The creative writing pieces: the two NEA creative texts in the chosen genre (around 850 to 1000 words each, typically one literary and one non-literary), deploying or subverting the genre's conventions informed by the critical study, demonstrating expertise in producing texts (AO5, AO2).

What this dot point is asking

The creative writing is the productive half of the NEA: two pieces in your chosen genre (around 850 to 1000 words each, typically one literary and one non-literary), where you write rather than analyse. AO5 rewards expertise and creativity in producing texts, and the creative writing must be informed by the critical study, so it is not free writing but genre-aware craft. This dot point covers how to write the two pieces so they deploy or knowingly subvert the genre's conventions with control. Confirm the word counts and tasks with your centre.

The answer

The creative pieces reward controlled, genre-aware writing that puts the critical study into practice. Two things define them: the genre-aware craft, and the difference between the literary and non-literary piece.

Genre-aware craft

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 piece

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 piece

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.

Examples in context

The genre and pieces are chosen by you, so the moves below are illustrative; confirm the requirements with your centre.

Genre study informing the literary piece. "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.

A non-literary piece shaped for audience and purpose. "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.

Try this

Q1. What does AO5 reward in the NEA creative writing? [2 marks]

• Cue. Expertise and creativity in producing your own texts: controlled, accomplished, genre-aware writing, with AO2 rewarding the shaping of meaning.

Q2. How should the critical study inform the creative pieces? [2 marks]

• Cue. What the study found about how the genre builds its effects should shape the creative choices of voice, form, structure and technique, so the study is visible in the writing.

Q3. 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]

• What the marker wants. Controlled non-literary writing in the genre, shaped deliberately for a clear audience and purpose (AO5, AO2), with the genre study and wider reading visible in the choices.

A note on the creative writing

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The exact word counts, the number and type of pieces, and the requirements are set by the current Eduqas A710 NEA guidance and your centre; confirm them with your teacher before writing.