Question 1(b) Model Answer: Article (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE English Language): Revision Note

Question 1(b) is a directed writing task. You will be asked to write a discursive, argumentative or persuasive piece based on two reading texts.

You will be asked to write in a specific form. This will be one of:

• A speech

• A letter

• An article

• A report

The following guide will help you to structure your response in the style of an article.

Addressing the reading assessment objectives

Up to 10 marks are available in this task for your ability to evaluate both the explicit and implied ideas, opinions and attitudes expressed in one or two texts, and assimilate them to write a developed and sophisticated response.

Let’s take a look at how you do this, using the following example:

Your response here has to be based on the ideas, opinions and attitudes contained in the following two texts:

Text A: My best friendships happen online but that doesn't make them any less valid

The following text is about online friendships.

We blame the internet for all human sins. It has grown popular to berate the internet for its role in our ever-growing loneliness epidemic.

Scientists regularly release studies that suggest a correlation between social media use and loneliness, low self-esteem and social isolation. But even they have to admit we do not know what came first: the loneliness or the social media.

I'd like to defend the internet. I've just spent a year researching friendship for my book, which is about precisely this: the intersection between loneliness and friendship.

I've spoken to countless people, both my own friends and strangers from the internet, who would simply not have access to the same social life without social media. I know a woman who met all three of her bridesmaids — the women she cherishes most in the world — online. She says she feels like her most authentic self when she's online.

This is perhaps exactly the point: we can no longer quite so easily distinguish between our online selves and our 'real' selves. We are becoming confident enough to merge our online and offline selves as we realise that social media is an important platform for friendship.

My best friends in the world live in Melbourne, New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans. I am, at any time, a minimum of 5,000 kilometres away from them. Catch-ups over lunch are not possible for us. Our group chat has become a glorious mishmash of the trivial and the meaningful — home to career advice, dog pictures, memes and moral support. I am indignant and distressed by anyone who would suggest our largely online friendship is in any way less valid than people who have the luxury of sharing oxygen in the same physical space.

Besides, befriending apps are popping up all over. Some alleviate the loneliness for new mums or help you find new friends when you move to a new city. The clever thing about so many of these apps is they use the very thing we blame for our disconnection from others — technology — to bring us back together. They take away the difficulty of usual social interaction and reduce the chance of rejection. Think how many people this technology might particularly help: introverts, people with disabilities that make it difficult to leave the house or even speak, deaf people, people with mental health problems, people who just find social interaction terrifying.

The internet could be just the thing to help us revive friendship.

Text B: The limits of friendship

The following text is about the changing nature of friendship.

Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist working with primates some years ago, was researching why primates spend so much time in groups. He moved from there to humans and claimed that the average person could have up to 150 people in their social group. Anything beyond that is unmanageable. Since then, Dunbar has been exploring whether our ever-expanding social networks have done anything to change it.

Within the group of 150 only 5 will be your closest support group. Dunbar found that while the group sizes are stable, their composition is fluid. Your five today may not be your five next week.

As constant use of social media has become normal, people have challenged the relevance of Dunbar's number. Isn't it easier to have more friends when we have social media to help us to cultivate and maintain them? Our real-world friends tend to know each other but online we can expand our networks. Yet, 150 has remained constant, despite the ease of online connections compared with face-to-face ones.

However, social media is changing the nature of human interaction. It allows you to keep track of people who would otherwise disappear. What keeps face-to-face friendships strong is the nature of shared experience. The social media equivalent — sharing, liking, knowing that your friends have looked at the same cat video — lacks the synchronicity of shared experience. We've seen the same movie, but we cannot bond over it in the same way.

With social media, we can easily keep up with the lives of far more people. But without investing the face-to-face time, we lack deeper connections with them, and the time we invest in superficial relationships comes at the expense of more profound ones. We may widen our network to 400 people that we see as friends, but keeping up an actual friendship requires time. Putting in the effort to 'like', comment and interact with an ever-widening network means we have less time and capacity left for our closer friends — the ones that really matter.

