IGCSE (First Language) Directed Writing Practice 3, November 2017 - [Paper 2 - 40 marks]

 

IGCSE, First Language English. November 2017 Paper31.

Directed writing - 40 marks.

 

An e-reader is a portable electronic device which allows you to download and read books on a screen. The writer of this piece writes cookery books for a living and thinks that people should buy books rather than e-readers.

 

E-readers vs. Books

 

Telephoning just before my birthday last year, my parents suggested I might like an e-reader for a present.

 

They could tell I wasn’t enthusiastic. I muttered something about not needing another expensive gadget to remember to charge up, and wanting to read outside in bright sunlight or by the pool, mostly because I couldn’t find a way to shape my reluctance into words. The conversation was tactfully forgotten. Weeks later, as my twin happily un-wrapped her e-reader, I was greeted by a new pair of gardening gloves.

 

I’ve never used an e-reader and doubt they’d survive being dropped from my flour-covered hands as I tried to follow recipes. I’ve seen them in an over-the-shoulder sort of way – the sleek tablets with intricate book cover designs that materialise on their screens. Part of the reason I’m wary of picking one up is that I don’t want to experience the inevitable lure, the wavering that might begin as I imagine myself pulling an e-reader out of my significantly lighter bag on the train, or in a coffee shop. Like the dieter who drives the long route home to avoid passing the sweetshop, I just don’t want to be tempted.

 

And then there’s my childhood habit of making books into companions. It isn’t just about reading a novel – it’s about my memories linked to my copy of that novel, with its cover wrinkled from hours of bathtub steam. I delight in the cracks on the spine of a book, the scribbled notes on some of the pages, and the sheer presence and number of books on my shelves.

 

‘It’s like this,’ I explained to a friend once. ‘Video-chatting is nice enough – I hear your voice, see your face on the screen. But the screen isn’t you. There’s a reason our friendship isn’t conducted through a laptop.’

 

Books, as I grew up with them (real paper books with jackets, covers and spines), have stories that reach beyond what’s written inside, and those stories are mine.

 

For example, there’s my tattered, second-hand copy of ‘Fahrenheit 451’, signed by its famous author Ray Bradbury when he came to my hometown bookstore. If it weren’t for the signature in that now valuable paperback, I wouldn’t have felt a personal responsibility for books and a connection to their authors that led me to study classic world literature and its influence at university.

 

Then, there’s the advance copy of ‘The United States of Food Critics’, given to me in the first week of an internship by my friendly magazine-boss and read entirely on the subway-train so fellow riders could observe my insider status. If it weren’t for the gift of that book, I wouldn’t have developed the friendship with my boss, a food editor, and that was what made me realise that exploring the place of food in our lives was what I really wanted to do.

 

Books have lives that have changed mine.

 

In eliminating a book’s physical existence, something crucial is lost forever. Trapped in an e-reader, the story remains but the book can no longer be written in, hoarded, burned, donated, recycled, given or received. We may be able to read it, but we can’t share it with others in the same way. Its ability to connect us to people, places and ideas is much less powerful.

 

I know e-readers will eventually carry the day – no more library fines, no more frantic flipping through pages for a lost quotation or going to three bookstores in one afternoon to track down an evasive title. Who am I to advocate the doom of millions of trees, when the swipe of a finger can deliver for less than the price of a coffee all 838 pages of the classic ‘Middlemarch’ into my waiting hands?

 

But once we all power up our e-readers, something will be gone – a kind of language. Books communicate with us as readers – but just as importantly, we communicate with each other through books themselves. When that connection is lost, the experience of reading – and our lives – will be forever altered.

 

Question

 

Write a letter to the writer in response to their article, ‘E-readers vs. Books’.

 

In your letter you should:

 

•        identify and evaluate the writer’s views on e-readers

•        explain how far you agree with the writer that people should buy books rather than e-readers.

 

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 Sir/Madam…’.

 

Write about 250 to 350 words.

 

Suggested responses

 

Responses might use the following ideas:

 

A1 identify and evaluate writer’s views on e-readers

 

Claims not to want one because:

 

•          Costly/expensive (eval: but the cost of reading books long-term is less expensive)

 

•          Unnecessary gadget (eval : waste of energy and resources / part of evolutionary process now to move away from print. Should be accepting/benefitting from new technology not resisting it / gadgets break / third paragraph - betrays a desire or appreciation of the experience as a ‘lure’)

 

•          Practicalities of use – can’t see screen in full sunlight, use safely by water or in bath, have to be charged ( eval: Modern e-readers have adapted in these ways)

•          Bad for you/your health in some way – compares to sweets implying pleasurable but best avoided/resisted

•          Will take over from books and alter the experience of reading (eval: not important how you read, should just encourage people to read so text is not lost – both forms valid. The deliberate avoidance of even trying them out is disingenuous)

 

Admits attractions include:

 

•        Portable – light when travelling (eval: one device can carry numerous e-books)

 

•          Immediate access – books/cover designs materialise on screen (eval: ease, awe of writer evident) easy to search for quotations or certain titles

•          Visual appearance – sleek, digital illustrations (eval: status/fashion symbol in coffee shop/negatively, it may be used to show off, rather than to read)

 

Evaluation at higher levels may include teasing out just how unconvinced the writer is of their own arguments against e-readers e.g. admits tempted

 

A2 how far you agree that people should buy books rather than e-readers

 

Discussion may include consideration of claims made in relation to books:

 

•          Keepsakes – sentimental value/memories/reminders of moments in time (eval: helps keep those memories alive through seeing the book on the shelf, survives frequent use, can even gain monetary value in some cases e.g. first editions/signed copies but also present a storage problem)

 

•          Books change lives – (eval: over-romanticised claims by writer/can be inspired/converted/influenced by physical copies of books in a way not possible electronically – more powerful than just the stories themselves e.g. author can’t sign an e-book/other people can’t see what you are reading/the author’s signature is not the book itself, more a symbol of snobbery)

 

•          Cultural/social significance – as made of paper can have jottings from previous readings/readers on them, can be burned as protest/symbolic act, can be wrapped and presented as a gift (eval: wider, cultural importance, symbolic, records in themselves)

 

•          Can share real books e.g. can lend/donate books for others to read, can discover in second-hand book-sales / borrow from libraries (eval: recyclable / can be part of another person’s experience of reading the book, but technological adaptations are inevitable)

 

•          Accessibility/flexibility Can read books anywhere, anytime e.g. books better for those who like relaxing in /near water- bath/on beach - can’t run out of charge; book is a cheaper present than an E-reader – would only buy an E-reader as a significant present e.g. for close family member and would buy only once. Can buy books for a range for people at a range of prices and on more than one occasion – may also argue e-versions of books can be cheaper

 

 

Marking Criteria

 

The discriminator is the evaluation and teasing out of the essential elements of the arguments/inconsistencies, which requires candidates to show judgment in selecting sensible from over-sentimental and/or biased opinion and anecdote, draw inferences and arrive at their own conclusions. Ideas and opinions must be derived from the passage, developing its claims and assessing their implications with clear and persuasive arguments.

·         Gives a thorough, perceptive, convincing response.

·         Reads effectively between the lines.

·         Shows understanding by developing much of the reading material and assimilating it into a response to the task.

·         Consistent sense of audience; authoritative and appropriate style.

·         Fluent, varied sentences.

·         Wide range of vocabulary.

·         Strong sense of structure, paragraphing and sequence.

·         Spelling, punctuation and grammar almost always accurate