Big picture
Creative writing shapes an imagined experience through selected events, voices and details. Discursive writing explores an issue through reasons, evidence and qualifications. Both require deliberate organisation: a story needs more than a sequence of unrelated incidents, and an argument needs more than repeated opinion.
A school newsletter might ask you to tell a story about a misplaced object or discuss whether students should help design the library. The same topic can produce different kinds of writing. This chapter develops analytical paragraphs as well as articles, speeches, reports and stories. Treat broader formats as skill-building practice and follow the format and length actually specified in your course's question.
Learning goals
Plan a coherent response for a stated audience and purpose.
Write an analytical paragraph that interprets supplied evidence.
Develop balanced arguments without inventing support.
Use suitable formats for articles, speeches and reports.
Create an original story with conflict, development and resolution.
Revise content, cohesion, register and grammatical accuracy.
Core ideas
1. Identify the kind of thinking required
An analytical paragraph examines information and explains its significant patterns. An argument supports a position with reasons. A discussion considers alternatives before reaching a judgement. A narrative develops events through a perspective. Do not answer a data task with an unrelated personal story merely because the topic is familiar.
For example, a table of preferred library improvements asks you to compare priorities, not invent interviews with students. A prompt beginning “The key did not fit” invites a story in which the key matters. A request to argue for longer library hours needs reasons about access, staffing and demand, not just a description of attractive shelves.
2. Analytical paragraphs: move beyond listing
Begin with an overview that identifies the main pattern. Group related details, compare significant values, and finish with a cautious interpretation supported by the data. Use terms such as highest, lowest, equal, larger share and contrast accurately. Do not claim a trend over time from a single snapshot.
The following original practice survey allows one response per student.
Preferred improvement | Students |
|---|---|
Quiet study seats | 48 |
Longer opening hours | 36 |
More graphic novels | 24 |
More display boards | 12 |
Total | 120 |
Worked calculations. Quiet seats account for 48 ÷ 120 × 100 = 40%. Longer hours account for 36 ÷ 120 × 100 = 30%. Together they represent (48 + 36) ÷ 120 × 100 = 70%. The gap between their shares is 40% − 30% = 10 percentage points, not a 10% relative increase. Their numerical difference is 48 − 36 = 12 students.
Complete model analytical paragraph:
“The survey of 120 students shows that facilities supporting study receive the greatest preference. Quiet study seats lead with 48 responses, or 40% of the sample, followed by longer opening hours with 36 responses, or 30%. Together, these choices account for 70% of respondents. Graphic novels attract 24 preferences, twice the 12 recorded for display boards. The gap between the two leading categories is 12 students, equivalent to 10 percentage points of the sample. The findings suggest that seating and opening hours deserve early consideration, although preferences alone do not establish cost or feasibility. As the data represent one survey rather than repeated observations, they show current priorities, not a change over time.”
This paragraph interprets the hierarchy, supports it selectively and recognises limits. It does not reproduce every table cell in separate sentences.
3. Constructing a discursive argument
Use claim, reason, support and qualification. Claim: students should help plan library improvements. Reason: regular users notice practical barriers. Support: the practice survey identifies a preference for seats and opening hours. Qualification: budgeting and supervision still require adult responsibility.
A counterargument is a reasonable objection, not a silly view invented to defeat easily. “Longer opening hours may require additional staffing” deserves an answer. “Only people who hate reading oppose longer hours” attacks people rather than addressing the issue.
A reasoned response might propose a limited trial on selected days, followed by attendance review. This answers the staffing concern without pretending resources are unlimited. End with a judgement proportionate to the evidence: “A supervised trial is worth testing” is more defensible than “This plan will solve every access problem”.
4. Articles: heading, byline and organised ideas
An article generally uses a heading, byline and connected paragraphs. Its opening introduces the issue; the middle develops reasons or explanations; the conclusion offers a judgement or practical suggestion. It does not normally need a letter's address or salutation.
Complete original model article:
A Library Built Around Readers
By Rohan Sethi
“A library becomes useful when people can find both suitable books and a place to read them. Attractive displays help, but they cannot replace accessible shelves, quiet seats and dependable opening hours.
Students should therefore be invited to identify barriers they experience. Short surveys, suggestion cards and discussions can reveal needs that a visitor might miss. A reader who needs large print may value clear labelling more than a new poster. Another may need a seat away from a noisy doorway.
Participation does not mean that every suggestion can be accepted immediately. Space, staffing and cost remain important. The school can explain these limits, test manageable changes and report what happened.
The aim is not to collect suggestions ceremonially. It is to create a visible connection between listening and action. When readers understand both decisions and constraints, the library becomes a shared responsibility.”