This task asks you to evaluate the views given in both texts about friendship, and give your own views on the subject, based on what you have read. Your response might use the following ideas from these texts:

Text A:

• The internet is blamed for everything without reason

• Loneliness, low self-confidence and social isolation are linked to social media, but it is not really known in what way

• The internet can make people less lonely, not more

• People can build meaningful connections over the internet

• Social media can help people find friends and develop a social life

• You can be yourself on the internet as well as in person — our online and real-life personas are being merged

• Online friendships can be made across vast distances

• Talking and friendships online can be just as rich and as valid as in-person ones

• Befriending apps are now increasingly available

• Some people will find it easier to make friends online

Text B:

• Research shows how important real friendship is to people

• We are genetically wired to make a small number of close friends even in larger social groups

• Even though we now have the internet to help us maintain friendships across expanding distances, we don’t actually have more friends with social media

• The nature of friendship is changing

• Shared experience in real life is essential for strong friendships

• Deeper connections take more effort than being online

Planning your response

Before you write your response, you should spend five minutes planning your written response. In your plan:

• Decide on your “voice” and point of view:

  • Write a statement that summarises your point of view, based on your reading

• Note down which points you can develop that support your point of view

• Decide whether you are going to make a counter-argument, and note down which points you can develop to support this

• Return to your main argument, ensuring that you have included ideas and opinions from both texts (if more than one)

• Note down the points you can make to address the second bullet point in the task

• Note down how you are going to start and finish your response, ensuring that it establishes the correct style and tone

Question 1(b) article model answer

The following model answer demonstrates a top mark response to the above task:

Question 1(b)

Write a magazine article for young people about modern friendship.

In your article you should:

• evaluate the ideas about friendship given in both texts

• explain, based on what you read, to what extent you think social media affects friendship

Base your article on what you have read in both texts, but be careful to use your own words. Address both of the bullet points.

Write about 250 to 350 words.

Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 25 marks for writing.

[35]

Answer

The Muddling of Modern Friendships

We live in challenging times. Feelings of loneliness, isolation and disconnection rose sharply during the pandemic, leading to a significant increase in mental health issues. All too often the blame for this is placed with social media. But maybe our traditional ideas of friendship now need to be re-evaluated? We all use it, so is it time to stop blaming social media and start thinking about its benefits?

It tends to be people who haven't grown up with the internet and social media who are the most against online friendships, unlike our generation who are so used to it. But lockdown has shown us just how important our online connections are; without the internet to help us stay in touch, we all would have been truly isolated. "Offline" friendship shouldn't be seen as any better than "online" friendship, as technology is now able to bring people together in more ways than ever before. Social media can help people find friends no matter where in the world they live.

For people of our age, we might find ourselves moving away from where we grow up, and social media and the internet can help us find new friends and prevent loneliness. There is an increase in the number of "making friends" apps now available, improving access to friendship groups for those for whom making in-person connections can be difficult.

Of course, we don't necessarily have "more" friends because of the internet. Research has suggested that, no matter how many people we know, we tend to have no more than five "close" friendships. These are the ones we invest time in, so surely it is better to be able to maintain that bond even if that person moves away, rather than let it disappear? My closest friend is away travelling right now, but our relationship, which is now all online, is still as valid as any other.

Social media can affect friendships, and not always in a positive way. But people drift apart in real life as well, and in an increasingly connected world, the nature of friendship is changing. There is more to blame for feelings of isolation and loneliness than social media. In my opinion, it is more important than ever to maintain those connections, whether online or in person.

[35]

Commentary

• The heading uses alliteration to catch the reader’s attention

• The introduction uses persuasive devices and demonstrates an understanding of the task

• The answer demonstrates awareness of the intended audience, which is sustained throughout

• Style, tone and voice are appropriate and consistent, using ideas contained in Text A and Text B

• Any specific references to ideas or opinions in the text are put in the candidate’s own words

• The use of a personal anecdote is appropriate for an article

• The final paragraph explicitly addresses the second bullet point in the task

• A personal point of view is sustained throughout

• Spelling, grammar and punctuation are accurate throughout

Summary

• Remember to read the question carefully and highlight:

  • What you are writing, who your audience is and why you are writing

  • The focus of each bullet point

• Read the text(s) and highlight the relevant information that could be developed in your answer:

  • Bullet-point this information in your own words

• Plan your writing, focusing on one main idea or opinion per paragraph

• Address each bullet point in order:

  • Make sure you cover all of the bullet points as equally as possible

• Decide on the voice and style you want to create and maintain that in your answer

• Do not just repeat details from the text(s):

  • You need to evaluate and develop the ideas, opinions and attitudes in the text(s) — you are not summarising them