25 minutes 250 words

1. 25 minutes 250 words You have just been discriminated against. Write an article in which you argue discrimination is still rife in District Six. Words and Ideas from Nothing’s Changed: ‘cans trodden on’ ‘No sign says it is: But we know where we belong’ ‘guards at the gatepost’ ‘plastic table top’ ‘Nothing’s Changed’ INCLUDE: INDIGNANT (The feeling or showing of anger or annoyance at what is perceived as unfair treatment) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

2. 25 minutes 250 words You are in a plane. Describe the view. Words and Ideas from Stewart Island: ‘True: there was a fine bay’ ‘I had already decided to leave this country’ ‘But look at all this beauty’ ‘a mad seagull jetted down’ INCLUDE: PICTURESQUE (A visually attractive place or building, especially in a quaint or charming way) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

3. 25 minutes 250 words You receive the gift of a sari which reminds you of home. Describe how you feel. Words and Ideas from Presents from my aunt in Pakistan: ‘glistening like an orange split open’ ‘I could never be as lovely as those clothes’ ‘My salwarkameez didn’t impress the schoolfriend’ ‘of no fixed nationality’ ‘My costume clung to me’ • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary. INCLUDE: INCONGROUS (lacking in harmony, incompatible)

4. 25 minutes 250 words You have been caught in a hurricane in England. Write a letter to your family back in the Caribbean informing them of this. Words and Ideas from Hurricane Hits England: ‘It took a hurricane to bring her closer to the landscape.’ ‘Fearful and reassuring’ ‘Tell me why you visit an English coast?’ ‘I am aligning myself to you’ ‘That the earth is the earth is the earth’ INCLUDE: NEFARIOUS (Extremely wicked or villainous) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

5. 25 minutes 250 words You are a travel journalist. Write a travelogue on your visit to London for a magazine. Words and Ideas from London: ‘I wander thro’ each charter’d street’ ‘And mark in every face I meet / Marks of weakness, marks of woe.’ ‘The mind-forg’d manacles I hear’ ‘Every black’ning Church appals’ INCLUDE: DISENCHANTED (Disappointed by something previously respected or admired) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

6. 25 minutes 250 words You have just visited Westminster Bridge. Write a persuasive speech encouraging others to visit. Words and Ideas from Composed Upon Westminster Bridge: ‘Earth has not anything to show more fair’ ‘This City now doth, like a garment, wear / The beauty of the morning.’ Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! ‘the very houses seem asleep’ INCLUDE: ENDEARING (A likeable quality) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

7. 25 minutes 250 words You are a writer. Write a review of the most recent holiday you have been on. Words and Ideas from Postcards from a Travel Snob ‘This place is not a holiday resort with karoke nights and pints of beer’ ‘not like your seaside-town-consumer hell’ ‘I’m not your sun-and-sangria-two-weeks-small-minded-philistine’ ‘When you’re as multi-cultural as me’ INCLUDE: • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

8. 25 minutes 250 words Write a letter to your lost loved one explaining how you feel upon returning to what was you favourite place Words and Ideas from Absence ‘Nothing was changed’ ‘There was no sign that anything had ended’ ‘Surely in these pleasures there could not be a pain to bear’ ‘It was because the place was the same that made your absence seem a savage force’ • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary. INCLUDE: MELANCHOLY (a feeling of pensive sadness)

9. 25 minutes 250 words You are sat on the park bench. Describe the autumnal scene. Words and Ideas from To Autumn: ‘Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ ‘Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun’ ‘And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core’ ‘Until they think warm days will never cease’ INCLUDE: FORTITUDE (Courage in pain or adversity) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

10. 25 minutes 250 words You work for a train company. Write a report advising on how to improve the station. Words and Ideas from Adlestrop: ‘The steam hissed’ ‘No one left and no one came on the bare platform’ ‘And willows, willow-herb, and grass’ ‘And for that minute a blackbird sang’ ‘What I saw – was Adlestrop’ INCLUDE: ENHANCEMENTS (An increase or improvement in quality) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

11. 25 minutes 250 words Write a newspaper report informing the readers about the conditions of the marshland in Romney. Words and Ideas from In Romney Marsh: ‘As I went down to Dymchurch Wall’ ‘A veil of purple vapour flowed’ ‘I saw above the Downs’ low crest / The crimson brands of sunset fall’ ‘The stars in one great shower came down; / Shrill blew the wind; and shrill the wire / Rang out from Hythe to Romney town’ INCLUDE: MEANDERED (Wandered at random) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

12. 25 minutes 250 words Write a diary entry reflecting upon your return to ‘where the picnic was’ Words and Ideas from Where the picnic was ‘Where we made the fire’ ‘Now a cold wind blows’ ‘Yes, I am here / Just as last year’ ‘Up hither, the same / As when we four came’ ‘And one – has shut her eyes / for evermore. INCLUDE: REMINISCIENT (Tending to remind one of something) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

13. 25 minutes 250 words Write a monologue in which you aim to convince someone that you have really been down to the beach even though you’ve never seen it with your own eyes. Words and Ideas from ‘I Started Early – Took my Dog’ ‘But no Man moved Me – till the Tide / Went past my simple Shoe’ ‘And made as He would eat me up –’ ‘And He – He followed – close behind’ And bowing – with a Mighty look - / At me – The Sea withdrew’ INCLUDE: DELUSIONAL (To have a faulty judgement) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

14. 25 minutes 250 words Write a letter to a friend, explaining to them how much you miss home and why. Words and Ideas from Home Thoughts from Abroad ‘Oh, to be in England / Now that April’s there’ ‘While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough / In England – now!’ ‘And though the fields look rough with hoary dew / All will be gay when noontide wakes anew / The buttercups, the little children’s dower / - Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!’ INCLUDE: YEARNING (A feeling of intense longing for something) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.

15. 25 minutes 250 words Write a review of your in-flight experience whilst travelling with this airline. Words and Ideas from First Flight: ‘A sudden swiftness, earth slithers / Off at an angle’ ‘Familiar England, motorways, reservoir, / Building sites’ ‘My last trip was Beijing’ ‘At this height nothing lives. Too cold. Too near the sun.’ ‘Plane moves. I don’t like the feel of it.’ INCLUDE: DISQUIETITUDE (A state of uneasiness or anxiety) • Reminder for technical accuracy • Remember to paragraph your work. • Use full stops and capital letters. • Try to use ambitious vocabulary.