TECHNICAL ACCURACY
Why technical accuracy really matters
Accuracy marks make up a big part of both creative writing tasks at GCSE (16 out of the 40 available marks), yet technical accuracy seems to be something that is, at best, an after-thought for many students (“Do I really have to use capital letters? Fine!”). It really shouldn’t be, though, and this guide will explain why.
This guide is part of the Technical accuracy series:
Why technical accuracy really matters
Why you really need to focus on improving technical accuracy
For much of what determines your creative writing mark, talent really helps. Without it, you can still do a decent job, but talent definitely makes a difference. When you’re trying to write some vivid description, talent helps. When you’re trying to use ambitious vocabulary in a way that feels appropriate, talent helps. When you’re inventing similes, writing fluent, balanced sentences, or coming up with clever plot twists, talent definitely helps. Some people will always find these things easier to do than others, and there’s not much we can do to help with that, especially if you’re reading this guide as you revise for your GCSEs.
This is not the case with technical accuracy. Learning the rules requires zero talent – it just requires intent.
You have to believe it’s worth your time to learn where to put apostrophes, or when to use capital letters, or how to use a semi-colon, or what comma-splicing is, or whatever. And you have to think it’s worth your time to pay attention to this as you write, as well as when you check your writing at the end. This is not beyond you; you just have to want it.
What rules you definitely need to know
Having said all of that, it is true that some rules are trickier to learn than others. Where to put commas is particularly difficult, for instance, not to mention contentious. But it’s not the tricky rules that will lose you marks in an exam. It’s getting the basic ones wrong that will really hurt your accuracy mark, so it’s these ones that you absolutely must grasp. The basic rules to learn are:
What a sentence is – when one starts and ends (called sentence demarcation)
When to use capital letters: at the start of sentences, for proper nouns and when using the pronoun ‘I’
How to use apostrophes for contraction and possession – including it’s vs its
The difference between homophones like their/there/they’re and you’re/your
Not writing one word when you mean two – e.g. in fact, a lot, etc
How to use tense correctly
How to punctuate direct speech
There are separate guides for each of these things on the website, so you just need to go through these guides and take the time to really learn the rules. It’s not a quick job, especially if you don’t know any of these rules right now, but everyone can do it, including you. You just have to want it.