Fix form, audience, purpose, register first
Every directed task sets four things to fix before drafting: FORM (letter, article, speech, report), AUDIENCE (who reads, and who you write AS), PURPOSE (persuade, inform, advise, complain), and REGISTER (how formal). They interact: a speech to peers needs direct address AND a confident, semi-formal tone, not slang; a formal letter to an editor needs different vocabulary from a note to a friend. Decide all four before drafting, then check every paragraph matches.
Each form has visible conventions to signal
Examiners expect the FORM to be visibly signalled, through natural detail, not box-ticking. A letter needs an opening ("Dear...") and a sign-off ("Yours sincerely" for a named reader, "Yours faithfully" for "Dear Sir/Madam"). An article needs a title and a hook. A speech needs direct address and a memorable close, because it is HEARD. A report needs a heading, organised sections and an impersonal register. Match the convention to the task, not a generic template.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Colloquial register slips (gonna, you guys)
Casual, spoken language leaks into a task needing a formal or semi-formal register — "gonna", "kinda", "you guys" in an article or letter to a general or official reader. Slang signals you have misjudged your reader and undermines an otherwise strong argument. Compare "We're gonna have to do something, guys" with "Unless residents act now, the situation will only worsen."
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): register slipping into colloquial/spoken forms ("gonna", "kinda", "you guys") inappropriate to the specified article/letter is a recurring fault.
Writing as the wrong persona
Tasks often specify WHO you write as — a concerned family member, a resident, a student rep — not just the form. A recurring fault is writing from the wrong role: as an official when the task set a family member writing TO one. This inverts the purpose and tone, so relevant content no longer answers the task. Before drafting, name your persona and reader.
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): misreading the specified persona/role (writing as a programme director rather than a family member) is a recurring fault.
Generic essay prose, not the named form
A related fault is not adopting the form's voice at all — writing generic third-person prose about the topic instead of a genuine letter, article or speech FROM the persona TO the audience. The content may be relevant, but if it reads like a general essay rather than the named form, it fails the form requirement. Write in the form and voice the task names.
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): defaulting to generic third-person prose instead of the required letter/article form is a recurring fault.
Summary-of-the-source tone
Some responses read like a summary or report ABOUT the two source texts, rather than a letter, article or speech in the persona's voice, addressed to the audience. The task requires transforming the ideas into a new form and voice, not restructuring what the sources said. If your sentences describe what the texts argue, you have summarised, not transformed.
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): a "summary of the reading material" tone instead of adopting the voice and address of the form and audience is a recurring fault.
Text A/Text B labels leaking in
Writing "as Text A explains..." or "in Text B..." inside the response is a register failure — the audience of a letter, article or speech would never see a "Text A" label; those belong only to the exam paper. Attribute nothing to a labelled source; put the ideas straight into the persona's own voice.
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): "Text A/Text B" labels leaking into the response are named as an inappropriate register for the audience.
Missing sign-off or padded address
Small but visible form lapses cost marks: no sign-off ("Yours sincerely"/"Yours faithfully"), no closing line in a speech, or no title on an article. The reverse is over-engineering — a full postal address on an exam letter reads as padding. Signal the form with the conventions that matter, and skip the ones that do not.
Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1, all variants): minor form lapses — an unnecessary full postal address on a letter, or a missing sign-off — are named as recurring faults.
Copying the source texts' register
A misconception is that the response's register should mirror the two source texts — if they are semi-formal, so is the response. Wrong: the task sets its OWN form, audience and purpose, which may differ. Two formal news texts can underpin an informal letter to a friend, or a speech to peers. Set register from the response's own form and audience, not the sources' style.
Grounded in Digest 2.2 (s23 Paper 2 Q1): a "summary of the reading material" tone and source-text labels leaking in are recurring faults; the misconception is that the sources' register carries over rather than being reset for the task.
Underline the form; name persona and reader
Underline the exact form word in the task (letter, article, speech, report). Then identify who you are writing AS (the persona, if given) and who you are writing TO (the reader). This pair decides your register before you draft a single line.
Set register from audience and purpose
Choose formality from the audience-plus-purpose combination, never from how you would speak to a friend and never from the source texts' own tone. A persuasive speech to peers is semi-formal, not casual; a report to a head teacher is impersonal and organised.
Transform into the persona's voice
Say to yourself: "I am [persona], writing a [form], to [audience], to [purpose]." Hold that sentence through every paragraph. If a sentence reads like a summary of the source texts, rewrite it in the persona's own voice, addressed directly to the reader.
Proofread: sign-off in, Text A/B out
Finish with the form's expected close — a letter's sign-off, a speech's memorable final line, or an article's concluding thought. Then remove any "Text A"/"Text B" labels and any unnecessary full postal address before you stop.
This is Writing objective W4: writing in the required form, for the specified audience and purpose, in an appropriate register, sustained across the whole response. It is assessed on Paper 2 Section A Question 1, the 40-mark directed-writing task, where you use ideas from two source texts to write a letter, article, speech or report. Register and form control sits within the Writing strand of the mark scheme (worth 25 of the 40 marks), alongside structure and accuracy — so getting this right protects a large share of the available marks.
What FOUR things should you fix before drafting a directed-writing response?
