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'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:48 am
by Walthams
We are ploughing our way through various comprehension papers.

1. A couple of times we have come across a question worded in the following way:
'What sort of person is name of a character from the passage ?'

Does 'sort of person' mean the answer should ONLY be regarding the personality of the character, or would it also be acceptable to write other details about that person=character e.g. that the character is, say, not strong physically, weak, followed by explanation/evidence from passage or that the character is a young orphaned girl, does not have any family, or attends boarding school, etc).

2. Would writing in bullet points be acceptable in case of some longer questions where a child needs to provide 3 or 4 different reasons/points or does it have to be written as one smooth flowing piece? My dd seems to prefer to write each point separately.

Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and experience with us.

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:06 am
by Daogroupie
I am surprised you have found papers using "What sort of person" as this is not really the language I would expect to be used in English questions. Can you identify the papers you are finding this language in?

!Do you like the character of" or "What do you think of" is more common in the papers I work with.

I write my own papers and the character questions are always the most important high mark ones.

What sort of person should be things about them you can change and that they are responsible for.

You can't help where you are born and if your parents die or if your hair is blonde that is not what sort of person you are.

Think about it in terms of things about yourself that you can change and things you can't.

You can be like Scrooge and stop being mean but if you are Oliver you can't stop being an orphan.

"What do you learn about" is more facts about the person such as an orphan or their age if there is also a separate character question. If however this is the only chance to talk about attributes then you should include them in this question.

"Describe" would include attributes and appearance.

But what sort of person would be their attributes. Are they brave, mean, generous, diligent etc.

If it is a four mark question then you need to identify and number four separate things just to show the examiner that you have actually written about four different things DG

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:12 pm
by Walthams
Thank you for your detailed explanation. This question is from a comprehension paper I got together with a bunch of other used and unused papers someone was selling on ebay and this particular paper is from the Perse school.

Daogrupie, the questions you mention 'Do you like the character of' or 'what do you think of' seem to me to be of different style. They are asking for a personal opinion so not a very straightforward 'personality' type of question, I might be wrong though..?

I think my second question might have escaped unnoticed, so I'll copy it here again. I'll appeciate guidance as my daughter insists she prefers to write in bullet points and I am afraid she will lose points this way. Thank you!
2. Would writing in bullet points be acceptable in case of some longer questions where a child needs to provide 3 or 4 different reasons/points or does it have to be written as one smooth flowing piece? My dd seems to prefer to write each point separately.

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:25 pm
by Daogroupie
Could you type out the question and what is the text?

What do you think and Do you like are really saying the same thing and What sort of is also your personal opinion of what you can infer from the text.

I did answer your second question in my final paragraph. Do not write in bullet points but you can focus your answer by using firstly, secondly etc.

Do not use bullet points. They are looking at your dd's ability to write coherently. She needs to write in proper sentences. DG

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:27 am
by Walthams
If that might me of any help, here is the exact question:
How would you describe the sort of person Oliver is, as shown in the passage?

The text is from Black Harvest by Ann Pilling.

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:54 am
by Daogroupie
So it does not say "What sort of person" It says "How would you describe the sort of person Oliver is"

This is a personal opinion question exactly the same as What do you think of and Do you like?

Your dd needs to respond in the ways I have described. A personal response to the attributes of Oliver. This is a personal opinion to be inferred from the text.

How many marks are allocated to the question?

She needs to identify attributes and back her opinion up with quotes from the text. She should not use bullet points. She should write in detailed coherent sentences using the type of vocabulary found in CEM and KS2 punctuation. The word "You" means a personal response. DG

Re: 'What sort of person..?'

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 9:57 pm
by Walthams
It is a four mark question.