iGCSE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TRANSACTIONAL WRITING
To provide students and teachers with greater clarity, we added a list of the text types that students will
be asked to write for Section B of Paper 2, transactional writing to the issue 5 specification for first
teaching from September 2022.
Remember that 40% of the marks that are available in this section are for SPaG. Punctuation needs to be
accurate and controlled. To earn more marks you need to use and manipulate punctuation for effect.
These are:
• Article – include a title that draws attention- alliteration is effective for this; formulate your title
carefully – it needs to draw attention. Some factors to consider when deciding on a title are –
i) Include a promise for change
ii) Use the word ‘guide’
iii) Make a bold statement
iv) Be controversial
v) Start with ‘why’
Consider if there is an appropriate idiom:
Come Rain Or Shine
Throwing Caution to the Wind
Calm Before the Storm
Better Late than Never
A Picture of Health
Flying Colours
Make the Grade
Waste Not, Want Not
Once in a Blue Moon
opening paragraph- rhetorical questions; develop ideas in 2 strong paragraphs and conclude with
rhetorical questions
• Letter – it may be formal or informal; Students may include:
, • An appropriate opening and closing salutation, according to the formality of the context named in the
question (‘Dear Sir/Madam’ with ‘Yours faithfully’; ‘Dear Ms Prendergast’ with ‘Yours sincerely’) or for
informal/peer audiences (‘Dear Jamal’ with ‘Best wishes, Sam’).
• Other typical formulations such as ‘I look forward to hearing from you’ for letters of application or
requests for action from a headteacher, for example.
• Effectively/fluently sequenced paragraphs.
• A date as this is a usual feature of a handwritten letter.
Not required: • Addresses of sender or recipient • Any special layout with addresses.
Write a letter to the website in response to the ideas in the article.
In your letter, you should:
• evaluate the different arguments given in the article
• explain how far you agree or disagree with the views in the article about the dangers and the benefits of time
spent by young people in front of a screen.
Base your letter on what you have read in the article, but be careful to use your own words. Address each of the
bullet points.
Begin your letter, ‘Dear Digital Trends
’Responses might use the following ideas:
some ideas from the passage/possible evaluation points
• adults are equally guilty of overusing screens / perhaps children should have a better example set
• screens are vital tools of modern life, not just for entertainment / children need to learn how to use them
• around 6.5 hours seems standard for modern culture / both the UK and US have similar rates
• the 2 hour recommendation is 25 years old / the world has changed drastically since then
• the recommendation is for entertainment on screen only / screen time for other uses is much more widespread
and more
necessary than it used to be
• the ‘square eyes’ reference suggests that such concerns have been expressed for years
• there are health implications for excessive screen time – obesity, sleep, language development
• the ‘wrong kinds of media’ create serious problems / responsible adults can mitigate these, however
TRANSACTIONAL WRITING
To provide students and teachers with greater clarity, we added a list of the text types that students will
be asked to write for Section B of Paper 2, transactional writing to the issue 5 specification for first
teaching from September 2022.
Remember that 40% of the marks that are available in this section are for SPaG. Punctuation needs to be
accurate and controlled. To earn more marks you need to use and manipulate punctuation for effect.
These are:
• Article – include a title that draws attention- alliteration is effective for this; formulate your title
carefully – it needs to draw attention. Some factors to consider when deciding on a title are –
i) Include a promise for change
ii) Use the word ‘guide’
iii) Make a bold statement
iv) Be controversial
v) Start with ‘why’
Consider if there is an appropriate idiom:
Come Rain Or Shine
Throwing Caution to the Wind
Calm Before the Storm
Better Late than Never
A Picture of Health
Flying Colours
Make the Grade
Waste Not, Want Not
Once in a Blue Moon
opening paragraph- rhetorical questions; develop ideas in 2 strong paragraphs and conclude with
rhetorical questions
• Letter – it may be formal or informal; Students may include:
, • An appropriate opening and closing salutation, according to the formality of the context named in the
question (‘Dear Sir/Madam’ with ‘Yours faithfully’; ‘Dear Ms Prendergast’ with ‘Yours sincerely’) or for
informal/peer audiences (‘Dear Jamal’ with ‘Best wishes, Sam’).
• Other typical formulations such as ‘I look forward to hearing from you’ for letters of application or
requests for action from a headteacher, for example.
• Effectively/fluently sequenced paragraphs.
• A date as this is a usual feature of a handwritten letter.
Not required: • Addresses of sender or recipient • Any special layout with addresses.
Write a letter to the website in response to the ideas in the article.
In your letter, you should:
• evaluate the different arguments given in the article
• explain how far you agree or disagree with the views in the article about the dangers and the benefits of time
spent by young people in front of a screen.
Base your letter on what you have read in the article, but be careful to use your own words. Address each of the
bullet points.
Begin your letter, ‘Dear Digital Trends
’Responses might use the following ideas:
some ideas from the passage/possible evaluation points
• adults are equally guilty of overusing screens / perhaps children should have a better example set
• screens are vital tools of modern life, not just for entertainment / children need to learn how to use them
• around 6.5 hours seems standard for modern culture / both the UK and US have similar rates
• the 2 hour recommendation is 25 years old / the world has changed drastically since then
• the recommendation is for entertainment on screen only / screen time for other uses is much more widespread
and more
necessary than it used to be
• the ‘square eyes’ reference suggests that such concerns have been expressed for years
• there are health implications for excessive screen time – obesity, sleep, language development
• the ‘wrong kinds of media’ create serious problems / responsible adults can mitigate these, however
