igcse english narrative coursework example

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Unleashing your creativity: story structures for top-scoring igcse narrative writing.

As IGCSE students, you’re on a quest to master the art of narrative writing, and I’m here to be your trusted guide.

Today, we’ll explore the fascinating world of story structures that will help you craft captivating, engaging, and top-scoring narrative pieces. So, buckle up and get ready to unleash your creativity and embark on a journey to the land of A+ narratives!

We’ll start first with our recommendations for narrative structures that you can try out in your writing (more specific and targeted blog posts, examples, and templates will follow in the coming weeks), and also provide examples that take place in some books that you can consider reading; they are mostly classics.

While they won’t demonstrate the entirety of each one of these narrative structures in full, they will provide some valuable insight into what to look for and also provide examples that you can reference if you have the interest (and the time!) to pursue some reading. 🙂

In the final section, we will justify these recommendations with specific reference to the mark scheme.

Do know also that it is possible to combine this narrative structures with one another and that you most likely will do so as you utilise the techniques that you learn in this post in order to deal with the unseen prompts that you will encounter on the exam and write stories at large 🙂

Sounds good? Let’s go! 🚀

Narrative Structures

• The Classic Three-Act Structure: Tried and True

The three-act structure is like a reliable old friend, always there to guide you through the world of storytelling. This classic approach divides your narrative into three parts: the setup, confrontation, and resolution. By establishing a strong beginning, middle, and end, you’ll create a well-balanced and engaging story that is sure to impress your IGCSE examiners.

“Once upon a time in a faraway land, there lived a young girl named Cinderella who was forced to work as a servant for her wicked stepmother and stepsisters.” – Cinderella, Charles Perrault.

This opening line from the classic fairytale of Cinderella sets the stage for a story that follows the three-act structure. The first act introduces the characters and the central conflict, the second act chronicles Cinderella’s struggles and her magical night at the ball, and the third act brings about resolution and a happy ending as she marries the prince.

Note however that the Three-Act Structure does not necessarily entail a happy ending – it is just a framework for setting up your story, and definitely can and should be used in conjunction with some of the other narrative structures as well as intelligent discernment in order for you to construct a piece that will impress and wow your examiners! Thank you to Ms. Rani CK for discussing this with me 🙂

• The Hero’s Journey: Embrace the Adventure

The Hero’s Journey, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s monomyth, is a story structure that revolves around a protagonist’s transformative adventure. Your hero (or heroine) will face trials, overcome obstacles, and ultimately return as a changed person. By incorporating this powerful structure into your narrative writing, you’ll create a compelling and dynamic story that captures the essence of human experience and captivates your readers (and examiners).

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” – The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s opening line in The Hobbit introduces the protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, and marks the beginning of his Hero’s Journey. Throughout the story, Bilbo leaves his comfortable home, faces various trials and adventures alongside a group of dwarves, and ultimately returns transformed, having discovered his inner courage and resourcefulness.

• In Medias Res: Start with a Bang

Dive headfirst into the action by employing the “in medias res” (Latin for “in the midst of things”) story structure. This technique drops your reader right into the heart of the action, creating an immediate sense of intrigue and excitement. By starting with a gripping event, you’ll pique your reader’s curiosity and encourage them to keep reading as you gradually reveal the backstory and context. This bold approach will show your IGCSE examiners that you’re a fearless and innovative storyteller.

“Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.” – The Trial, Franz Kafka.

Franz Kafka’s The Trial starts in medias res, as the protagonist Josef K. is arrested without any prior explanation. This opening plunges the reader right into the action and establishes a sense of immediacy and confusion, setting the stage for a narrative that will gradually reveal the circumstances and consequences of this arrest.

• Nonlinear Narrative: Play with Time

Who says stories need to follow a chronological order? By experimenting with a nonlinear narrative, you’ll weave a tale that jumps between different time periods, creating an intricate and thought-provoking story. This structure requires skillful planning to ensure your reader can follow the story’s progression, but when executed well, it can lead to a captivating and memorable piece that will undoubtedly impress your IGCSE examiners.

“All this happened, more or less.” – Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is a prime example of a nonlinear narrative. The novel tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, who becomes “unstuck in time” and experiences events from his life in a disjointed order. This opening line acknowledges the narrative’s unconventional structure, as the story will jump back and forth in time to explore Billy’s life, war experiences, and encounters with extraterrestrial beings.

• Frame Narrative: Stories within Stories

Unleash the full power of your storytelling abilities with a frame narrative. This structure involves a story within a story, where an outer narrative “frames” an inner one. By employing this sophisticated technique, you’ll create depth and layers to your writing, offering your reader multiple perspectives and a rich, immersive experience.

