Year 9 writing is assessed for control, sophistication, and relevance. Students need to develop arguments or narratives that are structured, precise, and sustained.
Each prompt comes with a worked plan, a model opening and what markers look for, so students can see how a strong response is built.
Discursive: 'Failure is a better teacher than success.' Discuss.
Thomas Edison is said to have tested thousands of filaments before finding one that worked, and he claimed he had not failed but found thousands of ways that did not work. Stories like his suggest that failure is the greatest teacher of all. Yet success teaches too, and the real question is not which teaches more, but what makes either one a lesson rather than just an outcome.
Narrative: a story about a character who must confront their biggest fear.
The water at Coogee was flat and glassy, the kind of morning swimmers dream about. Priya stood at the edge of the rock pool with her towel wrapped around her shoulders like armour. Six years had passed since the rip had dragged her out past the flags, but her body still remembered. Today, though, her little brother was the one in trouble, and there was no one else close enough to reach him.
Persuasive: should the voting age be lowered to 16?
At sixteen, many Australians already work part-time, pay tax and are learning to drive. Yet on election day, they have no say in the decisions that shape their futures. Lowering the voting age to sixteen would give young people a voice on issues such as climate change, education and housing, which will affect them for decades longer than anyone else.
Practise planning strong introductions and conclusions.
Use topic sentences to keep paragraphs focused.
Edit for sentence variety and unnecessary repetition after drafting.
It assesses audience, ideas, structure, vocabulary, cohesion, paragraphing, sentence control, punctuation, and spelling.
No. Students should practise flexible planning and strong writing techniques rather than memorising a response that may not fit the prompt.