Narrative Composition: Question 8
Syllabus W1, W3
A student planning a story titled "The Interview" has listed five events that all happen across one morning: (1) waking up and getting dressed, (2) the bus journey into town, (3) waiting in the reception area, growing more nervous, (4) the interview itself, including one difficult question, (5) walking home afterwards.
Identify which ONE of these five events should become the story's most detailed, expanded scene, and briefly explain why. Then write a single sentence that compresses TWO of the least important events from the list, showing how a writer moves quickly through less significant time. [6]
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Worked solution
Assessment focus
This tests understanding of deliberate pacing: recognising which moment in a story deserves full scenic treatment, and compressing less significant time into brief, purposeful narration rather than treating every event with equal weight.
Mark scheme (6 marks)
- Correct scene identified (2 marks): event 4 (the interview, especially the difficult question) is named as the moment to expand, with a reason connected to tension, character or climax. This is the story’s highest-stakes moment.
- Genuine compression (2 marks): the sentence combines two minor events into one economical sentence rather than describing each in turn.
- Telling detail retained (2 marks): the compressed sentence keeps one specific, purposeful detail rather than becoming a bare list of actions.
Model answer
Scene to expand: Event 4, the interview itself. This is where the character is tested most directly and where the story’s tension and stakes peak, so it deserves full scenic detail (dialogue, sensory detail and internal reaction) rather than brief summary.
Compression sentence (combining events 1 and 2): She barely remembered getting dressed or the cramped bus ride into town, her mind already rehearsing answers to questions she hadn’t been asked yet.
Why this works
The interview is chosen because it is the story’s central, highest-stakes moment, where character is revealed under pressure. Exactly where a reader’s attention should be held longest. The compression sentence folds two minor events into one flowing sentence and uses a specific, telling detail (rehearsing unasked questions) to imply the character’s state of mind, rather than simply listing what happened.
Common pitfalls specific to this task
- Selecting event 3 as the scene to expand, reasoning that nervous waiting is “more dramatic,” when the difficult question in the interview itself is the story’s real climax.
- Writing “She woke up, got dressed, and then got on the bus,” which is short but still lists two separate actions rather than compressing them into one purposeful sentence.