“Why is my child getting low marks in their writing?”

“My child struggles to come up with a story and can’t finish a story in the time limit!”

“How can my child “show” and not “tell”?

“How on earth do we fix up their writing and where do we even start?”

Figuring out where to start with writing improvement is hard.

But… it doesn’t have to be.

Written expression in any selective school entrance exam or scholarship is difficult with so many areas that can lead to a loss of marks (in fact, our scoring tool assesses 52 different areas).

We’ve made it easier for parents, like you, to figure out what needs improvement in your child’s written expression piece, from just reading your child’s essay and going through our 15-point essay checklist.

There’s one for narrative writing here (see below) and a separate checklist for persuasive writing.

What’s Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist?

Exam Success 15-Point Essay Checklist for narrative writing is a straightforward way to review your child’s writing and, most importantly, to diagnose exactly what they’re struggling with and how to help them.

Simply put, the purpose of this essay checklist is to show you:

• an existing writing problem;
• the likely cause of the problem;
• most importantly, how to fix it.

The best part?

It’s extremely easy to use. You don’t need to be good at writing yourself. All you have to do is:

1. Read through your child’s essay
2. Go through the first column to see if any of the impressions of the essay you have are those that match the description. If so, then check out the masterclass videos to help you improve on those weak areas.

How Does Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist Work?

There are 15 areas for you to self-assess. Each point describes a problem or a specific impression you get after reading your child’s writing piece.

These 15 “impressions” are essentially the most common writing mistakes that reveal themselves to the reader.

Here’s an example of the “impression”:

I didn’t get the main idea of the piece. It was unclear and confusing.

Next to the “impression,” you’ll find the potential cause of the problem. This is the area your child needs to focus on in their writing test prep.

Let’s come back to the example.

If the piece seems confusing and unclear, it’s often caused by:

1. Ineffective planning
2. Poor story organisation

This is where your child is likely to lose scores in their competitive exam.

After working through all 15 “impressions” and their causes, you’ll quickly see where to head with your child’s written expression test preparation.

Maybe your child needs to improve their planning skills, brush up on editing, or perhaps learn specific strategies and tricks to come up with a unique storyline that is well developed.

Next to the potential cause, you’ll find a recommended “how-to-fix” your child’s weak area. The how-to-fix is presented in the form of an online video masterclass (or several masterclasses). You can purchase masterclass videos individually or get unlimited access for 31 days to all 96 writing masterclass videos in a package for just $58.30.

Each masterclass video is carefully created by our best writing experts. They’re around 20 minutes each and are jam-packed with actionable tips and tricks that your child can use straight away to improve their writing in a matter of minutes. See an example of our masterclass videos.

Who Can Use Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist?

Our how-to-fix in the form of masterclass videos include essential writing strategies, tips, and tricks that are best suited for students sitting:

• a selective school entrance exam
• a scholarship test
• ICAS test
• NAPLAN

We have created this essay checklist so that parents can effortlessly assess their child’s writing.

That said, the checklist can also be easily used for essay peer editing practice.

You may also find it useful to print out the checklist (download the essay checklist pdf version below). Put it on a fridge or in a common area where it’s easily accessible to the whole family.

Run through the checklist with your child so they can start developing editing skills, know the common writing pitfalls, learn from your feedback, and try their best to avoid issues next time they’re crafting a piece.

Take Your Writing To New Heights with Exam Success’ 15-Point Essay Checklist - Narrative Writing

Is your impression of the essay any of the following?	Check	Potential Cause	“How-to Fix It” Masterclass Videos
1. Could not understand what the piece was about. It was unclear and confusing. The piece didn't make sense.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor story organization Ineffective planning	1. How to Plan to Save Time 2. How to Plan a Main Event 3. How to Develop a Story 4. How to Select Good Ideas for your Piece 5. How to Plan Events
2. The piece seemed too short or too long	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning	1. How to Plan Effectively 2. Learn the Right Length for your Paragraphs and Story
3. The piece read like a newspaper report rather than a narrative/creative essay.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Inappropriate tone Poor word choice	1. How to Create Tone in your Writing 2. How to Show, not Tell (sentences) 3. How to Show, not Tell (paragraphs) 4. How to Accurately Express your Intention
4. The piece used too much description. It was hard to focus on the story.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Using too much detail Poor editing	1. How to Strike a Balance in your Expression 2. How to Remove Unnecessary Details
5. Struggled to come up with ideas for a story.	Yes No. Move to next row.	No strategy Ineffective outlining	1. How to Come Up With a Story
6. Couldn't understand some sentences and what they tried to say. Had to read sentences several times to figure out their meaning.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Lack of clarity Poor editing	1. How to Fix Confusing Expression 2. How to Accurately Express your Intention
7. There were heaps of spelling and grammar mistakes. The piece was a bit rough and seemed like a draft rather than a polished final version.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor editing	1. How to Use Connecting Words 2. How to Start Editing 3. How to Fix up Mistakes
8. The writing seemed disrupted. The piece didn't flow well.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Incorrect use of punctuation Poor editing	1. How to Use Punctuation 2. How to Use Connecting Words 3. How to Start Editing
9. The piece read like a conversation.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective storyline planning Poor use of speech	1. How to Use Speech
10. The ending or/and beginning of the piece wasn't satisfactory.	Yes No. Move to next row.	No strategy Poor story organisation	1. How to Write a Strong Ending 2. How to Write a Catchy First Paragraph
11. The piece didn't seem to match up to the prompt.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Failure to interpret the question Ineffective planning	1. How to Answer the Prompt
12. It seemed like there was too much information and/or some parts of the story were repetitive and said the same thing	Yes No. Move to next row.	Poor storyline planning Including too many events in the story Using unnecessary sentences	1. How to Start Editing 2. How to Avoid Repetition 3. How to Remove Unnecessary Details 4. How to Plan Events 5. How to Plan to Save Time
13. At some points, it seemed like the essay was a different type of writing piece.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning Lack of genre knowledge	1. How to Structure your Story
14. The piece wasn't finished OR Struggled with the time limit.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Ineffective planning	1. How to Plan to Save Time 2. Learn the Right Length For your Paragraphs And Story
15. The piece is okay, but it could use more impact – something seems missing.	Yes No. Move to next row.	Lack of tone creation Poor word choice Poor editing	Specific videos (with sample sentences) on how to show the feeling of: 1. Courageousness, 2. Sensitivity, 3. Anger, 4. Anticipation, 5. Disgust, 6. Envy, 7. Fear, 8. Joy, 9. Sadness, 10. Shame, 11. Surprise, 12. Suspicion 13. How to Accurately Express your Intention

Prefer to study offline? Download your free narrative writing essay checklist pdf here.

Need 5+ Masterclasses? Save $$$ With New Video Plan

There’s a reason our masterclass videos are so effective in improving your child’s writing score. The secret lies in their laser focus on one weak area at a time.

You might find that your child needs more than 5 masterclass videos and that’s why we’ve created a cost-effective Video Plan that offers unrestricted and unlimited access to all 96 masterclass videos for 31 days.

With the video plan, your child gets: 24+ hours of actionable writing advice from the top scorers; unlimited access to all videos for 31 days – re-watch the videos as much as you want, strengthen the weak areas and reinforce the strong ones; accessible on a computer, laptop, and mobile - anytime and anywhere.