Make things stand out

Revision points

• One really important point to consider when preparing your recasting task is to make a genuine and personal approach to the task. Try and adopt an angle, this is a particular way of approaching or considering the task or a single sustained perspective that will inform every statement you make in the recast task. Failure to do this may mean your recast task becomes a formulaic tick box exercise. Examiners may mark your work for lack of engagement, being superficial and limited. 

• When you are revising your recast task and commentary you must write your recasting text and recasting commentary under timed conditions.

• You should expect to spend 1 hour in total on these two tasks.

• Remember that the recasting task is worth 25 marks and the recasting commentary is worth 15 marks. 40 marks in total.

• Expect to spend 40 minutes planning, writing and editing your recast text and 20 minutes planning, writing and editing your commentary task.

• Follow the word limit carefully for the recast text. Aim to write between 300 - 400 words only. If you write less than 300 words for the recast text, the examiners will assume you've not included enough points. If you write over 400 words the examiners will assume you've repeated ideas, not taken enough trouble over the crafting of your text or included irrelevant details.

• The more you practise the recast task and commentary the more you will develop an instinct for writing within the word limit. Why not always aim to write 380 words. At first you will need to count them. But soon you'll just automatically know when you've written 380 words.

• However for the commentary,  so long as you are referring to audience, purpose, genre and attitudes toward the main topic; using the correct terminology and commenting on effects of these language features on an audience, then you can exceed the word limit of 150 - 250 words.

• You must be selective in the material you use from the source text. Don't write every point but choose the relevant points that link to the task and then choose the most important points from this list. I assume there will be about 8 - 12 relevant points that you should include in the recast text. 

• As you write the recast text always have in your mind your audience, purpose and genre. As you write use relevant language features that will appeal to your target audience, are relevant to the genre and are suitable for your purpose[s].

• As you write your recast text you could highlight keywords and phrases that contain language and literary features that you could comment on in your commentary. You could highlight these words or phrases by underlining them or making them bold.