A Useful Guide For SPM English Essay Extended Writing (a.k.a Continuous Writing)
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So, you’re sitting for SPM soon, and English is one of the papers you need help with. Whether it is for the SPM extended writing (continuous writing) essay or other sections of the paper, don’t fret - we go into detail about the SPM English Essay so you will know what to expect before you sit for it!
But first, let us introduce the entire SPM English Writing Paper format. The SPM English essay writing paper consists of three parts: Part 1 ( Short Communicative Message) , Part 2 ( Guided Writing), and Part 3 ( Extended Writing Task).
To summarise the format, each section is worth 20 marks, and you are given 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the paper. You can also view the complete structure by clicking here !
The SPM Extended Writing (Continuous Writing) Essay Format
To help you get started, let’s look at the structure of the Part 3 essay:
Wordcount: 200 to 250 words
Suggested time: 40 minutes
You will be given a choice of the following tasks: article, report, review, or story.
You must answer only one task in this part.
Let’s look at a sample of the SPM extended writing (continuous writing) essay from the SPM trials in 2021. We’ll use this sample question as an example throughout this article, so follow along!
Based on the given questions above, the writing formats in this section consist of an article, review, and story. You must choose one of the three tasks and use the guided questions to help you write your essay.
Tips And Tricks To Write The SPM Extended Writing (Continuous Writing) Essay
Choosing the right question for your essay can be daunting, so don’t panic! We’ll guide you through our easy-to-follow tips to help you start writing your essay.
Tip 1: Read the questions carefully
As this is an SPM extended writing essay, you must be clear about each task and read the questions carefully. It is essential to take note of the writing format as it varies for each task.
You could also highlight the main key points in each question. At this stage, you might have an early idea of which topic and format you would like to write for your essay.
Tip 2: Outline your ideas
The next step is to choose the question you feel most confident writing an essay for. You could also consider the writing format and ensure you have sufficient points and elaborations to help you get started. Here’s how:
Identify the writing format for the task
Write your points for each question
Elaborate your points and provide strong reasons and advantages
The next step is to outline your ideas based on the questions in the sample above. For example:
First question: What other types of food would you like to be served?
Serve balanced meals
Offer nutritious options
Second question: What other facilities should your canteen have?
Comfortable seats
Consider seat planning
Third question: How can you improve your canteen?
Promote the ‘No Plastic Bag Campaign’
Bring your own containers from home
Tip 3: Draft your essay
Now that you have some ideas for your essay, it’s time to start drafting! Drafting your essay provides an overview of what your essay would look like.
Like the SPM guided writing essay, the SPM extended writing (continuous writing) essay also shares the same structure: an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Here are the ways to get started:
Introduction
To begin the introduction for your SPM extended writing (continuous writing) essay, you could include background information about the task; refer to the notes and questions. Your opening paragraph should not be longer than two to three sentences.
To write the body paragraphs, you need to address the questions given. You can separate the questions into separate paragraphs. Here’s how:
Body paragraph 1: List the type of food you like to be served at the canteen and provide your reasons
Body paragraph 2: Suggest other facilities you would like to have at the canteen
Body paragraph 3: Propose a solution to improve your canteen
To conclude your article, summarise the main points you have identified. Similar to the introduction, keep your conclusion two to three sentences long.
Tip 4: Write Your SPM Extended Writing (Continuous Writing) Essay
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Now, it’s time to write your essay!
Another helpful tip: If you encounter any problems elaborating your points, you can use the PEEC framework, which stands for P(point), E(explanation), E(example), and C(conclusion). It helps to expand your points and make your essay exciting and well-structured! We’ve covered the PEEC framework in more detail, so click here to find out more!
Here’s an example:
● Point: The school canteen should serve balanced meals to the students.
● Explanation: It encourages students to eat a balanced diet that helps them improve their memory and development.
● Example: The school canteen should also offer nutritious food options like fresh fruits and healthier snacks on their menu.
● Conclusion: The canteen should implement a healthy eating policy to help the students lead a healthier lifestyle.
Final checklist!
Before you submit your final draft essay, here’s a final checklist you can use:
Make sure you are writing in the correct format.
Don't forget to count and write the total number of words.
