📖 Continuous Writing · Worked Example

From prompt to distinction: “Teamwork” worked end‑to‑end

This is the Continuous Writing guide in action. We take a real PSLE Paper 1 picture prompt and work it right through — planning, structuring, drafting and polishing — until it becomes a composition that would score well. Read it alongside the guide, and you’ll see exactly how each piece of advice turns into words on the page.

The Prompt

What you’re given

This is the actual Continuous Writing prompt from the 2018 PSLE English Paper 1.

Write a composition of at least 150 words about teamwork.

The pictures are provided to help you think about this topic.

Your composition should be based on one or more of these pictures.

Consider the following points when you plan your composition:

  • How did the team members work together?
  • What did the team members hope to achieve?

You may use the points in any order and include other relevant points as well.

Prompt picture 1: three students in school uniform gathered around a desktop computer, one of them typing Prompt picture 2: an adult and two children wearing chef’s hats and aprons, holding cooking utensils, with a pan and carrots on the table Prompt picture 3: a large two-handled trophy on a plinth
Format check (from 2025). Paper 1 (Writing) runs for 1 h 10 min and is worth 25% of the subject. It has two parts: Situational Writing (14 marks) and Continuous Writing (36 marks). For Continuous Writing you write a composition of at least 150 words in continuous prose on a given topic; three pictures are provided offering different angles of interpretation, and your composition must be based on at least one of them. The 2018 paper used the older mark allocation, but the writing task itself is unchanged in shape — which is why past prompts like this one are still worth practising.
Step 1

Plan it — the five questions

Before writing a single sentence, spend five minutes answering the guide’s five planning questions. Here is the plan behind the model composition.

1 · Who?
I — quick-tempered, with restraint still to learn. Marcus — the steadiest pair of hands, and the one who breaks. Priya — fast-thinking, the one who acts first. Their coach Chef Lim appears only in a remembered line, so the kitchen never gets crowded.
2 · Where & when?
One room, thirty minutes: the final of a cooking competition. A single setting and a ticking clock — no scene-hopping.
3 · The problem?
A flare-up sends the main dish onto the floor with twenty minutes left. But the real problem is what happens next: Marcus collapses into self-blame, and I badly want to shout at him.
4 · What next?
Priya fetches the spare fillet; I choose kindness over blame. The team reorganises around Marcus instead of replacing him.
5 · The ending?
They win — but the reflection lands on the rescue, not the prize. Answers both guiding questions: how they worked together (divided roles, called timings, covered for each other) and what they hoped to achieve (the trophy, stated in the opening).
Why this plan scores. “Teamwork” is a value, not an event, so the danger is writing a flat report of a group project that goes well. This plan puts the team under real strain and gives me a private choice to make. Two layers of conflict — one outside (the ruined fish), one inside (the swallowed anger) — is what separates a distinction script from a competent one.
Step 2

Map it to the five-paragraph shape

The plan slots directly into the guide’s Hook → Build-up → Conflict → Resolution → Reflection structure.

Para 1
Hook
Open inside the competition kitchen. Establish the three teammates, the clock and what they want in four sentences.
Para 2
Build-up
The plan and the divided roles. Chef Lim’s “kitchen is a machine” line is planted here — it has two jobs to do later. Then ten minutes of everything going right.
Para 3
Conflict
The flame, the fish on the floor, Marcus breaking down. The tension turns inward: will the narrator shout?
Para 4
Resolution
Priya acts, the narrator chooses kindness, the machine starts turning again. The recovery is earned by the practice and the roles set up in Para 2.
Para 5
Reflection
The trophy is lifted — and quietly set aside. A closing pair of sentences that defines what a team actually is.
On paragraph counting. A new speaker always starts a new line, so this composition looks like thirteen blocks on the page. It is still the five stages above — the short dialogue lines belong to the paragraphs around them. Correct dialogue layout is a language mark; never cram speech into a block just to keep the paragraph count tidy.
Step 3

The model composition read it whole first

A Recipe for Victory

The competition kitchen smelt of garlic and hot oil long before our own stoves were lit. Beside me stood Priya and Marcus, our crisp white hats sitting proudly on our heads and our wooden spoons raised like swords. Eight weeks of practice had carried us to the final of the National Junior Chef Challenge, and we wanted one thing: that trophy.

“Thirty minutes on the clock!” the announcer boomed.

