Writing: Composition Set 2
Writing: Composition Set 2 is a further set of ISEB Common Entrance style writing tasks, testing descriptive and narrative writing through a new practice task, alongside short questions on vocabulary, sentence construction and punctuation.
Method
- Spend two or three minutes planning before you write, noting the order of ideas or events so your piece has a clear shape.
- Match your writing style to the task: description should build a picture through the senses, while narrative should also move a story forward through events.
- Use fronted adverbials (such as "Slowly," or "Beneath the old bridge,") to vary how sentences begin and to signal time, place or manner.
- Choose ambitious but appropriate vocabulary, avoiding words that are simply long for the sake of it if a simpler, more precise word would work better.
- Organise longer pieces into clear paragraphs, starting a new paragraph for a change in time, place, speaker or focus.
- Reserve the last few minutes to proofread specifically for punctuation, especially commas after fronted adverbials and the punctuation of direct speech.
Worked example
Write one original simile and one original metaphor describing a market at dawn.
- For the simile, choose "like" or "as" and a comparison suited to the slow start of a market waking up, such as a creature stretching.
- Draft the simile: "The market stirred like a sleepy animal, stall by stall coming to life."
- For the metaphor, describe the market directly as something else, without using "like" or "as".
- Draft the metaphor: "The market was a patchwork quilt of colours, stitched together stall by stall."
- Check both sentences are grammatically complete and suit the calm, gradual mood of a market at dawn. Final answer: "The market stirred like a sleepy animal, stall by stall coming to life" (simile) and "The market was a patchwork quilt of colours, stitched together stall by stall" (metaphor).
Practice questions
Type your answer and press Check to be marked straight away, or reveal the answer and mark yourself.
Q1Identify the fronted adverbial in this sentence: "Slowly, the shutters were raised one by one."Show answer
Answer: "Slowly," (a fronted adverbial of manner, placed before the comma at the start of the sentence).
Q2Identify whether this sentence is simple, compound or complex: "Crates of fruit lined the pavement."Show answer
Answer: Simple sentence.
Q3Identify whether this sentence is simple, compound or complex: "A trader called out his prices, and shoppers began to gather."Show answer
Answer: Compound sentence.
Q4Write an expanded noun phrase, using at least two describing words, for "the fruit stall."Show answer
Answer: For example: "the overflowing, brightly coloured fruit stall" (any two well-chosen modifiers).
Q5Rewrite this sentence, replacing the vague capitalised word with a more precise alternative, keeping the meaning: "The market was NOISY."Show answer
Answer: For example: "The market was raucous." (any suitably precise, vivid adjective).
Q6Punctuate this line of speech correctly, adding inverted commas and any other punctuation needed, without changing the words: fresh bread the baker called still warm from the ovenShow answer
Answer: "Fresh bread!" the baker called. "Still warm from the oven."
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a 13+ Common Entrance exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Punctuate this paragraph, adding the missing capital letters, commas and other punctuation: as the sun rose the traders arms were already full of crates he set them down carefully and wiped his brow
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You are going to write the opening of a description of a market coming to life at dawn. In about 60 to 90 words, use the senses to build a clear picture of the scene for the reader.
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State three ways a writer can organise a longer piece of descriptive writing so that it flows clearly.
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Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the writing: composition set 2 worksheet pack - 14 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
This topic is chapter 26 of 13+ English Workbook, the whole course as one free printable PDF.
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