The essay paper asks for a form: article, speech, letter, story or argument. The form decides the voice. The paragraphs decide whether a marker can follow you.
The idea
Underline the form and the audience before you plan. A speech to a parent association sounds different from a story about a journey, and different again from an article in a national newspaper. The opening should tell that audience why you are speaking. The middle should develop two or three points, each in its own paragraph, with an example rather than a repeated slogan. The close should do something: a decision, a request, or the last beat of a story. It should not start a new point.
Expression is the English itself. Vary the sentences. Prefer a concrete noun to a pile of adjectives. Keep tense steady unless time in the story actually shifts. Mechanical accuracy is spelling, agreement and punctuation, and it is marked separately from good ideas. A true and relevant essay in one unbroken block loses organisation even when the ideas are strong. Plan five minutes. Write. Leave time to read once for the errors you know you make.
Short annotated examples of a formal letter, an informal letter, an article, a speech, a report and a story are on the formats guide. WASSCE essay and letter formats
What earns the marks
The practice question below uses a small scheme so the three demands are visible: content, organisation, expression. A full paper essay is longer and is also marked on mechanical accuracy. Here, content means you answered the task that was set. A beautiful piece on a different subject scores little. Organisation means paragraphs with jobs. Expression means a reader who has not met you can follow every sentence.
Practice questions
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
1Question 1
9 marks
Write three paragraphs of an article for a national newspaper on why senior high schools should keep libraries open after classes. This practice piece is marked out of 9. (9 marks)
Model answer
A library that closes when the bell rings is a locked answer. Many students go home to rooms where there is no quiet and no reference book, so the hour after class is when the library earns its name.
Supervision is a real cost, and so is light. Those costs are smaller than the cost of sending a year group into an examination with nowhere to read. A teacher on a rota, or a prefect with a clear brief, is enough to keep the room open for one more hour.
Open the doors. Publish the hour on the notice board. The students who use it will arrive at the paper having read, not only having hoped.
Mark scheme
Content: the article is about after class library access, with at least one reason and one practical note3 marks
Organisation: three paragraphs with an opening, a development and a close3 marks
Expression: the voice could appear in a newspaper, and the sentences are clear3 marks
2Question 2
2 marks
Name two ways a speech to parents differs from a story about a school trip. (2 marks)
Model answer
A speech addresses the parents directly and asks them to think or to act. A story follows events in time and does not have to persuade.
Mark scheme
Direct address, or a persuasive purpose, for the speech1 mark
Narrative order, or characters and events, for the story1 mark
3Question 3
2 marks
Why does one long paragraph cost organisation marks? (2 marks)
Model answer
The marker cannot see where one point ends and the next begins. Organisation is the shape, and a single block hides it.
Mark scheme
Points are not separated1 mark
The essay has no visible shape or progression1 mark
Practise English Language with Anna
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Content, organisation, expression and mechanical accuracy. Content is whether you did the task. Organisation is paragraphs in a sensible order. Expression is clear English for the audience you were given. Accuracy is spelling, agreement and punctuation.
Should I plan before I write?+
Yes. A short plan names the form, the audience and the points, in order. It stops you repeating one idea and forgetting the task. Leave time at the end to correct the errors you know you make. All WASSCE English Language past questions