IGCSE English 0500: Directed Writing. Two Viewpoints into a Persuasive Speech

Read the following two viewpoints about the possible closure of Fenbridge's public swimming pool, then complete the task below.

Council press statement: Fenbridge Council has confirmed that the Riverside Pool will close permanently in September unless running costs can be reduced. A spokesperson said, "The pool loses the council over £40,000 a year, and with maintenance costs rising, keeping it open is simply not sustainable without cutting other services."

"Save Our Pool" campaign statement: Campaign leader Priya Chandra argues the closure would hit the town's most vulnerable residents hardest. "The Riverside Pool is the only pool within ten miles," she says. "Our over-60s water aerobics class has forty regular members, some of whom can't manage any other form of exercise. Three local schools use it for compulsory swimming lessons, with no alternative venue arranged." She adds that the campaign has identified £15,000 of possible savings through reduced opening hours in winter, which the council has not yet responded to.

You are a member of the "Save Our Pool" campaign. Using ideas from BOTH statements, write the opening of a SPEECH to be delivered at a public town hall meeting, arguing that the pool should remain open. Address the council's own reasoning directly, and use techniques suited to a spoken speech. Write about 130–160 words. [12]

Assessment focus

This is the most demanding task in this topic: it requires a candidate to select and evaluate evidence from two opposing viewpoints, directly counter the opposing argument (the council’s cost reasoning) rather than ignoring it, and sustain the specific rhetorical conventions of a spoken persuasive speech, a higher-level synthesis of reading and directed-writing skills.

Mark scheme (12 marks)

Speech conventions (3 marks): direct address to the audience (“you”, “all of us in this hall”), spoken rhythm, and at least one clear rhetorical technique (rhetorical question, repetition, triad, or a personal/human example).
Register (2 marks): persuasive and engaged throughout, never drifts into the neutral, third-person register of a report or a balanced summary.
Use of source ideas (4 marks): accurately uses ideas from both statements; crucially, directly addresses the council’s £40,000 cost argument rather than simply repeating the campaign’s points (e.g. by using the campaign’s £15,000 saving as a counter).
Organisation (3 marks): the opening builds logically (establishing what is at stake, then confronting the council’s reasoning, then moving towards a clear position) rather than listing points from the two statements in no particular order.

Model opening (137 words)

£40,000 a year. That is what the council says our pool costs, not what it is worth to the people who actually rely on it.

Tonight, I want you to think about who actually uses the Riverside Pool. Forty members of the over-60s water aerobics class, some of whom cannot exercise any other way. Three schools, with nowhere else to send their students for compulsory swimming lessons. The council tells us the pool costs £40,000 a year it cannot justify. But has anyone on that council actually looked at our proposal to cut winter opening hours, a saving of £15,000, with barely a ripple felt by a single regular swimmer? Before we accept that closing the only pool within ten miles is “simply not sustainable,” I think we deserve an answer to that question first.

Why this works

The opening reframes the council’s own £40,000 figure as a rhetorical hook rather than simply reporting it; direct address (“I want you to think…”, “we deserve”) sustains a persuasive, spoken register throughout; the response uses ideas from both statements, crucially turning the campaign’s £15,000 saving into a direct challenge to the council’s reasoning rather than ignoring it; and the paragraph builds in a clear sequence (human stakes, then the council’s argument, then a pointed counter-question) towards an implied position rather than jumping between sources.

Common pitfalls specific to this task

Opening only with the campaign’s case (the water aerobics class, the schools) and never mentioning the council’s £40,000 figure at all. This leaves the council’s central argument completely unanswered, which a real examiner would penalise as one-sided and less persuasive to an undecided audience.
Writing “According to the council’s press statement…” and “According to Priya Chandra’s statement…” as flat, separate summaries. This is report-style attribution, not the fused, persuasive voice of a speech.