Re-read your essay and ensure it’s free from any grammatical and spelling errors.
We’ve used all the steps and tips, and now it’s time to reveal the full sample essay. Check it out below!
The SPM Extended Writing (Continuous Writing) Essay Sample Answer
My School Canteen
A school canteen is the heart of the school and the place where students buy food during recess. Students should have access to a high-quality canteen in the school that provides healthy, quality food and improved facilities.
The school canteen should serve balanced meals to the students. It encourages students to eat a balanced diet to improve their memory. The canteen should offer nutritious food options like fresh fruits and snacks. The canteen should also start a healthy eating policy to help students lead a healthier lifestyle.
The school canteen needs comfortable seats and tables for students to have their break. The students should be able to easily find an available seat at the canteen. The seating should be enough for all students during recess time. It is also important to consider seat planning so it does not take up too much space.
Another way to improve the school canteen is by promoting the “No Plastic Bag” campaign to reduce excessive plastic usage. Students should be encouraged to bring their containers from home. This way, we can lessen plastic and food wastage significantly, and no food will go to waste.
All the above are suggestions to improve and upgrade our school canteen. Every student should have a good experience at the canteen that meets their needs.
(221 words)
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How to prepare an A+ SPM English story essay to memorise
by Tan Le Tian
In previous blog post , I have shared with you how I got A+ in SPM English by memorising 1 story essay. Feel free to read that article first before continue with this 😊
I have also written an ebook with my full ghost story essay I have used for my actual SPM in 2014, and and show examples on answering different titles with the essay. 😍
Since then, I received a lot of questions on how to prepare a good story essay to memorise, and how to link it to different titles. 😝
This article will try to address all of them. So please keep reading.😋
Preparing your own unique story essay
Firstly, it is not advisable for anyone to memorise others' essay directly.
Because if two students (in same region) are discovered to use the EXACT SAME ESSAY, both their marks will be penalised by examiners.
So it would be best to write your own essay to memorise.
But if you find it difficult to write your own essay, one way to prepare a unique A+ story essay is by modifying a model essay to become your own. (at least half of it should be different, to be safe)
And don't share your essay with friends haha 🤭, my teacher has warned me back then.
For good model essay, perhaps you can get from seniors who have scored well in exam.
What is the requirement of the story essay?
1. story that brings good moral value.
Any reasonable story are fine, including common ones like car crash, flood, and fire accident.
It does not necessarily need to be a ghost story, like the one I have memorised.
Ideally, the story have to bring a positive Moral Value , because it is one of the grading factor.
For example, in my essay, the main character make a mistake to steal things because of poverty. But in the end, he got punished and learned from his own mistake, and promised himself to never do it again.
2. Avoid sensitive topics in story
Also, your story should be easy to understand and neutral for a wide range of audience (regardless of age, gender, culture, race).
Because your SPM exam scripts will be sent over to other states to be marked by examiners.
You never know who will be assigned to mark your essay. So it is better to play safe and avoid any potentially risky content.
Last year, a student has sent me a story essay about a sad love story between a vampire, a werewolf and a human girl.
I find the story very interesting.
But would the story be something acceptable and understandable to an elderly examiner with age 60 years old and above?
I don't know. So, my suggestion is to avoid sensitive topics like above, and play safe with universally acceptable topics .
For example, another student has sent me a story essay about flood.
It talked about how much parents love their children, and bravely protect them in the disaster.
I would recommend this type of story. Because parents' unconditional love to their children is a universally accepted value among different audiences.
3. Flexibility of the story of essay for linking
I know some people who memorise a few story essays instead of 1 essay and in exam they just use the appropriate essay to answer the exam questions.
For me, I think memorising 1 story essay is already sufficient to link to different titles.
Because I have taken some time to make my story more flexible to different type of title (happy, sad, funny, grateful etc.)
In my story, after "I" got chased by the "ghost" until the dead end in the hospital, anything can happen next.
Depending on requirement of the exam title, the "ghost" can be anything.
For a funny story, the "ghost" can be your friend playing a prank on you.
For a friendship / hero story, your friends may be the hero that protect you from the "ghost".
For a police story, the "ghost" may be a drug addict that has lost his mind. The policeman appear and catch the "ghost" before it has a chance to harm "I".
