Balance your act to pass examinations

LEARNERS need to know how speeches are written. Speeches are designed to be spoken. However, there are times when you have to write down the text for a speech. Make sure you write in a style that would sound good to a room full of listeners. The tone might be formal or informal depending on your audience. Tone — is an attitude of a writer toward a subject or an audience. This is conveyed through the choice of words.

You should include some rhetorical devices to involve your audience as well as keep things interesting. A rhetorical question requires no answer — the answer should be obvious from the text. This trick is used by writers all the time. Leaving the readers to put the answer together themselves is a great way of making them agree with you. We are told speeches should have a clear structure. Start with a summary of what you are going to talk about to introduce the topic. When you have finished the main part of the talk, finish with another summary to remind the audience of what they have just been told.

Always make your writing organised and interesting. Examiners obviously look for how well you organise and communicate the information and the quality of your writing. Quality matters more than quantity in writing. This means you need to structure your writing using paragraphs and well-connected sentences. On top of this, always write in a way that will interest your readers. We have already said the tone should be formal, but formal is not the same as boring and informal does not mean disordered.

Above all, try to come up with a piece of writing you would enjoy reading, something that would be interesting and engaging for your readers. Learners are reminded to keep in mind who they are writing for. They should think carefully about who their audience is. The question they should bear in mind is: “Who are you writing for?” You will usually be given some idea of who your audience is, but you might need to decide on the details for yourself.

Some possibilities are: if you are writing a letter to your local leadership, like a Member of Parliament, present your ideas clearly and formally. You can be a bit more laid back with your friends, but do not overdo it. If the question asks you to write to a friend, do not write too casually. You can sound garrulous but make sure you still include a range of sentences and vocabulary. Being sarcastic or humorous can help you write to a friend without writing too simply.

Learners note that writing of letters is a requirement in the O-level examinations. You need to fully concentrate when different types of letters are done in class. Know the different styles of writing the less, starting from the simplest, that is the friendly letter to the business letter. Study the layouts of formal or business letters and personal letters. Learners and teachers tend to follow the pattern set by the examination board, the more they get questions on report writing other types of situational essays are ignored only to be reminded when other types appear in the examinations with disastrous results.

Cover all types of the essays. You can find proverbs (as topics) in the free compositions section. You need to understand the proverb first, then create a story that gives practical advice about life as meant by the proverb. Remember there is the picture composition as well. Learners need to know how to go about this. Note that different stories can be written about the same picture or pictures. You narrate the full story represented by the pictures. Do not describe the picture itself.

Remember your story should have a title even if it is based on pictures or else it will not make sense to the reader. Identify characters and places to give your essay life. On reports based on notes make sure you expand on them. Do not just regurgitate (repeat information) without analysing or comprehending it. At times the points to use in such an essay are arranged in chronological order and you follow that order. This is the easier type, but, be careful as at times the points come in muddled fashion and you have to arrange them first before you present your write up.

In addition to pictures, some situational compositions come in the form of a map. Like this question I came across in one of the O-level English Language textbooks where learners took part in a Geography field trip to a certain service centre and surrounding areas. During the visit learners drew a simple map of the area which showed the main features of the centre and its surrounds. Using the map as a guideline, they were asked to give a detailed and interesting account of their visit and what they learnt about the area.

Thereafter, learners were given the following subheadings to use as a framework for their account: arrangements for and purpose of visit; major services available at the centre; main activities of the population; description of surrounding areas and general comment on the success and interest of the visit. Note that this is just a sample of a question based on a map. Questions come in various forms and never make this a template of the questions which might come later.

Additional information on the writing of the different types of compositions will come in future articles. Learners need to get a lot of practice in all the types of essays starting from the free essays to the guided or situational ones. Above all, balance all the parts of the syllabus including comprehension so as to achieve decent marks in the English Language examinations. Concentration on one part of the examination at the expense of others produces mediocre answers leading to low grades.

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