Component 1 - Writing an article

The article situation and the exam choice

An article gives a publication's readers a worthwhile way into a subject. It might inform them about a development, explain why an issue matters, argue for a position, persuade them to act, advise them about choices or review an issue from a clear angle. These purposes often overlap: an article can explain a problem in order to persuade readers that a proposed solution is sensible.

The words magazine or newspaper do not identify one automatic voice. A school magazine, a local newspaper and a specialist science magazine create different relationships between writer and reader. Before planning content, pin down four facts:

In the examination, Section B offers two prompts and you answer one. Both are worth 45 marks, and Pearson advises about 45 minutes for the section. Choose by asking which prompt gives you firmer control of its command, reader, form and purpose. A favourite topic is not the safer choice if you can think of only one point or cannot sustain the requested relationship with the reader.

What makes the form visible

The article is realised mainly through language and organisation:

Columns, pictures, a by-line and a graphical newspaper simulation are not required. Even if a prompt names a website, the expected writing does not become a webpage mock-up. Predominantly continuous prose gives you the space to develop ideas and gives AO5 enough evidence of paragraph and sentence control.

Register for three readerships

Register is the language of a particular relationship and situation. Formality is part of it, but not all of it. Register also includes what the writer assumes the reader knows, how directly the writer addresses them, the density of information, vocabulary, sentence movement and the kinds of example likely to matter.

Consider one core idea: the town library should remain open until 8 p.m. one evening each week. The article form stays the same, but the readership changes the paragraph.

For a student magazine

At four o'clock, the library locks its doors just when revision, group projects and a quiet hour become useful. A Wednesday late opening would give students somewhere free to work without buying a drink or battling the distractions at home. One evening will not solve every study problem, but it would give us a practical choice when deadlines crowd in.

Shared pronouns and recognisable pressures create a close relationship with teenage readers. The language is conversational without becoming uncontrolled slang, and the final qualification makes the proposal sound considered rather than breathless.

For a local newspaper

For many families, the library closes before work and school have finished demanding their time. Keeping it open on one weekday evening would give residents a free place to study, use a computer or ask for help. A limited trial would also let the council test demand before committing public money permanently.

This version widens the concern from students to residents. Its measured vocabulary anticipates adult readers who may support access but also care about cost. The practical idea of a trial supplies a reason rather than merely asserting that longer hours would be good.

For a specialist education magazine

A weekly extended-opening pilot would turn existing library space into a modest piece of study infrastructure beyond the school day. Its value lies not only in additional hours but in access: pupils without quiet space, reliable connectivity or paid study venues would gain another route to independent work. Attendance and user feedback could then guide any longer-term provision.

This readership can handle denser phrasing and terms such as study infrastructure and provision. The paragraph foregrounds equity and evaluation because those are plausible professional concerns. Simply replacing short words with longer ones would not achieve this adaptation; the content and reasoning have changed too.

Select purpose mechanics, do not collect them

Writers have a repertoire, not a compulsory list:

An expert choice begins with the reader's likely thought. For the local newspaper paragraph, This would be awesome for everyone! was rejected because it supplies neither a precise benefit nor the measured relationship expected by sceptical residents. A limited trial would let the council test demand is stronger because it answers a likely concern about cost while advancing the writer's purpose.

When the main purpose is explanation

An article does not always need a campaign or a proposal. For an adult magazine feature about ordinary objects people keep, the angle might be that an object's personal value changes when we know its history:

A chipped mug may look ready for the bin until its owner tells you it was the first thing bought for a new home. The damage matters less than the memory attached to it. Keeping the mug can be a way of keeping an earlier, less certain version of yourself within reach.

The paragraph moves from a concrete imagined example to an explanation of its significance. It creates reader interest without inventing a statistic or demanding an action. An explanatory article still needs an angle, development and a shaped ending; it need not manufacture opposing sides.

A five-minute article plan

A useful plan does not try to write the article in miniature. It settles the decisions that are expensive to make halfway through a timed response: the relationship with the reader, the controlling position, the distinct content movements and the destination.

Read this original Component 1-scale task:

Your local council is considering making the main shopping street traffic-free every Saturday.

Write an article for your local newspaper giving your views on this proposal.

Your article may include the effects on residents and businesses, practical advantages or problems, and any other points you wish to make.

The bullets are invitations, not a checklist. A response could organise itself around public space, access and a time-limited trial without discussing every possible advantage and disadvantage.

Build the route

Notice what the plan leaves out: no inventory of techniques, no fully written paragraph and no instruction to use every content bullet. It holds three or four distinct movements in a logical order. During drafting, the writer remains free to discover better phrasing or combine two related points.

The opening must carry direction

Traffic is a big problem. Have you ever thought about it? In this article I will discuss both sides. could begin dozens of tasks. It does not identify this street, these readers or the writer's judgment.

The planned alternative makes three decisions quickly:

Picture Market Street on a Saturday when conversation, footsteps and shop doors replace the stop-start growl of traffic. A traffic-free trial could make the centre more welcoming and more useful, but only if residents who rely on vehicles are included from the beginning.

The first sentence gives local readers a concrete possibility. The second supplies an overview and a qualified position, establishing the route from opportunity to condition. Neither sentence depends on a memorised opening formula.