Coursework / controlled assessments

How you are assessed on your writing ability depends on your exam board - your teacher will give you all the details. There are two options, the first is coursework which you do at various points during the two years of your GCSE. The other option is a written exam which you do at the end of Year 11. This section is on coursework and is full of hints to help you write the best you can in your coursework assignments. We’ve got tips on how to plan, how to write, how to manage your time, the best ways to check through your work and all this helps you to the grade YOU want to achieve.

If you have coursework to do, your teacher will let you know the important details about it.

Coursework is a great way of assessing your writing ability as you do it in your own time and at your own pace. You can also use resources to complete it; dictionaries, vocab book, grammar book, revision guides. Cheating or getting someone else to do it is definitely not allowed, so don’t even think about it and your teachers always find out in the end! And the best thing about coursework is that it takes some of the pressure off for when it comes to doing the other exams.

To get a decent mark in your coursework you need to be well organised, have a good plan, and make sure you include plenty of sentences that will wow the examiner. We’ll show you how to be imaginative and accurate with your writing so that your coursework gets you the grade you deserve:

Top tip:

“To write a top notch piece of coursework, set yourself goals and mini-deadlines. Split the coursework into small, manageable chunks and keep to your deadlines.”

Tips to write a top notch piece of coursework

  • Know when the deadline is! Don’t leave writing it all until the night before. Remember the best coursework is always begun well in advance of the deadline.
  • Make sure you work in a quiet environment where you can concentrate.

  • Make sure you know what you have to write about - what is the topic in question?

  • Make sure you know what the aim of the coursework is - what is the objective for doing that piece of coursework?
  • Create a mind map before you start writing anything, as this will help you be creative and express your views. It’ll also make sure you don't miss anything out or repeat stuff.
  • Set yourself goals and mini-deadlines. Split the coursework into small, manageable chunks and keep to your deadlines - this will ease any stress the coursework might cause.
  • Use your text book or notes from class to see what essential words and cool phrases you have learnt that you can include in your coursework to jazz it up a bit.
  • Create a plan. Setting out your points in a clear way will make it easier to write without waffling or steering away from actually answering the question.
  • Make sure you check through your work before handing it in. Look out for missing accents, words in the wrong place or nouns in the wrong gender. Swap your work with a friend or use your text book to see if there are any obvious mistakes. You can lose lots of marks through silly spelling mistakes, so it’s really important that you correct any that you see.

The plan

A good plan is essential to producing a well structured piece of coursework. Think of it as a messy first draft - scribble your ideas and work out where best to fit them in.

  • Use headings. A good plan is logical and easy to follow. Remember, just like a good story your coursework needs a beginning, middle and end so set out headings that structure your work and organise what you want to say.
  • In the introduction you could include some relevant, interesting facts but you must say what the theme of your coursework is.
  • The middle paragraphs are where you write your main points and opinions- remember not to waffle.
  • Your conclusion is where everything gets summed up and brought in together.
  • If you’ve got to include certain information/points, tick them off a list as you write them in. This way you won’t accidentally miss things off and kick yourself about it afterwards.

Making your coursework your own

Don’t copy from your friends. Plagiarism (reproducing somebody else’s work and claiming it to be your own) is extremely serious and can lead to no GCSE being awarded. Sources of plagiarism include the internet, books, magazines, computer programmes and friends or family. Copying and pasting from an online translator is as obvious as a fly on a bald head! So don't do it! Discussing your thoughts with friends is a great way to come up with fresh ideas, but when you write them down make sure you do it away from each other and don’t look at each other’s notes, otherwise you could be accused of copying. 

Most importantly, don’t think you’ll get away with it. Teachers can spot people who plagiarise a mile off and it’s not worth doing it to end up with 0 marks. People have very distinctive writing styles so it sticks out if there’s a sudden change. Your teacher also knows your capabilities so may get suspicious if you produce something different to what you usually produce. If you think someone has plagiarised your work, then go to your teacher about it.

Make your work your own and you’ll be really pleased with the results you achieve at the end. At the end of the day, that mark you get is the mark you deserve as it will reflect all the hard work that YOU’VE put in.

Using a dictionary

Handy hint:

“Make sure you read all the definitions and find the one you need. If you want to say 'the ship is sinking' you need to look up the correct 'sink' - not the one you find in the bathroom!”

Being able to use a dictionary correctly will save you loads of time and make sure you find exactly what you're looking for. Use a dictionary to learn new phrases to improve your writing or speaking. Dictionaries are great places to find cool, simple, easy to remember phrases. You can learn new, different ways to give your opinion and say cool idiomatic expressions that’ll definitely impress your examiner - for example, you could find out how to say 'it's raining cats and dogs' in your foreign language. Here are some pointers on making the most of a dictionary:

  • Make sure you know the order of the alphabet. This may sound silly, but by really knowing the order of each letter of the English alphabet and your target language’s alphabet will speed up searching for unknown words in the dictionary. Some languages have more letters than in English, others less and some don’t have K or Y.

  • Make sure you read all the definitions and find the one you need. If you want to say 'the ship is sinking' you need to look up the correct 'sink' - not the one you find in the bathroom!
  • Learn what the abbreviations mean as these tell you what the word is, how to use it in the plural, or how to form it in the gerund (these are '-ing' words) and then you can select the appropriate word for you work:

NF- feminine noun
ADJ - adjective
ADV - adverb
SING - singular noun
PL - plural noun
PP - past participle
INF - infinitive
etc...

Learning grammar and tenses

Learning grammar and the different tenses may seem boring and hard to learn but it is really, really important. But you don't need to spend hours reading through a book or doing verb drills in order to learn it. There are plenty of online websites and games that help you to remember important grammar rules. These are fun, interactive and definitely not a bore.

You could even use google.es/google.fr/google.de/google.it to help with your grammar and tenses. You can use google to help improve your accuracy when writing sentences or paragraphs by typing in your word or phrase and then googling it. The results will show you how native speakers use that verb/word in different situations and you'll be able to see which preposition and which tense are meant to be used with that particular word and whether it should be plural or singular.