ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT

Writing an opening and matched closing

Assessment Criteria and What A Good One Looks Like

Below you will find the Skill Check assessment criteria for this skill, and underneath you will find an example of what a good one looks like, with a brief explanation of how it fits the criteria.

Assessment Criteria for Writing an opening and matched closing

minus
any of these things

Very poor accuracy or written expression

If a type is specified, the opening doesn’t match the type

Opening not linked to the question

No closing provided

equals (just) to plus (secure)
all of these things

Reasonable accuracy and written expression

If a type is specified, the opening clearly matches that type

Opening content clearly relates to the question

Closing links back to the opening to create a circular structure

plus
all of these things

All the = criteria

Writing is somewhat sophisticated, ideally with at least one persuasive technique used

Opening effectively ‘shows’ something that is relevant to the question

Closing both provides summative comments and links back to the opening

What a good one looks like

Example task

Imagine you had to answer the following question:

“Smartphones cause far more harm than good for teens. They should be banned.”

Write an article for a parent website in response to this statement.

Write the opening and matched closing for an article that you might write in response to this question, using any type of opening you like.

Example response

For a few months in 2025 it seemed like all anybody could talk about was the Netflix series ‘Adolescence’. I even ended up subscribing to Netflix just so I could see what all the fuss was about. And though I enjoyed the show — it’s very well-written and directed — I didn’t understand why everyone was so shocked by it. (To be honest, I was mostly shocked that Netflix now costs £15.99 a month!) In the final episode, in perhaps the most openly didactic moment of the series, the broken father of the teenage incel killer, brilliantly played by co-writer Stephen Graham, reflects that he thought his son was “safe” up in his bedroom, alone. And, though I had built up a lot of sympathy for this character over the 4 episodes, at that moment I found myself thinking: “Well, you’re a fool, then.”

Ultimately, then, the time for waking up and smelling the roses has passed. The debate is over. The research has been published. The damage has been done. We are now living among the ruins of this terrible social experiment that has been conducted on our children. And, I’m sorry to say, if you can’t see that, then you’re no less of a fool than that broken father in ‘Adolescence’ who thought his son was safe in his bedroom.

Notes on this response

  • It has an opening paragraph and a closing paragraph.

  • The opening uses the pop-culture reference type, though it brings in some elements of the anecdote type too — this kind of blending of openings is good.

  • The style and tone is appropriate for an article, with a bit of levity too, though generally the tone is quite forceful.

  • The positioning is aimed at parents directly, since that is the audience specified in the task.

  • Persuasive techniques are used in the writing (e.g. parallelism).

  • The opening effectively ‘shows’ the general argument of the piece (e.g. that this should not even be an issue open to debate anymore).

  • The closing links back to the opening using the pop-culture reference type.

  • The closing summarises what would be the overall argument of the piece.