Year 10 Formal Writing Skills - Home Use

By the end of this resource, you’ll understand the keys to writing a great essay (a short piece of writing that has a purpose). In NCEA, you’ll need essay writing skills. If you go to university or polytechnic, the skills in this resource will help you gain your qualification. Many jobs you choose will have you reaching for some of these skills too.

What you'll learn

In Year 10 Formal Writing Skills, you will add to your kete of essay writing skills. You’ll learn to:

• break down a topic and focus your writing on that topic
• gather and organise ideas and use supporting material and examples
• structure your writing
• select ideas and opinions, and link them so your writing flows logically
• plan, revise and finish an essay.

How you'll learn

Learn by doing

People learn in different ways, but most people learn by doing. In this resource you’ll write two pieces of formal writing. One is an essay that will convince your reader of something. The other is an essay explaining parts of a book you’ve read, or play or film you’ve seen. These essays will give you lots of practice at the skills you’re developing.

Learn at your own speed

The resource is set up so you can learn at your own pace. There are suggested times for each page in the resource, but they’re just guidelines. Plan your learning to suit you.

Activities

Throughout this resource there are short activities for you to complete, so you can practise what you’ve learnt. The feedback gives you advice and examples of good answers.

Don’t know a word?

We might use words that are new to you. Keep an eye out for little dotted lines under words. If you put your mouse over a word with a dotted line or tap on it, its meaning will pop up.

At the start of the meaning that pops up, we’ll give you an idea of how to say that word. It will look something like this: ‘Enough. Ee-nuff.’

You can download a copy of the Year 10 Formal Writing Skills glossary to refer to as you work through the resource.

It’s a great idea to use an online dictionary, too, like the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary. You can look up te reo Māori words in the Te Aka online dictionary.