Writing Forms: The Diary Entry

Methods in this video

Tap a time to jump to where the video teaches that method.

1. 1

   I remembered: the date, Dear Diary, the task's sentence word for word, then something you care about

   ▶ 1:03

   When to use it: The task says Write a diary entry (for example Selective 2022, In the future) and gives you a sentence to start with; when you write the first paragraph.

   • Every diary starts the same way: the date on the top line, then Dear Diary, then the task's sentence.
   • The date is only a heading. The task's sentence is still your first sentence: copy it word for word.
   • After the three dots, write something you care about: what you remember is what your whole day is about.
   • Add a problem to carry through the whole day.
   • You're writing what has happened up to tonight, so mostly past.
2. 2

   What happened: start from today and change one thing, use it don't explain it, in a private voice

   ▶ 2:28

   When to use it: Writing what happened during the day when the task asks for an imagined future (futuristic details about technology, ways to travel, home and social life); you don't know what the future is like, or you want to explain a new thing to the marker.

   • Start from today, change one thing.
   • Band 6 talks about inventive and imaginative details, and you can get there by changing only one thing.
   • Use it, don't explain it: the name tells the marker what it is.
   • After you could, they're just places to start. Paragraphs follow your day, and those ideas come along as things happen.
   • Private voice: write the things you'd only tell yourself. A diary hears what nobody else hears, because the reader is you.
3. 3

   The big moment: the feeling goes right next to it, and slow it down

   ▶ 4:16

   When to use it: You reach the most important moment of the day and write what happened, then I felt sad at the very end.

   • What happened and how you felt go together: the feeling goes right next to it, not saved for the very end.
   • A real diary does it too: in 1912 Captain Scott wrote that the Norwegians were first at the Pole, and straight after, It is a terrible disappointment.
   • This is the moment that matters most, so slow it down. What happened next?
   • And the fight? Settle the problem you've carried since the morning, right in this moment.
4. 4

   How I felt: now in the present, one detail with impact, a worry and a hope, then reflection

   ▶ 5:28

   When to use it: You reach the night and the ending; you want to add more cool stuff, or you always end with Then I went to bed.

   • Mostly past, present for right now, future for what's still to come.
   • Not a shop catalogue: Band 6 says selected to create impact. Pick one detail that changes how you feel.
   • When you feel something, that's impact. Then add a worry and a hope.
   • End with what the day made you think: what changed, or what you're wondering. That's called reflection.
   • Then your sign-off, like Goodnight, Diary, with no real name.