“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.” – Frankenstein, Mary Shelley.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a frame narrative, as it begins with a series of letters from Captain Walton to his sister, chronicling his Arctic expedition. The story of Victor Frankenstein and his monstrous creation is relayed to Walton, who then recounts the tale to his sister through the letters. This structure adds layers of depth and multiple perspectives to the narrative, enriching the overall storytelling experience.

Why do these work?

In this section, we’ll delve into how each of the story structures we’ve discussed can help students achieve top marks in their IGCSE narrative writing, specifically addressing the marking criteria for content, structure, and style.

• The Classic Three-Act Structure

Content and Structure (W1 & W2): The three-act structure’s clear beginning, middle, and end ensures that your narrative is well-balanced and organized. By establishing a strong setup, confrontation, and resolution, you can create complex, engaging, and effective content, satisfying the requirements for the highest marks.

Style and Accuracy (W3 & W4): A well-executed three-act structure also allows for precise vocabulary and varied sentence structures, as well as a consistent, well-chosen register that aligns with the context of the story. These elements contribute to a high-scoring narrative in terms of style and accuracy.

• The Hero’s Journey

Content and Structure (W1 & W2): The Hero’s Journey offers a strongly developed plot that features character development, trials, and a satisfying climax. This story structure enables you to create engaging, complex, and effective content that demonstrates a deliberate and well-managed narrative flow.

Style and Accuracy (W3 & W4): The adventurous nature of the Hero’s Journey allows for the use of precise, well-chosen vocabulary and varied sentence structures. The story’s context also lends itself to an appropriate and consistent register, further contributing to a high-scoring narrative.

• In Medias Res

Content and Structure (W1 & W2): By starting your narrative in the midst of action, you immediately create engaging, complex, and effective content. The suspenseful nature of this structure requires careful management, which, when done successfully, demonstrates a secure and well-balanced narrative flow.

Style and Accuracy (W3 & W4): In medias res encourages you to use precise vocabulary and varied sentence structures to convey the excitement and tension of the story. The structure also allows for a consistent, well-chosen register that aligns with the high-stakes context, ultimately contributing to a top-scoring narrative.

• Nonlinear Narrative

Content and Structure (W1 & W2): A nonlinear narrative enables you to create complex, engaging, and effective content by challenging traditional storytelling conventions. Skillful planning is required to maintain a well-balanced and carefully managed narrative flow, which, when executed well, will satisfy the highest marks’ requirements.

Style and Accuracy (W3 & W4): The intricate nature of a nonlinear narrative demands precise vocabulary and a range of sentence structures to convey the story’s progression effectively. By demonstrating a consistent, well-chosen register suitable for the context, you’ll create a high-scoring narrative in terms of style and accuracy.

• Frame Narrative

Content and Structure (W1 & W2): A frame narrative provides depth and layers to your writing, allowing you to create complex, engaging, and effective content. This sophisticated structure requires careful management to ensure a secure, well-balanced, and deliberate narrative flow, satisfying the top marks’ requirements.

Style and Accuracy (W3 & W4): The multiple perspectives offered by a frame narrative enable the use of precise, well-chosen vocabulary and varied sentence structures. A consistent and appropriate register that aligns with the story’s context further contributes to a top-scoring narrative in terms of style and accuracy.

By carefully applying these story structures to your narrative writing, you can address the mark scheme’s criteria for content, structure, and style, putting you on the path to achieving the highest possible grades in your IGCSE narrative writing exam.

Conclusion: Your Path to Narrative Greatness

Remember, aspiring storytellers, the key to crafting an outstanding narrative piece lies in your choice of story structure and your ability to execute it masterfully. By exploring these various structures and aligning them with the highest IGCSE grade requirements, you’ll be well on your way to creating captivating, engaging, and top-scoring narratives.

So, go forth and weave your tales, for the world of narrative writing awaits! May your pen be mighty, your imagination boundless, and your stories unforgettable. With dedication, creativity, and a little guidance from these story structures, you’ll soon be the author of narratives that will not only impress your IGCSE examiners but also leave a lasting impact on all who read them.

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Narrative Writing

Whatisanarrative.

__A Narrative is a STORY. __

There are__ two __types of narrative:

Narrative ~ A fictional story. This means that you can make up all of the events.

Personal Narrative~ A TRUE story about an event that happened in your life. Sometimes this is easier to write, as it becomes more emotionally connected with the reader.

It is really important to have a clear story in your piece of writing. You should spend some time planning this beforehand.

Introduction:

You should use this to introduce characters, setting and mood.

• Events happen (Rising Action) - the plot should move forward
• Use details
• Keep the events progressing forward

A consequence and outcome should occur (Falling Action)

You must choose which narrator you are attempting to create. It affects the voice and emotion within the piece.

First Person: Character is the narrator. Use “I” and “we”. This is used to be able to show the emotions of the character. It only allows for one point of view and we cannot see a balanced point of view.

Second Person: This is when the reader becomes the narrator. It is often used in advertisement but it is quite difficult to use well in a story.

