Triplets: Writing to Explore,
Imagine and Entertain
IGCSE English Language
Triplets
● Name the 9 different types of writing found on the exam.
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Inform
Explain
Describe
Explore
Imagine
Entertain
Argue
Persuade
Advise
Triplets
● Where can you find information about the writing triplets?
○ Read Chapter 5
Writing to explore, imagine or entertain
● Define explore.
○ To examine closely or to investigate
● What is a typical explore question?
○ Write about your favorite photograph,
exploring your thoughts and feelings. (write
about a picture and your reaction)
Writing explore, imagine or entertain
● Define imagine.
○ Create a story
● What is a typical imagine question?
○ Imagine you are a person who is living in
the refugee camp in Calais, France. Write
two entries for a diary.
Writing explore, imagine or entertain
● Define entertain.
○ To hold the interest of the reader: don’t bore
● What is a typical entertain question?
○ n/a
○ You must entertain the reader when you
explore and imagine.
Writing to explore, imagine or entertain
Dos
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Don’ts
Be original and fresh.
Quicken the pace.
Base your story on
experience.
Use one or two characters
maximum.
Create tension with words
and sentences.
Use strong dialogue.
Be consistent with tenses.
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Don’t bore me!
Don’t focus on unnecessary details.
Don’t copy a film or novel plot.
Avoid lots of characters.
Don’t overuse adjectives and adverbs.
Don’t repeat.
Don’t use cliches.
Don’t use lengthy dialogue.
Don’t change tenses and or point-of-view.
How to write a good beginning
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad,
Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that
distant afternoon when his father took him to
discover ice.
● —Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of
Solitude (1967; trans. Gregory Rabassa)
How to write a good beginning
It was a bright cold day in
April, and the clocks were
striking thirteen.
—George Orwell, 1984 (1949)
How to write a good beginning
● Hook the reader.
● Open up the subject.
● Hint at what is to come, but do not give
away too much.
How to write a good beginning
● Read the openings on page 155.
● Rank the openings.
● Read the comments.
Imagine you are one of the two people in the photograph. Write an opening
for this photograph from the 1930s in the USA, exploring your character’s
imagined thoughts and feelings.
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Start with dialogue asking a rhetorical question with the aim of
building tension or stirring up intrigue.
I am now ..., but every time I think about the time when my eyes were
blinded by windblown dust and my teeth ground on grit, I feel …
How to write a good ending
● Avoid cliches - “Then I woke up.”
● Surprise ending: twist
● Cliff hanger or a “Lost” ending: keep the
suspense going
● Ironic: the reader is not quite sre what has
really happened
How to write a good ending
● Read the 4 endings on page
158.
● Quickly rank the endings.
Imagine you are one of the two people in the photograph. Write an ending
for this photograph from the 1930s in the USA.
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Surprise
Lost
Ironic