Revising 11 Plus story writing

Top Tip: Check the DIALOGUE Vs ACTION Vs DESCRIPTION

If you’re currently revising writing with your child for an 11 Plus exam, it is worth checking their story writing for dialogue and action.

It’s pretty common for children to either forget to include dialogue (and just use single character speech) or put too much dialogue in and forget the action and description.

So, we aim for a good BALANCE between DIALOGUE and ACTION and DESCRIPTION.

Take a look at this…

Too much dialogue:
“Where are we? whispered Sam.
“I am not sure,” gasped Amir.
“Where shall we go now?” replied Sam.
“Let’s crawl over there,” said Amir.

Remember – real life does not stop to make way for characters to have a friendly chat. So, include action and description!

 Just the right amount of dialogue + action + description:
The moon hung in the sky like a wise elder.
“Where are we?” whispered Sam as he tugged nervously at the hood of his coat.
“I am not sure,” whimpered Amir, sweat dripping off his forehead, eyes darting back and forth across the darkening forest floor.
Sam stared at Amir, searching his face for answers. Not getting any, he leapt to his feet and snapped a little too loudly, “Follow me, then, if I have to decide everything!”

 Next steps
Take a piece of recent story writing and look for the speech.
Does it have a dialogue between two or more characters?
Does it include a description of HOW a character says something and what they do with their body as they are speaking?
Is there action interwoven with the speech to move the story forwards?

Good luck, and enjoy the writing revision process. You can look back confidently afterwards and feel proud about a more substantial piece of writing!
Anna