The holiday advice that will get you to the top
To score high in composition writing, your child must read widely. However many children have less and less time to read because of the demands of schoolwork, so we suggest Targeted Reading - reading just a selected type of books – to help with the composition score, especially in the PSLE year.
These books are
1. action-packed
2. and has a compact writing style.
This is one example:
He glared up towards them, his eyes burned from red to purple, from purple to white, from white to fiery whirling black and red, and the cogs inside him ground and screeched, but he could not climb out of the steep-sided pit.
Can you see the many comas in just 1 sentence? Many things are taking place but they are all packed in 1 sentence. Compact, fast-paced – a suitable style to use when writing under pressure, like in examinations. The above was taken from Iron Man by Ted Hughes. Here is another one –
The pilot sat large, his hands lightly on the wheel, feet on the rudder pedals….He turned the wheel left, pushed on the left pedal, and the plane came back around. “It’s easy.” He smiled.
This is from The Hatchet by Gary Paulson and below is from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling.
Mowgli was far and far through the forest, running hard, and his heart was hot in him. He came to the cave as the evening mist rose, and drew breath, and looked down the valley. The cubs were out, but Mother Wolf, at the back of the cave, knew by his breathing that something was troubling her son.
Can you see it? …. So this holiday, head down to any library and ask for award-winning books from the librarian. Select the ones with compact writing style and that are action-packed. These would influence your child’s writing style and help accelerate his composition score – we are 100% sure.