We had a plan. Marcus, whose hands were the steadiest, would pan-fry the fish. Priya would arrange the carrots and salad. I would stir the sauce Chef Lim had taught us to perfect. “A kitchen is a machine,” our mentor always said. “Every gear must turn together. And when one jams, you have to help it turn, or nothing moves at all.”

For the first ten minutes, our machine hummed. Priya’s carrot slices fanned out like orange petals, and my sauce thickened into a glossy ribbon. I allowed myself a small, secret smile.

Then a tongue of flame leapt from Marcus’s pan. He jerked backwards and the fish slid off the spatula, landing on the floor with a wet slap. The kitchen fell silent. Marcus’s face turned as white as his apron, and his lower lip began to tremble.

“I’ve ruined it,” he whispered. “I’ve ruined everything.”

Twenty minutes remained, and our main dish lay on the tiles. Part of me wanted to shout at him. Instead, I remembered Chef Lim’s words and swallowed my anger.

“We still have the spare fillet,” Priya said quickly, already darting to the chiller. “Marcus, breathe. Your hands are the steadiest of us all.”

I slid the burnt pan aside and set a fresh one on the stove. “Lower heat this time,” I said gently, squeezing his shoulder. “We’ll be your extra pair of hands.”

Something changed after that. Priya called out timings while I passed ingredients before Marcus could ask. His jaw set, and the fillet turned a beautiful golden brown. The machine was turning again.

“Time’s up!”

We plated our dish with three seconds to spare. When the judges announced that we had clinched first place, the hall erupted. Marcus lifted the gleaming trophy above his head, its polished surface catching the light like liquid gold. Yet as I looked at the three of us — sauce-splattered, sweaty and breathless — I realised the trophy was not what I treasured most.

That afternoon I learnt that a team is not a group of people who never make mistakes. A team is a group of people who catch one another when they fall.

Length: ~425 words · well above the 150-word minimum, and still short enough to proofread
Step 4

The same essay, annotated

Now see why each paragraph works. The techniques below map directly to the guide’s Structure and Language stages.

Para 1 · Hook
The competition kitchen smelt of garlic and hot oil long before our own stoves were lit. … our crisp white hats sitting proudly on our heads and our wooden spoons raised like swords. … we wanted one thing: that trophy. — “Thirty minutes on the clock!” the announcer boomed.
Opens with smell, not “One day…” Simile: spoons “raised like swords” Answers guiding question 2 immediately A clock starts ticking
Three characters, a setting, a goal and a deadline in four sentences. “Raised like swords” tells you these children think of themselves as fighters — characterisation smuggled inside an image. The short colon ending (“one thing: that trophy”) answers the prompt outright without sounding like it is answering a prompt.
Para 2 · Build-up
Marcus, whose hands were the steadiest, would pan-fry the fish. Priya would arrange the carrots and salad. I would stir the sauce… “A kitchen is a machine,” our mentor always said. “Every gear must turn together. And when one jams, you have to help it turn, or nothing moves at all.” … For the first ten minutes, our machine hummed.
Answers guiding question 1 Parallel sentences for the three roles Plants the motif the story will pay off twice Sensory: “orange petals”, “glossy ribbon”
Three sentences with identical shape (Marcus would… Priya would… I would…) are the literal answer to “how did the team members work together?” — and the repetition itself sounds like a machine ticking over. Chef Lim’s line is not decoration: the story will use it twice, once to stop the narrator shouting and once as the final image of the rescue. Plant, then pay off.
Para 3 · Conflict
Then a tongue of flame leapt from Marcus’s pan. … landing on the floor with a wet slap. The kitchen fell silent. Marcus’s face turned as white as his apron… “I’ve ruined it,” he whispered. … Part of me wanted to shout at him. Instead, I remembered Chef Lim’s words and swallowed my anger.
Two layers: outer disaster, inner choice Short sentence: “The kitchen fell silent.” Show-don’t-tell: “white as his apron” Sound detail: “a wet slap”
Notice what the burnt fish is for. On its own it is only bad luck, and bad luck is not a story. The paragraph is really about the sentence “Part of me wanted to shout at him” — the moment the narrator could fail the topic. That is where the reader leans in.
Para 4 · Resolution
“Marcus, breathe. Your hands are the steadiest of us all.” … “We’ll be your extra pair of hands.” … Priya called out timings while I passed ingredients before Marcus could ask. … The machine was turning again.
Fixes the person, not just the dish Echoes “steadiest” from Para 2 The motif pays off No lucky stranger, no coincidence
Two rescues happen at once: Priya saves the dish, the narrator saves the teammate. Priya’s praise deliberately repeats the word used to introduce Marcus in Para 2, so the reader hears the team giving him back his own identity. And “The machine was turning again” closes Chef Lim’s image in five words — far stronger than a stock phrase like we worked like a well-oiled machine.
Para 5 · Reflection
…its polished surface catching the light like liquid gold. Yet as I looked at the three of us — sauce-splattered, sweaty and breathless — I realised the trophy was not what I treasured most. That afternoon I learnt that a team is not a group of people who never make mistakes. A team is a group of people who catch one another when they fall.
The prize is deliberately demoted Parallel closing sentences Answers the topic without preaching
The ending refuses to celebrate the trophy, which is exactly what lifts it above we won and I was happy. The last two sentences use the same frame twice (“a team is not… A team is…”), so the definition arrives with rhythm rather than as a lecture. One statement of the lesson is enough.
Bonus

