CIE 0500 Journal Writing First Language English Techniques

 Hello, there all IGCSE students taking their exams soon😃

In yesterday's blog post, I put a to-do list for journals for that quick last-minute revision before the exam. But I realised that wasn't enough and students might need exemplary answers for Cambridge IGCSE FLE Paper 1 journal writing. 

So this post comes to the rescue when you need the perfect response to a journal writing question. Read on

This blog post will cover:

1. What is Journal Writing?

2. What are the steps taken to attempt the question?

3. What are the techniques for journal writing?

4. How do we take care of GAPSS in writing a journal?

What is Journal Writing? 

Ever written a diary in bed after that fight with a friend, after that nagging by mom or perhaps after that A* at school? If yes, journal writing should be a cakewalk for you🎂. No, trust me, it would be. Just keep reading!

Journals are just more sophisticated ways of writing a diary, albeit with more facts, information, opinions, emotions, feelings and thoughts. Also, journals discuss the order of events that happened in a person's life over some time, along with their reactions to those happenings.

What are the steps taken to attempt the question?

Step 1: Open the Question paper, and read the question for journal writing in Paper 1 Reading.

Step 2: Underline the keywords asked in the question from A1, A2  and A3. 

Step 3: Colour Code or Highlight them with three different colours.

Step 4: Now head to the Reading Booklet Insert and look for the corresponding passage.

Step 5: Highlight the content points with three distinct colours for A1, A2 and A3. 

Step 6: Now, come back to the Question paper (which is also the answer sheet) and start writing the content points in the order of events using journal techniques and style. 

The above process can be summarised into the following sub-steps:

I call this mnemonic  AAESA, for a holistic response to Directed Writing Questions of Paper 1 Reading. 

Annotate the content points in the insert.

Accumulate the content points in a cohesively and concise 

Evaluate the passage for implicit/hidden meanings and ideas.

Synthesise the content points using journal style, reflective tone and other journal techniques.

Add opinions and beliefs putting yourself into the writer's shoes and develop your content points, 

What are the techniques for journal writing?

1. Journals are written from a first-person point of view, so keep using personal pronouns.

2. Journals are written with plenty of emotive and feeling words.

3. Journals have a subjective and candid tone.

4. Journals are written in the chronological order of happenings in the insert.

5. Journals include inner thoughts and feelings too.

6. Journals can use flashbacks or can have a nostalgic tone.

7. Journals can switch tenses as they reflect on the past, write in the present and predict future events.

8. Journals are mostly descriptive, so do not shy away from using figures of speech such as idioms, imagery, simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, etc.

9. Journals can use question tags, rhetorical questions or even hypophora

10. Journals could use a variety of sentences as they allow the writer's train of thoughts to manifest: simple, compound or complex, long, short sentences, etc.

How do we take care of GAPSS in writing a journal?

GAPSS is another mnemonic to remember for a top-scoring answer for any genre, from reports and interviews to journals and letters. It stands for :

Genre:           The kind of writing, such as journal, interview, and reports.

Audience:     The one person or people the text is written or spoken for.

Purpose:        The reason for writing the text. 

Style:             The register and tone of the text.

Speaker:         The person who is writing or speaking the text. 

Take the following example from the May-June series of 0990 Cambridge IGCSE First Language English Paper 2:

Look out for the colour code of the GAPS 

Genre

Audience

Purpose

Style 

Speaker

Question: 

Read Passage A in the insert and answer this question

Imagine you are a zookeeper. Later that evening you write in your journal reflecting on your thoughts and feelings about your life now and how things have changed.

Write your journal

In your journal you should include:

• describe what you have to do each day, why you do it and how that makes you feel

• explain what you have noticed about the boy and his father and your feelings about each of them

• consider how things have changed for you and the world around you since you first started working at the zoo and suggest what you think the future may hold for you.

Base your passage on what you have read in Passage A, but be careful to use your own words. Address each of the three bullet points.

Begin your journal, ‘Today was…’

Write about 250 to 350 words.

In tomorrow's post, I shall be taking a Cambridge IGCSE 0500 FLE past paper for journal writing and writing a sample answer for it. Do not forget to have a quick look at the revision to-do list for journals.

Keep in touch here!

Thanks