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First Language English

Question 4: Extended Response

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Cambridge IGCSE · First Language English · Paper 1

Question 4: Extended Response

The big idea: Question 4 is a "reading dressed up as writing" task — you take facts and feelings buried in a text, put on a character's voice, and rebuild those ideas as a letter, speech, report, journal, interview, or article — without ever copying the original words.

SummaryEverything in this chapter, at a glance

  • Question 4 is based on Text C, worth 20 marks, and takes about 30–35 minutes.
  • You write in one of six formats: letter, report, journal entry, speech, interview, or article.
  • Every question has the same shape: a scenario (who you are now), three bullet points (what to cover), and a task instruction (write a...).
  • Marks split evenly: 10 for Reading (finding & developing the right content) and 10 for Writing (expressing it well in the right voice and form).
  • The core skill is select → infer → develop: find relevant details, work out what's implied, then expand them with feeling from your new character's perspective.
  • You must never copy directly from the text — always use your own words.
  • You must never invent facts that aren't in or reasonably inferred from the text.
  • Aim for 250–300 words, giving roughly equal attention to all three bullet points.

1. What Exactly Is Question 4?The shape of the task

1The basics

Think of Question 4 as a kind of "translation" task. You've already read a passage (Text C) written from one point of view — maybe a teacher describing a school trip, or a narrator describing a desert journey. Your job is to become a different character (or the same character at a different moment) and retell relevant parts of that story in a brand new format, like a letter home or a podcast interview.

20
Total marks
30–35
Minutes suggested
250–300
Word count
6
Possible formats

2Skills being tested

The mark scheme actually tests eight separate skills, grouped into two halves:

Reading skills (10 marks)What it means in practice
R1 — Explicit meaningsSpotting facts stated directly in the text
R2 — Implicit meaningsWorking out what's suggested but never actually said
R3 — Analyse & evaluateReshaping a fact to fit your new character's perspective
R5 — Select & use informationChoosing only what answers the bullet points — ignoring the rest
Writing skills (10 marks)What it means in practice
W1 — Articulate experienceExpressing feelings, thoughts, and imagined detail convincingly
W2 — Organise & structureUsing paragraphs to guide the reader logically through the bullets
W3 — Vocabulary & sentence structureVarying your language — not repeating the same words as the text
W4 — Appropriate languageMatching tone/register to your audience and the format (formal vs informal)
Key insight
Notice that reading and writing marks are completely separate. You could write beautifully but still lose marks if you don't select the right content — and vice versa. You genuinely need both halves working together.

2. Breaking Down the QuestionEvery Q4 follows the same formula

Every single Question 4 you will ever face is built from three ingredients. Learn to spot them instantly:

  1. The scenario — tells you who you are now and when/where you are. E.g. "You are Annie. Two months later, you are in LA."
  2. The bullets — exactly three points you must cover, no more, no less.
  3. The task — the actual instruction, e.g. "Write a...", plus the format and word count.
Rule to remember You are almost never writing as the original narrator of Text C. You're usually asked to become a different character mentioned in the passage, or the same narrator at a later point in time. This means a lot of your content has to come from inference — reading between the lines to imagine what that other person thought or felt, since the text won't tell you directly.

3Highlighting strategy

Before you write a single word, do this:

  • Highlight the important information in the scenario (who you are, where/when you are).
  • Highlight the format you're being asked to write in.
  • Highlight the key information in each bullet point — this becomes your checklist.
  • Then re-read Text C and annotate anything relevant to those three bullets — feelings, reactions, and reasons, not just events.
Target
Aim for roughly 3–4 developed points per bullet to secure full reading marks. That's about 9–12 solid, developed ideas across your whole response.
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Also in the full note
  • 3. Select → Infer → DevelopThe heart of the whole task
  • 4. The Six FormatsMatch your voice to the vehicle
  • 5. The 7 Steps to SuccessYour step-by-step exam strategy
  • 6. Model Answer WalkthroughSeeing it all come together
  • What to MemoriseYour quick-reference cheat sheet
  • Concepts ChecklistTick off what you're confident on
  • Exam TipsWhat examiners actually look for — and what costs marks
  • Letter
What's inside
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