Many students read Editing passage (Paper One, Section A) and cannot find any mistakes. Sometimes it is not because they do not understand the rules of grammar, but because they do not know what to look out for. Hence, we have combed through ALL the 1128 ‘O’ Level papers (2013-2017) and analysed the most common editing errors that were inserted in the passage for students to spot and correct. After some number crunching, we present our findings, in order of
In the previous two posts on summary writing, we have examined the how to analyse a summary question, how to find the points from the relevant paragraphs and organise them. The next step is to change the points into your own words and to remove words so that it is 80 words or less. Let us see how it can be done. I. Summary Writing: Using Own Words Before you start to write your draft, you will also need to
In the previous post, we have discussed the requirements for the summary question and how to analyse a question. Now that you have analysed the summary question, the next step is to look for the relevant points. Let us see how it can be done. I. Summary Writing: Finding Points When you start looking at the relevant paragraphs, it is important that you keep the question in mind all the time. Let’s look at a simple strategy to help identifying
Summary Writing has always been a bugbear for many students — either they cannot find the points or are unable to express the ideas in their own words. In the next few posts, we are going to explain how to ace the summary question in secondary school. I. Summary Writing: Understanding ‘O’ level marking rubrics For summary writing, there is a total of 15 marks. Eight marks are assigned for content and the other seven marks are assigned for language use.
In the previous tip, we learnt two ways of varying sentences: using different sentence types and length of sentences. In this post, I will discuss a more difficult way to vary sentences. This method involves sentence synthesis skills: looks like all the hard work your child put in to practise sentence synthesis can also help in his writing as well! Let us establish a common understanding first and talk about simple sentences. Simple sentences contain a subject (the focus of
“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.” Gary Provost This is the first part of a quote you might have seen popping up in various posts on English. Quite rightly, this is a monotonous and boring piece of writing. How can it be
Around one month ago, Minster for Education, Heng Swee Keat, the opening ceremony for the National School Games. Throughout the rest of this year, schools will be competing with each other for glory in many different sports. In his opening speech, Mr Heng highlighted that participation in sports can build up values such as respect, resilience, care and harmony – which are at the core of the values in 21st Century Competencies. As a result of this, he also highlighted
Cyber Wellness is an important topic because many youths today spent a substantial amount of time on the Internet. Just like many tools, there are advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages include the ease and speed of communication between friends and locating knowledge and information with just one click.
