Free Teaching Resource – English D.A.R.T For Compo Writing (Twist In Story Plot)

Following up on our DART series on Composition Writing, we like to prick our students’ brains, to come up with more creative endings, and to break away from the usual ‘happy endings’ or ‘moral of the story’. Whilst used wisely, a student is able to garner high marks. However, for the average Joes and Janes, we come up with an alternative to help them score, the “twisty” way. Introducing our last strategy, Twist in ending, we encourage our students to think of ways to end the stories, which link back to the exposure of reading news articles for realistic ideas and story plots. Let us refer to the attached image. The title is an Unforgettable Incident. There is a supermarket, a butcher knife, and a well-dressed man. For the average Joes and Janes, they will most likely choose all 3 pictures (which we keep emphasizing that there is no need to choose all 3, but to choose pictures they are confident to write), and we can already predict the story plot. A rule of thumb that we advise our students is, if teachers are able to predict the ending before their stories ended, expect their marks to be mediocre.

Here goes the predictable plot: I was asked to go to the super market to grab some groceries. I went reluctantly. I walked down the aisles to shop. I spotted a man behaving suspiciously holding a knife. I called the police. The police came. The man was caught. I did a good deed. It was an unforgettable incident.  

It seemed like a good plot, is it not? However, to us, we will reject this idea and get them to think again. A simple way is to still use the above average plot, but add in some TWIST to spice up the story.

Here goes the TWIST: I was asked to go to the super market to grab some groceries. I went reluctantly. I walked down the aisles to shop. I spotted a man behaving suspiciously holding a knife. I called the police. The police came…… Just when one policeman went ahead to grab the man, we all heard a “CUT”! I was shocked to realize it was actually a film set. The shoppers and man were actors. The knife was a prop. I was embarrassed.  Police left. Director wanted to scold me but gave me a small part to act instead. I could not wait to show off to my friends the next day. It was indeed an unforgettable incident.

See the difference? We added a TWIST in the plain story to brighten up the story plot. That is what we want our students to achieve for their writing. Again, this takes effort on our students part to write, but once they see how a slight change adds volume to their stories, they are motivated to think better.

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