You get a text, a form, a purpose and an audience, and you are marked on how well you serve all four while using the source.
What does “directed writing” really mean?
Directed writing means writing to a brief. You get a text to work from and are told what to produce: a letter, article or speech, for a stated purpose and audience. Marks reward how closely you follow that brief while using the source.
Students who write well but drift from the brief lose marks. Common slips are the wrong tone, a forgotten audience, or a source text left unused.
The four things every brief fixes
Almost every directed-writing task sets four things. Miss one and the answer weakens.
- Form. The type of text, such as a letter, report, speech, article or review. Each has its own shape and voice.
- Purpose. What the writing is for, such as to persuade, advise, argue or inform. The purpose should drive every paragraph.
- Audience. Who will read it, such as a head teacher, a council or fellow students. The audience decides how formal you should be.
- Source material. The passage you must use. Your ideas should clearly come from, or respond to, that text.
A strong answer keeps all four in mind at once.
Why good writers often underperform
Confident writers often write the piece they want, not the one the brief asks for. The result might be a lively article that ignores the source, or a speech aimed at no one in particular. The writing is fine, but the direction is missing.
Another common slip is treating the source as optional. If an answer could have been written without reading the passage, it has left marks behind. The real skill is reshaping the source’s ideas into a new form for a new reader.
Advice like this is easier to act on with a teacher beside you. A paid one-hour trial starts from your child's own writing.
What register means here
Register is the level of formality and tone that suits a situation. A speech to classmates can be warm and a little informal. A letter to a council should be polite and measured, and a report should be neutral.
Register is about fit, not long words. Examiners notice at once when the voice does not suit the reader. Our writing formats guides show the usual register for each common form.
How much room is there for your own ideas?
You can develop the source’s ideas, add sensible detail and write in a lively voice. What you cannot do is abandon the source and invent freely. Think of it as controlled invention: the ideas come from the text, but the order, tone and wording are yours.
Does each board set it the same way?
No. The name, structure and marking of the task differ across Cambridge, Edexcel and OxfordAQA, and by syllabus year. Current details, with sources, are on our qualification pages and the First Language English syllabus page.
How our teachers help
If your child writes well but scores lower than expected here, the fix is usually closer attention to the brief, not better sentences. In First Language English tuition, our experienced English teachers first unpack the brief with your child.
They then read the draft against it, checking voice, purpose and use of the source. Our skills guides set out the same steps for practice at home.
To see this approach on your child’s own writing, book a paid one-hour trial lesson. The teacher will work through a directed-writing brief with them and point out the one change that would help most.