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Creative Writing

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you craft a creative portfolio piece - prose fiction, poetry or drama - so that its form does real work?

Crafting creative writing: controlling the conventions of prose fiction, poetry or drama - narrative voice, structure, imagery, form, dialogue - to create a complex, sophisticated piece shaped for purpose and audience.
How to craft a creative portfolio piece for SQA Advanced Higher English: controlling the conventions of prose fiction, poetry or drama, such as narrative voice, structure, imagery, form and dialogue, to create a complex, sophisticated piece shaped for purpose and audience.
12 min answer →

How do you craft a discursive portfolio piece - persuasive, argumentative or reflective - so that it is sophisticated rather than merely correct?

Crafting discursive writing: controlling argument structure, rhetorical technique, persona, tone and evidence in a persuasive, argumentative or personal reflective piece, shaped for purpose and audience and written with sophistication.
How to craft a discursive portfolio piece for SQA Advanced Higher English: controlling argument structure, rhetorical technique, persona, tone and evidence in a persuasive, argumentative or personal reflective piece, shaped for purpose and audience and written with sophistication.
12 min answer →

What is the Advanced Higher English writing portfolio, and what does a successful piece have to do?

The writing portfolio: producing writing of any genre for external marking, worth 30 marks, that shows skilled control of genre conventions, a strong sense of purpose and audience, sophisticated style and technical accuracy.
What the SQA Advanced Higher English writing portfolio is: writing of any genre for external marking worth 30 marks, that shows skilled control of genre conventions, a strong sense of purpose and audience, sophisticated style and technical accuracy, developed through redrafting.
12 min answer →

How does drafting and redrafting turn a first attempt into a portfolio piece that reaches the upper bands?

The writing process and redrafting: planning, drafting and systematically redrafting a portfolio piece against the marking criteria to improve ideas, structure, style and technical accuracy before submission.
How to use the writing process for the SQA Advanced Higher English portfolio: planning, drafting and systematically redrafting a piece against the marking criteria to sharpen ideas, structure, style and technical accuracy before submission, rather than writing once.
11 min answer →