As you can see, there are endless possibilities and anything can happen in a story.
So when preparing your story essay, do make it more flexible for different titles.
By practice linking the same essay for many different titles, you will become more creative on how the story can lead to different type of endings.
How to improve quality of story essay
Assuming now you have a story essay (by modifying a model essay or writing your own), how to improve it further?
A quick way to improve is to include creative (good) phrases for weathers, emotions and actions of your story.
You can always "copy" and "memorise" those creative phrases / sentences from other good essay, instead of coming out with something on your own.
1. Creative Phrases for Weather
Regardless of your story type, most likely you will talk about the weather to set the mood of your story.
For example, my ghost story happens on a rainy evening (to make it feel creepy).
The simple way to write is:
"Last evening, it was raining heavily..."
But instead, it could be improved with the creative phrases below:
- It was a dark and gloomy evening, the skies were covered with dark clouds. One could easily tell that it would be raining cats and dogs soon.
- Lightning zapped through the skies, brightened my sight for a short moment. I could see the face of the creature as it slowly approaching me with a big evil grin plastered on her cold pale face.
2. Creative Phrases for Emotion
Regardless of the story type, most likely the main characters will experience some kind of emotion (sad, happy, anxious, fear etc.)
As I am writing a ghost story, the primary emotion is fear/anxiety.
The simple ways to write about it is:
"I felt very very scared when the ghost appear..."
Instead, there are better phrases to describe the tense situation:
- Gut-ripping fear flashed down the length of my spine as I heard the incoming footsteps.
- It was a frightening and ghastly sight! My heart was lodged in my throat. My legs turned to lead. My mind convulsed. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to flee, but I remained frozen with tears of fear welling up in my eyes.
If your character are laughing at something foolish, the simple way to describe is:
"They laugh at his foolish action ..."
Instead, it could be enhanced with some creative phrases:
- All of us burst into uproarious laughter.
- Daniel and Danny appeared from the back of the alley while laughing their heads off at my foolish acts.
If a person is very angry, the simple way is:
"He is very very angry..."
Instead, creative phrase could be:
- His face was purple with rage.
3. Creative Phrases for Action
Regardless of your story type, there will be some common actions that the characters will likely do.
When they faced a difficult situation (flood, chased by ghost), they may scream, run or pray for their safety.
Normal way: "I hear someone scream ..."
Creative phrases:
- Out of the blue, a loud scream pierced through the air.
- "Help! Can anybody hear me?" A mighty scream ripped from my throat.
Normal way: "I pray ... "
Creative Phrases:
- I could do nothing except praying to god, hoping to receive a saviour.
Normal way: "I ran away ..."
- I ran helter-skelter out of the nursery room.
4. Ensure the essay is free of grammatical error
As you can see from the examples above, there is plenty of creative phrases you can easily apply to enhance your story essay.
I prefer to memorise those creative phrases / sentences instead of using my own words, because it helps me to reduce grammatical errors.
In a story, past tense is usually used for all the verbs, which means, "ran" should be used instead of "run".
When writing the sentences on my own, sometimes I may forgot change the verb to past tense.
But I won't go wrong by using creative phrases / sentences structure, because they are already grammatically correct.
To ensure your essay is free of grammatical error, it is important to let your teacher check through your essay before you memorise and use it for the exam.
In summary, here are the 3 important points this article aim to emphasise:
- Prepare a unique story essay that has good moral value, no sensitive topic, and flexible to link to different title
- Use more creative phrases for weather, emotion and action in story
- Ensure the essay is free of grammatical error by getting someone to check through
Thank you so much for reading till the end. 😇
Since I published this post 2 years ago, a lot of SPM students have messaged me to help review & improve their story essay 😇
So if you need some suggestion in improving your essay, feel free to message me ya 😊
I will try my best to help and answer any questions 😝
Message me via IG: letian.tan or WeChat: skyletian97 😊
I am aware that the creative phrases and examples provided in this article may be insufficient.
I have provided more examples of creative phrases in the ebook with my full ghost story essay, feel free to check that out on spmpaper.me homepage.
You can also message me and I will send the ebook to you for free ❤️☺️
Thank you once again.
If you like this article, I warmly invite you to share this with your friend 😝
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