Quick questions on The NEA creative writing pieces - Eduqas A-Level English Language and Literature

The creative writing is not free invention; it is writing in a genre you have studied, deploying or knowingly subverting its conventions. Draw on the critical study: what you found about how the genre builds its effects (the Gothic's withholding, the dystopia's controlled world, the memoir's confiding voice) should shape your own choices of voice, form, structure and technique. AO5 rewards the creativity and control; AO2 rewards the shaping of meaning, so every choice should be deliberate and meaningful, not decorative. The piece should read as an accomplished instance of the genre.

The literary creative piece is an accomplished example of the genre in literary form, a short story, an extract, a poem, depending on the genre. The craft is in the deliberate deployment of the genre's techniques: the narration that builds the effect, the structure that withholds or reveals, the imagery and the controlled voice. A knowing subversion (a convention set up and refused) can be as accomplished as a convention fulfilled, provided it is controlled and meaningful.

The non-literary creative piece is written in the genre for a clear audience and purpose, a piece of travel writing, journalism, or life-writing. The craft is in the deliberate shaping for mode, audience and purpose: the register, the address, the structure and the conventions the genre and purpose demand. Knowing exactly who the piece is for and what it seeks to do, and controlling the language to that end, is what the non-literary piece rewards.

"Having found in the critical study that the Gothic defers and withholds, the short story applies it: the one uncanny event is held back until the final paragraphs and its cause left unresolved, the framed narration casts doubt on the narrator, and the decaying setting builds the dread, so the piece is an accomplished instance of the conventions the study analysed." Craft drawing on the critical study.

"The travel piece is written for a weekend magazine reader, to evoke a place: it controls a vivid, sensory register, structures the visit as a narrative arc, and borrows the genre's evaluative voice, every choice serving that audience and purpose, with the genre study visible in the technique." Non-literary craft for audience and purpose.

What does AO5 reward in the NEA creative writing? [2 marks]

How should the critical study inform the creative pieces? [2 marks]

Write a non-literary piece in your chosen genre for a specified audience and purpose, informed by your genre study. [around 850 to 1000 words]