How the pictures were used — and why two is enough

You only need one picture. This composition uses two, and deliberately leaves the third alone.

Picture 2 · Cooking
Used throughout. The chef’s hats, the aprons, the raised utensils and the pan are the whole world of the story. Even the adult in the picture has a counterpart — Chef Lim, kept offstage so the children carry the action themselves.
Picture 3 · Trophy
Used twice, on purpose. It is the goal in Paragraph 1 (“we wanted one thing: that trophy”) and the image in Paragraph 5, where it is lifted, admired — and then quietly ranked below the lesson.
Picture 1 · Computer
Not used — and that is the right call. A screen adds nothing to a story set in one room across thirty minutes. Wedging in “we researched recipes online” would have bought a tick and cost a paragraph of pace.
Two pictures is a complete answer. The instruction is that your composition must be based on one or more of the pictures. Using two is not a compromise and loses you nothing — there are no extra marks for a full set. What is marked is the quality of the story, so a picture belongs in your composition only if it makes that story better.
Caution: never cram in a picture just to tick a box. A single picture handled with a strong conflict beats three pictures shoe-horned into a rambling plot. The two used here connect because the practice behind the cooking is what makes the trophy mean something.
Language

Techniques pulled from this essay

Every technique the guide’s Language stage teaches appears in the composition. Here they are, with the exact lines.

Precise speech verbs
boomed · whispered · said quickly · said gently — and the announcer’s two lines carry no verb at all, because the shout speaks for itself.
Show, don’t tell
“his lower lip began to tremble” (not he was upset); “Part of me wanted to shout at him” (not I was angry); “His jaw set” (not he felt determined).
Sentence variety
“The kitchen fell silent.” and “The machine was turning again.” — four and five words — sit against the long, flowing sentence of the accident. The contrast is deliberate.
Strong verbs
boomed · jerked · darting · leapt · erupted · clinched — each verb carries how the action happened inside itself, so no adverb is needed to prop it up: Marcus jerked backwards, not moved backwards very quickly.
Similes that do work
“spoons raised like swords” (they see themselves as fighters); “white as his apron” (uses something already in the scene); “like liquid gold”. A simile is a lens, not an ornament.
Sensory detail
Smell (“garlic and hot oil”), sight (“fanned out like orange petals”, “a glossy ribbon”), sound (“a wet slap”, “the hall erupted”). Three senses, not just sight.
Motif
The machine: planted in Chef Lim’s advice, echoed in “our machine hummed”, paid off in “The machine was turning again”. One image, three appearances — this is what makes a composition feel crafted.
Parallel structure
“Marcus… would… Priya would… I would…” for the three roles, and “a team is not… A team is…” in the final two sentences.
Proofread

Your last-five-minutes checklist

The guide’s final stage is proofreading (Mistake #10: not leaving time to check). Content and language are the two things examiners weigh, so check them in that order. Story and task first — a composition that drifts off the topic cannot be rescued by tidy punctuation. Then sweep for language accuracy, which is where the most learnable marks in the paper sit. Reserve 3–5 minutes at the end, read your composition once slowly, and run through this list.

Story & task
Language & mechanics
Tip: you cannot fix what you rush past. Read at the pace you would read aloud — that is what makes slips visible.