Unit 1, Section B – Extended Writing

Unit 1 Section B: extended writing

Unit 1, Section B – extended writing skills

Cameron Dunn

Chief Examiner


What do I have to do?

• One question from a choice of 4 – you should spend 30-35 minutes on this

• Each question is worth 25 marks

• The 25 marks is split into a 10 mark part ‘a’ and 15 mark part ‘b’

• There is a stimulus resource for the 10 mark question


Choice of Question

• Questions will be based around 4 key themes

• you can expect to have a genuine choice:


• Very importantly you should read all 4 questions

• look at all four accompanying Figures before you make a decision.

• In January 2009 the choice of question was heavily biased towards questions 7 and 8.

Question Popularity Unit 1 Section B January 2009

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

Question 7 -Hazards

Question 8 -Climate

Question 9 -Globalisation

Question 10 -Megacities

Ep

en

re

sp

on

se

s


The Resource question, part ‘a’

• Notice that the question states ‘such as the one shown’.

• This is indicating a need to move beyond the stimulus material provided and into a discussion of other drought examples and their impacts:

• Ongoing Australian drought the ‘big dry’

• Drought in Niger • Drought in Sudan and Ethiopia


• There is also a structure provided in the question i.e. ‘people and the environment’

• answer needs to cover both in order to be balanced.

• Importantly the question is not ‘what are the impacts of drought?’ but actually ‘why do drought have such severe impacts?’

• Just describing the impacts of drought lacks the explanation the question is looking for.


Description of impact

Explanation of severity

Forest fires Uncontrolled burn devastates wildlife and ecosystems; difficult to manage

Farm production down

Direct reliance on irrigation; scarce water resources diverted to people

Low river flows Made worse by human abstraction for water supply

Fall in tourist numbers

Fear, danger, intense uncomfortable heat

Deaths Vulnerable groups (elderly) ‘silent’ killer

Use the resource, but don’t copy it out.


The Open questions, part ‘b’ • a 15 mark question which will be quite open. • There is no Figure to look at -you are ‘on your own’. • good idea to do a very quick plan just to organise your

thoughts and help structure your answer. • The plan should take less than 1 minute


Mark schemes

• for the 15 mark question they use 4 levels.

• Like a flight of sets which you are trying to climb.

• To go up a step, you need to add something new into your answer.


Ticking the mark scheme boxes

• can be a real challenge, but there are various tricks you can use to help write an impressive answer.

• This question is from January 2009 (Question 10b):

• typical. It uses the command word ‘explain’ and is ‘open’.• The question does not directly ask for examples to be

used, but you should just assume you should use them!



Top Tips for extended writing

Structure • Organisation; logical order and sequencing • Consider a summative statement / very brief conclusion.

Depth • Issues, problems, factors, explanations etc. need to be examined and discussed in some depth

Examples • Need to be used as a matter of course, don’t wait to be asked!Case Studies • If the question refers to a compulsory case study then considerable detail

is expected Up-to-date • Contemporary knowledge always shines more brightly than the tired and

datedRange • Narrow answers, around one factor or explanation will rarely attain the

top level of the mark scheme Facts • Factual data support – numbers, facts and figures, always impress.Terminology • Use of the correct geographical terminology increases your answers

currency Evaluative style • Some recognition that geographical issues are now always black and

white, combined with some evaluative language. Balance • Especially in human geography, a recognition of costs and benefits,

positives and negatives etc.

Education

Unit 1, Section B – Extended Writing