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Structuring an Extended Written Response: Question 7

Syllabus W1, W2

Multiple choice 1 mark

Read this extract from a student's report on a new community garden scheme. It is currently written as a single paragraph, but a new paragraph should begin partway through, at the point where the writing shifts from describing the scheme so far to describing plans for its future.

  1. Last spring, the council transformed an unused plot behind the library into a community garden.
  2. Local volunteers now grow vegetables and flowers there every weekend, sharing the produce among residents who help maintain the beds.
  3. The scheme has proved surprisingly popular: more than sixty people have signed up to volunteer, and a waiting list has already formed for garden plots.
  4. Looking ahead, the council plans to expand the garden onto a neighbouring plot next year, and is considering adding a small greenhouse for winter growing.
  5. This expansion would allow the scheme to run throughout the year rather than only in the warmer months.

Which sentence should begin the new paragraph? [1]

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
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Worked solution

Assessment focus

This tests whether a candidate can recognise where one paragraph’s idea ends and a new one begins, not simply by sentence length or the appearance of a new fact, but by tracking the passage’s controlling idea and spotting a genuine shift.

Why C is correct

Sentences 1–3 all describe the garden scheme as it currently stands: its origin (1), how it is used (2), and evidence of its popularity (3). Sentence 4 shifts explicitly to the future (“Looking ahead… plans to expand”), introducing a new idea, what happens next, that deserves its own paragraph.

Why the distractors are wrong

  • A (Sentence 2) would split the description of the garden’s origin from the description of how it is currently used, even though both belong to the same “current state” idea.
  • B (Sentence 3) continues the same “current state” idea as sentences 1–2 (here, evidence of the scheme’s popularity), rather than introducing a genuinely new idea.
  • D (Sentence 5) continues explaining the future-plans idea that sentence 4 introduces, so splitting them would separate an idea from its own supporting detail.

Mark scheme

  • 1 mark for selecting C.
  • 0 marks for any other option. No partial credit, since this is a discrete single-answer selection question.