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Coursework: Planning, Drafting and Redrafting: Question 6

Syllabus W1, W2

Structured 5 marks

A student is planning a discursive coursework assignment arguing that "every student should learn to cook one hot meal before leaving school." Before drafting, she has jotted down these six planning notes in no particular order:

  1. Cooking teaches basic budgeting, since ingredients cost money and have to be chosen carefully.
  2. My cousin recently started a part-time job at a supermarket and finds the till system confusing.
  3. A student who can cook is less dependent on ready meals and fast food, which are often less healthy.
  4. Learning a practical skill like cooking builds confidence that carries into other areas of life.
  5. Many schools already teach cookery lessons as an optional subject in Year 9.
  6. Cooking a meal from scratch usually takes much longer than a ready meal, so some students would resent losing free time to learn it.

(a) Identify the ONE note above that is irrelevant to this specific thesis and should be cut before drafting begins. [1]

(b) In 1–2 sentences, explain why leaving material like this in a plan can weaken the final coursework draft. [2]

(c) Note 6 is relevant, but it works against the thesis rather than for it. In one sentence, explain how a planner should use a note like this, rather than simply deleting it. [2]

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Worked solution

Assessment focus

This question tests a skill that belongs specifically to the planning stage, before any drafting begins: sorting gathered ideas into what genuinely supports the thesis, what is simply unconnected to it, and what is relevant but inconvenient, since these three categories need three different treatments in a plan.

Why note 2 is the one to cut (part a)

Every other note connects to the thesis in some way, even if not all of them are flattering to it: budgeting, health, confidence and existing school provision are all genuinely about cooking and its value, and the time cost in note 6 is a real objection to weigh. Note 2, about a cousin’s unrelated part-time job, shares no content with the thesis at all. It is the only note that could be deleted without losing anything the assignment needs.

Why leaving it in weakens a draft (part b)

Every sentence a coursework assignment spends on unrelated material is a sentence not spent developing, evidencing or nuancing the actual thesis. Beyond wasting space, drifting material like this can also signal to a reader that the writer has not thought carefully about what belongs in the piece, undermining the sense of a controlled, purposeful argument.

Handling relevant-but-difficult material (part c)

Note 6 should not be treated the same way as note 2. A planner who notices a genuine counter-argument has two honest options: concede the point and explain why the thesis still holds despite it (for example, arguing the long-term value of the skill outweighs the short-term time cost), or rebut it directly with a reason it does not actually undermine the thesis. Deleting a real counter-argument produces a one-sided plan that a stronger draft would later need to fix.

Common pitfalls specific to this task

  • Cutting note 5 by mistake because it briefly mentions “other schools” rather than the writer’s own view, without noticing it still supports the thesis as evidence that cookery teaching is already viable.
  • Treating note 6 exactly like note 2, and cutting both, rather than noticing one is unconnected material and the other is a counter-argument worth planning a response to.
  • In part (b), simply restating that note 2 is “off topic” without explaining what leaving it in would actually cost the finished draft.