raya, get them to write about the celebration that they celebrate i.e: Christmas,
Chinese New Year, Kaamatan, Deepavali, etc. This way, students with all kinds of background can relate
and can spend more time on building the language and fixing them.

4. Keep thing Short and Simple

I don’t see why you need to write so looooooongggg, thinking you can get more marks from longer text. If
the question asks for about 120 words, I think getting to 150 words is great already.
Always, for weaker students, keep sentences short and simples, but one thing for sure for the A students
to the struggling students. Everyone should aim for one thing
Have MEANING in what you write:

 You’re telling something in response to the questions,

 Readers get something from the answers

Old Writing Paper VS New Writing Paper

PART 1
SIMILARITIES

OLD FORMAT NEW FORMAT

Choose one and give reasons Choose one and give reasons/advice

Short text (50 words) Short text (80 words)

DIFFERENCES

OLD FORMAT NEW FORMAT

Text for reference (allow you to lift text) No text for reference (you think of your own content)

Have several formats (Post card/email/note) Seem to only ask for simple note

10 marks 20 marks

PART 2
SIMILARITIES

OLD FORMAT NEW FORMAT

1 topic 1 general topic

Longer text  (More than 150 words) Longer text (about 120 words)

DIFFERENCE

OLD FORMAT NEW FORMAT

Formatted writing
Simple essay (no format)
(letter, report, article, speech etc)

More than 150 words About 120 words

Specific general

30 marks 20 marks