Listicle: How to aim for top marks in the Creative Writing exam

1. Stick to the brief. It's great to add detail and show your creative side, but the brief tells you what you need to include, and if you stray too much from this it can get confusing and wishy-washy.
2. You writing should have a clear and engaging opening and have a sense of purpose: it's a good idea to plan your writing so you have a set path of what you want to include and where you want to finish.
3. Signposting (showing your reader where your writing is heading) can be achieved by linking paragraphs together and using repetition or emphasising particular ideas. Some examples of signposting phrases are 'the aim of this is to…', 'the purpose of this is to…' and 'this essay argues that…'
4. Remember that you only have 300 words so it is better to have a tight and clear focus rather than try to cover a number of different topics and ideas.
5. The ending can be more effective than you think. To get top marks, refer back to the very first idea in the piece to show your understanding of structure and cohesion.
6. It's been proven over the last year that students who vary sentence types and punctuation are more likely to get good grades, so be sure to do this in the exam.
7. Pretentiousness is not everything. Of course, flaunt your extensive vocabulary if you have one, but be careful that you don't fall into the trap of overwriting and misusing words.
8. Cliché is not always phrases like 'her eyes shone like the stars'. Even phrases like 'all is not lost' and 'at the end of the day' are phrases that examiners are sick of reading over and over again. Try to be more original.
9. Sometimes in the midst of trying to include as many fancy terms as possible, students make mistakes when it comes to simple skills like using adverbs and adjectives. Make sure your basic English skills are solid before you try and venture into more complicated terms and skills.
10. Drafting work is key, but check that you have made it clear to the examiner that you don't want it to be marked. Cross out any work you don't want to be considered by the examiner so there is no confusion.
11. Be kind to the examiner! Don't have them scrabbling for spare paper to write notes on- leave them space between each response so that they can write comments and place their marks.

Let's move to...Yate

Where is it?

If you drive out from the centre of Bristol for about half an hour, wind around a couple of country roads and emerge in front of a giant, slightly out-of-place Tesco building, you have stumbled across Yate.

What is it like?

A couple of years ago, the most interesting shops were The Works and a few charity shops, but recently Yate has 'upped its game'. I'm not entirely sure why we're suddenly getting so many popular, mainstream shops- I couldn't believe it when I found out we were getting a Starbucks

Is it expensive to live there?

The houses are decently priced: you can find a good selection from £250,000 to £800,000 so it's fair to say you can find something within your budget. A pleasant semi/ detached house is usually priced somewhere around the £300,000 mark, and more and more new houses are being built either in the area or its neighbouring town of Chipping Sodbury. The cost to live there is entirely dependent on your lifestyle- you could easily spend a lot of money if you're the kind of person who has a gym membership, goes food shopping three times a week and goes out for coffee with friends weekly.

How about the education options?

In all honesty, the schools aren't brilliant: most of them are rated to be either 'Good' or 'In need of improvement'. Because of this, many children travel from Yate to Bath/central Bristol in order to get an Ofsted 'outstanding' secondary school education, which isn't cheap, but there are plenty of primary schools and the secondary schools in Yate working their way up the league tables every year.

What about things to do?

For the kids and dog walkers, there's a good amount of green space, notably Kingsgate Park. A new Cineworld is opening in the recently built Riverside retail park and the youth café 'The Armadillo' was built a few years ago. The shopping centre is hit and miss. The most popular shops are New Look, Next, Dorothy Perkins, CEX, Game, The Body Shop and Boots, but there's not a whole lot of variety in anything that isn't clothes or food. There seems to be two coffee shops per normal shops, and at least four Costa cafes specifically. As well as this, there's nowhere to buy books or CDs, unless you count Tesco, which I do not.

All in all, if you're a student who loves the hustle and bustle of a vibrant town, or a classy businessperson who needs quick and easy access to the biggest cities, perhaps look elsewhere, but Yate is a great town, particularly for young families and those in retirement.

Let's move to...Gloucester

How is the article structured?
The article is structured as a question and answer piece, as if the journalist is interviewing himself about Gloucester. There is a headline and an enticing, unusual subtitle which mentions Harry Potter, appealing to a younger audience, perhaps those who are considering going to Gloucester University. the language used is rather informal, for example 'What's going for it?' and 'Hang out at...'. This makes it more enjoyable to read and is more accessible for different audiences.


It is also broken down into one large paragraph and several smaller paragraphs or lines. The journalist uses rhetorical questions like 'When did it all turn sour?' and 'How can you go wrong?' as well as direct address to build up a friendly reputation with the reader. This makes the journalist sound more honest and less like he is neither discouraging you from going to Gloucester or encouraging you to go there. The journalist also uses imagery to build up a picture for the reader, and exclaims 'Just look at that cathedral!' to almost take the reader on a walking tour of Gloucester and show them around.


 At the end of the article, the journalist heads 'to the streets' to find out what visitors/locals think of Gloucester, and this makes the piece sound less biased and opinionated. He uses a variety of opinions, some saying that Gloucester is a bit of a 'shambles' and others saying 'a great base for Forest of Dean and Cotswolds'. By mentioning house prices and the practicalities of living in Gloucester, the author provides actual factual information about Gloucester, other than his own opinions.

Ingredients for a mainstream YA novel

One white, straight protagonist. A corrupt government or exciting adventure. One Asian guy, one black guy and one gay guy in a friendship circle, just so the author can pretend that their writing is modern and 'moving with the times'. Of course, there must be a few girls in the novel- the gorgeous one and the clever one. And why not throw in a meaningless love triangle for the hell of it? Now you have a chart-topping, award winning novel which is praised for its 'coming of age' themes and diversity.

But here's the issue. Tokenism and playing to stereotypes are not diversity. Just because you are considerate enough to insert one black guy into a friend group does not make your story 'racially diverse'. One gay best friend who loves to shop strewn in among the teenage pregnancies does not make you an LGBT+ hero. And just because your female protagonist can throw a few well-aimed punches does not mean you are at the forefront of equality in fiction. Although the more we bury the damsel in distress archetype the better, it's important to realise that strong female characters don't have to be defensive and emotionally detached in order to be strong.

As my years of avid reading have passed me by, I have devoured YA novels as I struggled to claw my way through adolescence, trying to find something relatable and something that made me feel slightly less alone. But it seems that the way to be relatable to teenagers these days is through the representation of mental illness, and today it feels more like romanticisation than representation. I once read the line from the Ned Vizzini novel it’s Kind Of a Funny Story 'I quite like that you're in a psychiatric ward. It makes you more interesting'. A suicide attempt is not a character quirk and mental illness is not a fascinating personality flaw. It ruins lives and it shouldn't be treated like a fashionable accessory, flaunting complexity and intrigue.

When it comes down to LGBT+ characters, sexual orientation and gender identity is seen as a status. It is a solitary function, a flashing billboard, a tool of stereotypes and a journey of self-hatred and deep, internal struggle. I want to see a story where the plot does not revolve around self-discovery and a battle for acceptance: representation, not regression.

Here's the bottom line. We need more diversity in Young Adult Literature. No more tokenism, no more stereotypes, no more two-dimensional men and women. Why not push the boat out and have someone who is neither male or female? More male characters that don't just whinge about not having a girlfriend and more female characters who do actually moan about not having a girlfriend. Let's stop putting people in boxes and having them be defined by their ethnicity or their mental illness. Labels are to be defined by us, not the other way around.