3.1.2 - Timed planning, drafting and checking
In 3.1.2, you will combine the AO5 decisions about audience, purpose, form, ideas and organisation with the AO6 decisions about vocabulary, sentences, spelling and punctuation. You will learn to divide a limited period according to the task and your own most likely error, then plan, draft and check without losing the intended meaning. This matters because a quick plan or a final correction is useful only when it improves what the reader actually receives.
Allocate time by risk
AQA's complete writing tasks are worth 40 marks: 24 for content and organisation and 16 for technical accuracy. Current sample materials advise planning before writing and leaving enough time to check, but they do not require one fixed split. A sound allocation therefore protects all three phases and gives extra time to the phase where it is most likely to change your writing.
| Phase | Decision that earns its time | A useful stopping signal |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | Fix the reader, purpose, form and viewpoint; select ideas; decide their movement and emphasis. | You can state what each paragraph will make the reader understand, feel or do. |
| Draft and monitor | Turn the movement into connected prose; make purposeful vocabulary, sentence and punctuation choices. | After each paragraph, the next planned move still serves the same purpose. |
| Check and revise | Read first for meaning and organisation, then for sentence boundaries, grammar, punctuation and spelling. | The largest remaining error is smaller than the one you have just repaired. |
For a 12-minute rehearsal, a writer whose ideas are secure but who often misses run-on sentences might choose 2 minutes to plan, 7 to draft and 3 to check. A writer who tends to repeat one undeveloped point might move one of those checking minutes into planning. These are reasoned choices for particular writers, not an exam formula.
Starting immediately and hoping to “save time” is a plausible alternative. It is weaker when the viewpoint or sequence is insecure: the saved minute can produce several minutes of repetition, drift or rewriting. An over-detailed plan is also weak because it spends drafting time composing sentences that may never be used.
Model the whole decision chain
Practice task: Write the opening of a school-website announcement for students aged 14–16. Explain a new Tuesday lunchtime repair club and encourage students to book. Volunteers will teach safe basic repairs; each student may bring one small non-electrical item; mains-powered devices are not accepted; tool spaces are limited, and places can be booked through the school website.
An expert first asks what has to stay controlled across the whole process:
| Decision | Choice for this task | Tempting weaker choice |
|---|---|---|
| Reader, purpose and form | A clear, welcoming website announcement that explains and prompts booking. | A general speech about waste, which buries the practical action. |
| Ideas and viewpoint | Useful skill, item saved, safe limits, then how to book. | Every possible benefit, creating a list with no emphasis. |
| Organisation | Opportunity → benefit → safe practical details → direct action. | Booking details first, before the reader knows why the club matters. |
| Vocabulary and sentences | Concrete words such as repair, safe and book; a fuller explanatory sentence followed by a short action. | Decorative synonyms that make the instructions less exact. |
| Accuracy risk | Check the dash around the examples, every sentence boundary and the spelling of electrical. | Insert punctuation merely to display a range. |
Here is the resulting bounded draft, not a complete exam response:
A loose backpack strap need not become rubbish. At Tuesday's new repair club, volunteers will show you how to make one safe, basic repair and explain each step, so you can learn a useful skill while trying to save the item.
Bring one small non-electrical item—a bag, toy or frame—and book through the school website because tool spaces are limited. Do not bring mains-powered devices. Save it, learn from it, use it again.
The draft integrates the decisions instead of displaying them separately. The final short sequence works because it sharpens the action for this reader; the dashes work because they contain useful examples. Neither choice would be automatically effective in a different situation.
Rehearse with support
Guided task: A local library is trialling an evening study room for 14–18-year-olds for four weeks. It has quiet desks and free charging points. A staff member will be present, and it closes at 8 pm. Write 70–90 words of an email update to families that explains the trial and invites feedback.
Set a 10-minute timer. If the reader and purpose feel insecure, try 3 minutes planning, 5 drafting and 2 checking; if they are secure but accuracy is your usual risk, try 2, 5 and 3. Complete this support before drafting:
| Reader needs | Main purpose | Form and register | Two idea moves | Accuracy risk to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| reassurance and useful details | explain the trial and invite feedback | concise, courteous email update | what/why → access/details → feedback | your own repeated sentence, punctuation or spelling error |
Continue this lesson.
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