The article moves from principle to examples, then to limits and a practical conclusion. Its claims remain qualitative because no external statistics are supplied.
5. Speeches and reports serve different needs
A speech addresses listeners directly. Include a greeting suited to the occasion, a clear position, connected points and a purposeful close. “Good morning, teachers and fellow students. A quiet corner can make reading possible for someone who has no study space at home” introduces audience and relevance. Use short, speakable sentences; avoid a page of figures that listeners cannot revisit easily.
A report records an event or findings factually. Use a heading, byline if requested, and an opening giving what happened, where and when. Distinguish observed facts from evaluation. Example: “The Reading Club held a repair workshop in the school library on 19 August. Participants cleaned covers and reinforced loose notebook spines under supervision.” Do not invent attendance numbers or quotations.
Format | Typical emphasis | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
Article | Explanation or argument for readers | Letter addresses and salutations |
Speech | Direct engagement with listeners | Dense, unspeakable sentences |
Report | Verified event details and outcomes | Dramatic invention presented as fact |
Analytical paragraph | Patterns in supplied information | Unsupported causes and trends |
6. Stories: a meaningful sequence
A story needs a setting, character, conflict, development and an ending that follows from events. A short story benefits from one central problem. Introducing several mysteries without resolving them usually weakens coherence.
Use showing details to reveal emotion. “Nalin was nervous” states a feeling; “Nalin folded the receipt until its corners tore” gives a physical clue. Showing is useful at important moments, while direct narration can move the story efficiently between them. Do not force every sentence into elaborate description.
Dialogue should change the situation or reveal character. Punctuate clearly: “This is not our cupboard,” Nalin said. Keep narrative tense consistent unless a deliberate shift marks a different time. A first-person narrator can describe personal thoughts, but cannot automatically know another person's private intentions.
7. Complete original model story
The Key on the Ribbon
“The key did not fit. Nalin tried it once more, then stepped back from the cupboard outside the art room. The teacher had asked him to bring the box of brushes before the younger children arrived.
A green ribbon hung from the key. On the desk lay another key with a blue ribbon, but Nalin was certain he had heard ‘green’. He could already imagine everyone waiting while he admitted the mistake.
A cleaner paused beside him. ‘Does the label say art room?’ she asked.
Nalin looked. Beneath the ribbon, a tiny paper tag read ‘music store’. He had noticed the colour and ignored the words.
He returned to the desk, checked the blue key's label and opened the correct cupboard. The brushes were ready when the first class arrived. Later, he told the teacher what had happened and asked whether the faded labels could be replaced.
By the afternoon, both keys had large, clear tags. Nalin still remembered the embarrassment at the locked cupboard, but now it reminded him to read before guessing. The mistake had taken only a moment; preventing its return required admitting it.”
The key creates the conflict and remains relevant to the resolution. The cleaner's question prompts the turning point, while the new tags show a practical result rather than a detached moral appended at the end.
8. Cohesion and assessment
Coherence means the whole response makes sense; cohesion means sentences connect through reference, repetition, connectors and sequence. “However” signals contrast, not a random new point. “Therefore” needs a conclusion supported by what precedes it. Repeating a key term can help continuity, but repeating the same argument adds no development.
Use a marking-scheme checklist based on the task: relevant content, complete format where required, logical organisation, appropriate vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation. Exact allocations differ, so follow the stated rubric. For a data paragraph, additionally check totals and comparisons; for a story, check perspective and resolution; for an argument, check support and fairness to objections.
A final revision should remove unsupported universals such as “everyone”, “always” or “certainly” unless justified. Replace a vague sentence like “It is very good for many reasons” with a specific claim: “A supervised trial would show whether demand justifies longer hours.”
A reliable approach to questions
Identify format, audience, purpose and supplied constraints.
Plan the central idea and the order of supporting points or events.
For data, calculate key comparisons before drafting.
Write a clear opening, developed middle and purposeful ending.
Check evidence, perspective, register and appropriate connectors.
Revise against the task checklist and required length.
Connections that matter
Informational reading supplies methods for qualifying claims and interpreting evidence.
Mathematics supports accurate percentages and comparisons in analytical paragraphs.
Literature analysis explains how conflict, imagery and point of view create narrative effects.
Common mistakes
Listing figures without an overview: explain the strongest pattern and key comparisons.
Calling one survey a rising trend: a trend needs observations across time.
Adding an unrelated surprise ending: resolve the story's established conflict.
Treating a counterargument as an enemy: address its strongest reasonable concern.
Revision checklist
I can choose an appropriate structure for the task.
I can calculate and interpret comparisons accurately.
I can develop a claim with support and qualification.
I can use article, speech and report conventions.
I can write a coherent story with a relevant resolution.
I can assess organisation and accuracy against the given rubric.