Paper1, Writing: What is the difference between an article and an essay?

Articles and essays are quite similar, but an essay is always written for the teacher whereas an article can be written for a school website or magazine, for example.

There is no difference in terms of the writing skills being assessed in each task. The marking criteria for the two writing tasks (Content and Language) is identical and can be found on the published mark schemes and specimen paper.

Candidates should be prepared to approach Exercises 5 and 6 in the same way. That is to say, by carefully reading both the rubric (which provides the context) and the question itself. They should also identify the purpose for writing and the audience in order to select the most appropriate tone and register to use.

We suggest giving learners as much opportunity to both read and write different text types so that the differences become clearer.

You can find support on writing skills on the School Support Hub with the resources Writing Skills texts types, Writing an article, Writing an essay, Specimen Paper Answers  which provide tips about language and organisation, as well as giving an examples.