Last reviewed: 25 October 2026
Composition is where an English paper rewards creativity, but marks still depend on structure, language and accuracy. Many junior school learners have good ideas and lose marks through rushed planning or careless grammar. This guide gives a practical method a Grade 7, 8 or 9 learner can use for any story or essay question. Writing is a strand in every theme of KICD’s Grade 9 English curriculum design.
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Read the Question Carefully
Underline the key words. Is it a story, a letter, a description or an argument? If you are given an opening or ending sentence, your composition must use it exactly as written, in the right place. Writing a brilliant story that ignores the given sentence can cost heavily, so check this before you start.
Plan for Five Minutes
A short plan saves time later. Write a few notes for:
- Beginning: who, where, when, and what normal life looked like.
- Middle: the problem or exciting event, and how it develops.
- Climax: the most tense or important moment.
- Ending: how the problem is solved and what the character learned.
Keep the plot simple. One clear event, told well, scores better than five rushed adventures.
Start Strongly
The first lines decide whether the reader wants to continue. Avoid tired openings such as “One fine sunny day”. Instead, try:
- Action: “The bus swerved, and forty schoolbags flew across the aisle.”
- Dialogue: “‘Where is the money?’ Mother asked, staring at the empty tin.”
- Description: “Mist hung over the tea bushes like a grey blanket as I set off for school.”
Write in Clear Paragraphs
Each paragraph should cover one stage of the story or one idea. Start a new paragraph when the time, place or speaker changes. Four to six paragraphs suit most junior school compositions. Indent or leave a line between paragraphs so the examiner can see your structure.
Use Vivid Language, Not Showy Language
Strong verbs and specific nouns bring writing to life. “She walked slowly” becomes “She dragged her feet”. “There was a big noise” becomes “Thunder cracked overhead”. Similes and metaphors help when they fit naturally, and a well-chosen proverb or idiom can show range. But avoid stuffing in memorised phrases that do not suit the story; examiners notice.
Show Feelings Instead of Naming Them
Rather than “I was scared”, describe what fear looked like: “My hands shook so badly that I dropped the torch.” Showing makes the reader feel the moment and demonstrates richer vocabulary.
Use Dialogue Correctly
Short dialogue adds energy. Punctuate it properly: open and close quotation marks, start the spoken words with a capital letter, put punctuation inside the closing quotation mark and start a new line for each new speaker. Do not let dialogue take over the whole composition.
End With Purpose
Resolve the problem and give a sense of closure. A good ending might show what the character learned or bring the story back to its opening image. Avoid “And then I woke up and it was a dream”, which many examiners see as a shortcut.
Check Your Work
Leave five minutes to reread. Check tenses (stay in the past if the story is in the past), subject-verb agreement, spelling of common words, capital letters for names and full stops at the end of sentences. Neat corrections are fine.
Common Mistakes
- Ignoring the given opening or ending sentence.
- Switching between past and present tense.
- Very long sentences joined with “and then”.
- Running out of time before the ending.
- Writing far below or far beyond the expected length.
Practise Regularly
Write one composition a week and ask a teacher or parent to mark it for structure, language and accuracy. Our Grade 9 English revision plan fits composition into a weekly routine, and the Grade 9 English revision papers include writing tasks. Use the exam countdown for free daily grammar questions and the What to Revise report to target weak areas. Full papers with marking guides are in the Monthly Pass (KSh 500 by M-Pesa).