PMR Tips_ Writing Essay .com By Mohd.

Shukor

Analysis of past years questions 2000 - Informal letter & picture series 2001 - Giving opinion & newspaper article 2002 - Newspaper article & report for magazine 2003 - Giving opinion & description of robbery 2004 - Speech & Article 2005 - Report on National Day Celebration (picture series & note expansion) 2006 - Informal letter - Letter to uncle (note expansion) 2007 - Story (picture series & note expansion) 2008 - Speech Safety Measures in School (picture series & note expansion) 2009 - Article - experience at an old folks' home (picture series & note expansion) 2010 - recount picture series and notes 2011 - What will come out this year???? It could be a report, a letter (formal or informal) or a story. And maybe opinion based essay that has not been tested since 2001.

Analysis on Theme for Guided Writing: 2005 People 2006 Environment 2007 Social Issues 2008 People & Social Issues 2009 People & Social Issues 2010 People & Social Issues 2011 ???? Health/ Environment. Environment could be environment at the canteen, library, during sports day or pollution and etc.

ESSAY WRITING SECTION A

CRITERIA THAT FIT AN ESSAY INTO THE A BAND

1 - IDEAS
Adequate Well - developed Well - organised Well - linked Own elaboration

When develop your ideas remember to .

Use the wh questions When time Where place Who the person / character involve How ... The process of the event What .. The event / incident

Also remember to use all the senses

y Sense of touching y Sense of hearing y Sense of seeing y Sense of tasting y Sense of smelling y Sense of feeling

2 -VARIED STRUCTURES

Simple sentences Compound sentences Complex sentences Active / Passive Construction

PRECISE AND WIDE VOCABULARY

AVOID

Repeated words Repeated phrases Repeated sentences

Correct and Consistent usage of: Tenses Articles Prepositions SubjectSubject-Verb Agreement Spellings Punctuations Modals

4 - ERROR FREE

5 - GOOD EXPRESSIONS
y Idioms y Proverbs y Similes y Phrases y Phrasal verbs

Tips in writing essays Understand the task given a. Study the pictures carefully. Imagine you are one of the people in the picture. Describe what happened. Basically understand the situation stated in the question. b. Look at the task at hand. Write a speech / Write an article. Do look at the structures wanted... for example: persuade your uncle. c. Determine the tenses/ time for the task. If it is an article recount Past tense/ time

Use the rubrics in their given form. e. g. Shopping many people curious- crowd watching snake charmer saw pick pocket wallet Use all the notes given in the question. Always write in paragraphs to organize your ideas. (Main point, elaboration, examples) Use linkers to correlate one paragraph to the other. e.g. To show difference - On the other hand, In contrast, On the contrary, However, Despite, To add to point - In addition, Besides, As a result, Similarly,