GLO-FGlobal Issues, Culture and Society

Guided writing: a table about a global campaign into a paragraph

Idée directrice

Task 1 of the Writing section is never free: a table of notes has to become a short connected paragraph. Every prompt must appear, nothing may be invented, and the four marks are split between the use of the prompts and the language. When the table introduces an international campaign, the paragraph is really a definition, a date, a size and an aim, joined into readable sentences.

Signature de reconnaissance — l'énoncé se trahit ainsi

« Use the information in the table below to write a four-line paragraph » ; « Use the information below to write a four-line paragraph to introduce » ; « Appropriate use of the prompts (2 marks) »

Sujet principal

Writing — Task 1 (guided writing, 4 marks)

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 1, 4 marks). Use the information below to write a four-line paragraph introducing the Clean Air Alliance, an international campaign for a cleaner world.

Type	non-profit international campaign
Launching	2011 / Nairobi, Kenya
Membership	240 partner organisations in 62 countries
Aim	pressure governments / cut traffic fumes in big cities
Method	free air-quality sensors given to local groups

Use all the prompts, in a logical order, and add no fact that is not in the table. Write in full sentences: the notes are not an answer. Marks: appropriate use of the prompts (2) and language (2).

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Model paragraph (four lines)

The Clean Air Alliance is a non-profit international campaign. It was launched in 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya, and it now brings together 240 partner organisations in 62 countries. Its aim is to pressure governments to cut traffic fumes in big cities, because polluted air is a danger to the whole world. To do so, the campaign gives free air-quality sensors to local groups so that citizens can measure the environment they live in.

Move 1 — Appropriate use of the prompts (2 marks). All five items are there and in order: type, launching, membership, aim, method. A paragraph that drops the membership figures, or that adds an invented budget, loses here even if the English is perfect.

Move 2 — Adherence to task and content adequacy. The task asked for a paragraph that introduces the campaign, so the writing stays descriptive. An opinion on air pollution would be off task at this point of the paper.

Move 3 — Language (grammar and vocabulary). The notes are turned into sentences by a passive for the launching (was launched), a present for the current membership (brings together), and an infinitive of purpose for the aim (to pressure). Linking words — and, because, so that — carry the logic.

Move 4 — Mechanics of writing. Capital letters on the campaign name and the two place names, the comma after 2011 in Nairobi, Kenya, and no full stop missing at the end of a line.

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

Entraînement 01 / 02

Drill GLO-F.1 — Turning health figures into a paragraph

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 1, 4 marks). Use the information in the table below to write a four-line paragraph about drinking water in a developing region of the world in 2018.

Facts	1 person in 4 / no safe tap at home; 2 hours a day / walking to a well
Impact	cost / 1.2 billion dollars / treat / water-related illnesses
Solutions	village wells; simple filters; teaching families to boil water

Use every prompt, keep the order facts / impact / solutions, and invent nothing. Marks: appropriate use of the prompts (2) and language (2).

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Model paragraph

In 2018, one person in four in the region had no safe tap at home, and families spent about two hours a day walking to a well. This shortage had a heavy cost for society: 1.2 billion dollars were spent on treating water-related illnesses. Three solutions are now being tried. Villages are digging their own wells, simple filters are handed out, and families are taught to boil water before drinking it.

Prompts (2 marks). The three blocks appear in the order the table gives them, and each figure is reused exactly: one in four, two hours a day, 1.2 billion dollars.

Language (2 marks). A past simple for the 2018 facts, a passive for the money spent, and a present continuous for what is being tried now. The three solutions are listed in one sentence joined by and, which is what keeps the paragraph to four lines.

Mechanics. Figures written as in the table, a colon before the cost, and a capital after every full stop.

Entraînement 02 / 02

Drill GLO-F.2 — Prompts you must not add to

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 1, 4 marks). Below is a table of prompts, then a candidate's answer. Rewrite the answer so that it uses every prompt and only the prompts.

Event	World Culture Week
First held	2016 / Tunis
Who takes part	30 countries / musicians, cooks, storytellers
Aim	show that one society can enjoy the culture of another

Candidate's answer: « world culture week is a very nice event i think everyone should go there it started a long time ago in tunisia and thousands of famous singers come every year and it is the best festival in the world. »

Say which prompts are missing, which facts were invented, and then write the corrected four-line paragraph.

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What is missing. The date and city of the first edition are replaced by a long time ago; the number of countries is gone; the three kinds of participants are reduced to singers; the aim is never stated.

What was invented. Thousands of famous singers, the best festival in the world and the advice everyone should go there are not in the table. Invented content earns nothing and, here, replaces the prompts that would have earned marks.

Mechanics. No capital letters, no full stops, and i for I: the two marks for mechanics of writing are lost before the content is even read.

Corrected paragraph

World Culture Week was first held in Tunis in 2016. Thirty countries take part in it, sending musicians, cooks and storytellers. Its aim is to show that one society can enjoy the culture of another. Since then, the week has become a meeting point for visitors from all over the world.

Méthode / Automatismes

Read the table left to right once, then decide the order of the sentences before writing.
Turn each row into a clause, not into a list: It was launched in…, Its aim is to….
Join with and, because, so that, in order to — a four-line paragraph needs at least two linkers.
Count the prompts at the end: a missing row costs more than a grammar slip.
Never invent a fact — the marker checks the paragraph against the table.

Pièges classiques

The commonest loss is copying the notes with their slashes and abbreviations, so the paragraph never becomes prose. The second is writing far more than four lines: extra invented content cannot earn marks and often introduces the language mistakes that cost them.