By Pete Middleton

As I look around at people travelling on trains, trams or relaxing in coffee shops, I don’t see much reading going on. Many studies have shown that people who tend to read regularly are usually better than average at writing. As the Functional Skills English exam has a writing element, which learners must pass to achieve the full qualification, this lack of reading might be adding an additional barrier to learners trying to pass their exams.  

This problem magnifies for learners depending on the level of their exam.  Those sitting a level two exam usually have two activities to complete where the word count is typically 250 to 300 words for each activity. The level one writing paper can ask for 150 to 200 words for each activity. They might be asked to write letters, reports, articles, adverts and many other text types.

An example of a typical scenario for a question is that you are having a problem with the council not emptying the bins regularly, which is causing mess, hygiene problems and distress on your street. Learners must write a letter of complaint to the council, telling them what you want them to do. That seems clear enough for you (as you are probably a teacher or other educational professional), but is it easy for our learners? It becomes much harder for those who are not regular readers. They might not have the vocabulary relating to the council to fully communicate their ideas.

I also raise the question of planning. We know that as part of planning techniques, it is fine to create spider-diagrams or lists to generate ideas. Does this work? For some, yes, but not for all. How many learners do you know who actually plan their work?  

I am suggesting an alternative: instead of learners having to answer an exam question on a given topic, how about they write about a topic they a familiar with? They could have a choice of topics.

Some suggestions include

• Their future ambitions
• Cars/motorbikes
• Holidays
• Music
• Sport

It doesn’t really matter as long as it is something of interest to them.

The choice of a familiar topic to them will make the task of writing 250-300 words much easier. We can all write excessively on a subject that is important to us.   

I am not suggesting that we do get rid of the scenario-based exam question of sending a letter or writing an email as it does have a valuable place in showing competency.

My aim is we give learners another choice by having them writing what they know about. If they are struggling to answer their exam questions, they can demonstrate their writing skills in a different way. This would stop learners going into the default negative mode and going into a downward spiral thinking they won’t meet the set word count.   

What do you think would be better: facing the strain of answering a question with a made-up answer or writing from your own knowledge. I think the results would be evident: learners would be calmer, more composed and there would be a greater level of effort.

Everyone has a passion. Let’s embrace this and make writing exams a little easier for all learners by letting them play to their strengths.