1. A written task demonstrates the student’s ability to choose an imaginative way of exploring an aspect of the material studied in the course. It must show a critical engagement with an aspect of a text or a topic.
2. Students complete at least three written tasks, one of which is submitted for external assessment. The written task is assessed according to the assessment criteria published in this guide.
3. The maximum mark for the written task is 20.
Formal requirements8
1. Supervision and teacher assistance - as part of the learning process, teachers can give advice to students on a first draft of the task This advice should be in terms of the way in which the work could be improved, but this first draft must not be annotated or edited by the teacher. After making general comments on the first draft, teachers should not provide any further assistance.
2. The content of each task must relate to a different part of the course. Therefore, at least one task must relate to part 1 or part 2, and at least one task must be based on a literary text from part 3 or part 4.
3. Once students have decided on their area of study and their particular title, they are free to produce any text type that is appropriate to the task. For example, a written task discussing the representation of an aspect of gender from part 1 could be written as a newspaper editorial.
Possible Learning Outcomes
Stereotypes - The representation of gender in advertisements for household goods (Part 2 Newspaper editorial)
Written Piece
“Mother, Wife, Career Woman and Maid—What is a Woman’s Work?”
Rationale
Would identify the newspaper’s stance and the way language is used to present an opinion
Note: A formal essay is not an acceptable text type. Students are required to write an essay in paper 2.
Word Count
1. The task, not including the rationale, must be 800–1,000 words in length.