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CIE IGCSE English Language Your notes

Rewriting
Contents
Register & Tone

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Register & Tone

Your notes
Rewriting a Text
This is where your Question tool from your Critical Reading Tools comes in handy, so you can
ask: who, what, where, when, why:
Who are you writing as?
So what Role are you taking on
What are you writing about?
What are the key facts from the text and what is the purpose of the writing?
Where has it taken place?
Imagine yourself in the scene.
When did it happen?
If it’s not clear, then you can always make that part up!
Why is this being written?
Who will be reading this and what sort of audience are you writing for?
How should you format your answer?
What form should your writing be in? It will tell you in the question so make sure you layout the answer
correctly.

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Role
You need to take on someone’s else’s persona for this question; you’re not writing as yourself.You’re Your notes
taking on a role, so you need to step into their shoes and write as them; the question will tell you who
the persona is (usually a journalist or a person mentioned in Text C). So when you start writing your
answer, ask yourself:

”
How would she/he answer the question?

What is the character like? Are there any clues from the text to say whether
they are conservative or informal?
What is their writing style? Are they quite formal, or is their writing more conversational and
relaxed?
Although you’re writing as the character, make sure you use your
own words. Don’t use any phrases from the text in your answer as
you’ll lose marks for that.It might be helpful for you to imagine who
these people are – give them an age and name, even if it doesn’t
state that in the text, so that when you’re asked to reflect on their
thoughts or feelings, they seem more like a real person to you. It’ll
then make it much easier to invent a voice for them.

Exam Tip
Be concise! Although you’re taking on a persona, this isn’t a creative writing task. Don’t confuse it
with any of your descriptive or narrative writing skills with this. You only have 250-350 words, so
stay focused on the task directed by the question.

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Facts and Purpose

Now you know who you’re writing as, take them with you on a fact-finding mission through the text. Your notes
Look for the cold-hard facts in the text and
highlight or underline them. Referring to the
facts is important, as you’ll be graded on your
understanding of the text.Then look further into
the purpose of the writing. Read between the
lines and pick up on any inferences to find out
what people thought and felt about whatever’s
happened. Use your other Critical Reading
Tools to find out what emotions are there, so
you can get the tone of your writing right and use
the correct connotations in your language.

Where and When

Think about where this has taken place. The location
might be specified, in which case use your skills from
the Setting part of the writing exam to make sure you
include enough detail about it. If the location isn’t
specified, then you can just make it up! Likewise with
the time; The text might specify whether this
happened at day or night, or a particular time of year.
But if not, you can elaborate on that for some extra
detail.For instance, if you’re writing as a Head Teacher
at the end of year assembly, you know that’s likely to
be summer – so you can perhaps mention the heat. It
will make your answer original and give it some personality. It also makes the writing
more interesting, which will always work in your favour to get extra marks from the examiner.

Why
So why are you (as the character) writing this? Who is going to be reading it? Keep your audience in
mind by imagining the person reading on the other side. That should help keep
your register and tone correct and consistent.

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Form
You’ll be asked to write in one of the following forms: Your notes
News report
Magazine article
Formal letter
Formal report
Interview
Journal entry
Speech script
Make sure your answer is laid out on the
page correctly and you adapt your language to suit,
to make sure the level of formality is
appropriate.Remember you can make up some extra
details, like ages and names, which sometimes helps
emphasise the form. For example, When a newspaper
article refers to a person they usually add their name,
so: “Joe Ball, 19, from London says…”. Adding those
small details makes your writing sound more
authentic, as that’s how a journalist would write.

Exam Tip
Although this is a reading paper, almost half the marks for this question is for your writing. So
remember your SPAG! (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)

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