Parents and students are always looking for information on NAPLAN writing test, what to focus on? and what key things to keep in mind while writing text types?. Team at NAPLAN Resource thought to help people out by writing a 3-part series of blogs which could help parents as well as students in understanding the key elements of writing styles.
NAPLAN Writing Exam
The Australian Curriculum requires students to be taught different forms of writing in the English classes. There are three main types of writing, often referred to as text types. Previously they were referred to as genres. The text types are narrative writing, informative writing, and persuasive writing.
To ensure that the students are being taught different writing types, they are evaluated through the Australian National Assessment Test, NAPLAN. The Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 students are given a prompt, which is basically a topic or an idea, and are asked to write about the prompt in a particular text type or genre.
Up to 2015, all the students were given one prompt to write on. But after consultation with test experts, state representatives, and researchers, there was a change and Years 3 and 5 were given one prompt to write on while Years 7 and 9 were given different prompt to write on. However, the text type is same for both the Year groups and the students are evaluated according to the same marking guide.
Narrative writing
Narrative writing is one of the text types that the students are tested on. This style of writing ensures that the student can orient, engage, and affect the audience’s attention. To do this, the student must be able to write in an approach that includes a beginning, a middle, and an end. The following table highlights the marking criterion for narrative writing:
| Marking criterion | Description of narrative writing marking criterion |
| Audience | The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and affect the reader |
| Text structure | The organisation of narrative features including orientation, complication and resolution into an appropriate and effective text structure |
| Ideas | The creation, selection and crafting of ideas for a narrative |
| Character and setting | Character: The portrayal and development of character Setting: The development of a sense of place, time and atmosphere |
| Vocabulary | The range and precision of contextually appropriate language choices |
| Cohesion | The control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of grammatical elements (referring words, text connectives, conjunctions) and lexical elements (substitutions, repetitions, word associations) |
| Paragraphing | The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to negotiate the narrative |
| Sentence structure | The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences |
| Punctuation | The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text |
| Spelling | The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used |
More details about narrative writing will be provided in our NAPLAN Narrative Writing blog.
Persuasive writing:
Persuasive writing, also known as Argument texts, is a style of writing that presents a point of view or is aimed to persuade the reader. The writer must be able to persuade the reader to support his view point once the reader finishes reading the story. The following table highlights the marking criterion for persuasive writing:
| Marking criterion | Description of persuasive writing marking criterion |
| Audience | The writer’s capacity to orient, engage and persuade the reader |
| Text structure | The organisation of the structural components of a persuasive text (introduction, body and conclusion) into an appropriate and effective text structure |
| Ideas | The selection, relevance and elaboration of ideas for a persuasive argument |
| Persuasive devices | The use of a range of persuasive devices to enhance the writer’s position and persuade the reader |
| Vocabulary | The range and precision of contextually appropriate language choices |
| Cohesion | The control of multiple threads and relationships across the text, achieved through the use of grammatical elements (referring words, text connectives, conjunctions) and lexical elements (substitutions, repetitions, word associations) |
| Paragraphing | The segmenting of text into paragraphs that assists the reader to follow the line of argument |
| Sentence structure | The production of grammatically correct, structurally sound and meaningful sentences |
| Punctuation | The use of correct and appropriate punctuation to aid the reading of the text |
| Spelling | The accuracy of spelling and the difficulty of the words used |
More details about persuasive writing will be provided in our NAPLAN Persuasive Writing blog.
Information writing is a style of writing that presents information or ideas about countries, people, places, or events. This could include descriptions, news articles, reports, and biographies. However, so far Information writing hasn’t been tested in NAPLAN, but this form needs to be studied so that students are prepared for it.