Take ideas and detail from the source, change them to fit the form and audience, and use the material to earn marks in your own words.
Copying it or ignoring it
Directed writing is based on a source text. Students misuse the source in two opposite ways.
Some ignore it. They write a general answer from their own ideas that drifts away from the source and loses marks for relevance. Others copy it.
They lift phrases and whole sentences, so the answer is a patchwork of borrowed lines. This loses marks for expression and often sounds wrong in the new form.
The task really tests the skill between these two errors: read the source closely, then say its material in a new way for a new purpose.
What the task asks, including the form, the audience and whether you may add ideas, changes by board and syllabus year. Read the instructions carefully, and check your board’s paper structure on our qualification pages. The rule is the same everywhere: take the substance from the source, then make it your own, in the voice and form the task sets.
A routine for using the source well
Read the source with the task in mind. Directed-writing tasks usually give you a form (such as a letter, speech or article), an audience and a purpose. Mark the ideas and details you will need. Do not copy them.
Just know what is there. Note which points serve the purpose and how they must change to fit the new voice.
Write in your own words. Take a point and say it in the register the task wants. A formal complaint sounds different from a lively article, even when the fact is the same.
Develop the ideas where the task allows. Draw a result the source suggests, answer a point it raises, or link two of its details. This shows thinking as well as reading.
Check back. Make sure you are using the relevant material and staying on task. A well-written answer that drifts from the source loses the marks the source was there to give.
A worked example, written by our teachers
A source text, written by us for teaching, reports that a town’s only library will close. It mentions reduced funding, falling visitor numbers, and objections from local students who use it to study. The task is to write a letter to the council against the closure.
A copying answer lifts the article: “Visitor numbers have fallen and funding has been reduced.”
A stronger answer adapts the same material to the letter. It accepts the money problem, then turns the falling visitor numbers around.
It argues that closing the library will make the fall certain, not solve it. It then develops the students’ objection into an argument about the town’s future, because young people would have nowhere quiet to study.
The facts come from the source. The shaping, the counter-argument and the persuasive voice are the student’s own. The source gives the raw material, and the writer does something with it.
This is easier to improve with a teacher beside you. A paid one-hour trial starts from your child's own recent work.
Common mistakes
- Ignoring the source. You lose marks for relevance.
- Copying from the source. You use its words, not your own.
- Wrong form or audience. The tone does not fit the task, even when the content is from the source.
- Using only some of the material. You miss relevant points.
- Adding invented material when the task says to use only the source.
How to practise
Take a source and a task, and write the relevant points in the required form without copying any phrase. Repeat until this is your habit.
Next, take the same source point and write it three ways: as a formal letter, a lively article and a persuasive speech. You will see how the tone changes while the substance stays. After drafting, go back to the source and tick the points you used, to catch anything missed.
Also take one source idea and extend it into a result or a counter-point. This is the thinking that lifts an answer above simple reporting.
Think of the source as raw material to change, not to carry across. The facts and issues are given, so you do not need to invent content.
Choose what serves the task, put it in the right voice, and shape it into an argument or explanation. Then the source helps you, and all your effort goes into the writing.
How our teachers help
Students usually get stuck by copying too much, or by writing a general answer that does not use the source. In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers give the student a source and a task. They mark the answer on three things: did it use the relevant material, did it adapt and not copy, and did it fit the form and audience?
The student then rewrites. See our First Language English tuition.
Practise the key skill with our guide to paraphrasing without copying, then use the timed practice tasks. You may also like when to move on.
If you want a teacher to mark your directed writing, book a paid one-hour trial. The teacher who would continue will go through a recent answer with you. Lessons start from RM70/hr, and we confirm the exact rate on WhatsApp.