Third Person Omniscient:

This is when you see a story from many different points of views. The audience is able to see all the thoughts and feelings of the characters

Linguistic Features

Dialogue is a key linguistic device in a narrative. However, the punctuation of speech is often misused and it is easy to fall down on marks when using speech. If you use speech, ensure you are accurate.

You need to follow the rules:

• Use a new line for each new speaker
• Use speech marks: one at the start and one of the end of the words that are spoken.
• Punctuate the speech. There needs to be a comma inside the quotation marks, then who said the words.
• Try to be expressive. Do not just use ‘said’, as it is boring. Try ‘exclaimed’ or ‘shouted’, depending on mood.
• The speech does not represent the end of a sentence. Do not put a capital letter on the afterwards.

_ “Superb,” Mike said as he ran down the busy hallway to his classroom. “I can’t believe it!”_

“What happened?” shouted Joe.

You need to follow the plot line; however, you can go back in time to explain an event or feeling. You could even begin your story in this way.

Foreshadowing:

You can give hints to future events and this will create a sense of looming danger.

Descriptive Language:

Do not be afraid to have moments of description within the narrative. This might include using the senses.

One of the most important word classes in narration is verbs. They can provide much description, which adds mood to your story.

Consider the following:

I could keep this child safe now.

I could keep this child protected now.

I could keep this child guarded now.

I could keep this child uninjured now.

How do each of the underlined words create different meanings?

You must choose a word that conveys your ‘correct’ meaning. None are right or wrong and they are all synonyms of ‘safe’; however, each word creates a different meaning.

You need to make sure that you assign a tense to each sentence that you produce. A common error when writing to describe is to leave a sentence ‘floating’ with no tense attached to it.

Example of an incorrect sentence:

· Covering the ground in purest white, the snow continuing to fall.

This needs to be changed to either the present tense:

· Covering the ground in purest white, the snow continues to fall.

Alternatively, it could be changed to the past tense:

· Covering the ground in purest white, the snow continued to fall.

Your Task: Add whatever is necessary to the sentences below to make sure that they are either in the present or past tense. It may be a verb in either the present or past tense; it may also be a punctuation mark or another word… it’s up to you.

Walking through the crowd, the pickpocket targeting his prey.

Sitting quietly by the edge of the track, noticing the passers-by.

Quietly crying, the child trying not to draw attention to herself.

With rain pelting down on the tarmac, the airplane struggling to land.

Keeping his hand on the steering wheel, singing along to the radio.

Topic outline

• Resource Plus Writing
• Teaching Packs
• Figurative language
• Narrative structure
• Summary skills

The Teaching Packs below contain detailed lesson plans and worksheets to help develop your learners' writing skills

Each pack focuses on a specific element of writing and the skills associated with this.

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Your Complete Guide to IGCSE Coursework

This guide includes everything you need to know about all the IGCSE coursework.

Like many of our other Complete Guides this article is not meant to be read in its entirety – just skip to whichever section is most relevant to you.

By Rebecca Lally, Saoirse Boyle, Hazel Fricska, and Nina Hopley

English Language

What do you need to do?

You need to submit 3 pieces of work, each of 500-800 words: a descriptive and/or narrative piece; an informative, analytical and/or argumentative piece; and a response to a text. Our teacher got us to write multiple practice pieces for each of the three text types during year 10 so that we could pick our favourites to redraft at the start of year 11. Your coursework portfolio is worth 50% of the total marks, which can help make up for lower scores in the exam if you know that is where you will struggle.

You need to pick different topics for each piece; this will allow you to create contrast through the portfolio and showcase different styles of writing. The descriptive piece offers the most creative freedom, although your teacher should offer some general guidance. We wrote pieces restaurants for our informative writing coursework and, for the media response piece, we wrote open letters to Wayne LaPierre, an American gun rights lobbyist.

Any advice?

• Don’t use a thesaurus. Switching out every other word for a supposedly better synonym is not what will make your work good! Your writing will come across as stilted and pretentious.
• Channel your efforts into creating fluidity and a consistent voice. Read through your work in your head and then out loud. Whilst reading ask yourself some questions: Where do the words start tripping over each other? Are you repeating anything?
• Try to show, rather than tell. Don’t fill your work with fluffy adjectives. Take the restaurant review as an example. You can say the food was “great”, “scrumptious”, “delicious”, “incredible”, but this doesn’t give  the reader any new or important information! Instead, describe the different textures, the different colours on the plate and the flavours of the food.
• Listen to your teacher. Your work will be internally assessed by a panel of teachers. You are allowed one draft – make it count. Make it as good as you can before you hand it in; once you have received feedback make sure to take all their advice on board.
• Let others read your work. Friends, parents, classmates. Tell them to be brutal, to pick it apart. A fresh pair of eyes can provide valuable insight and notice little things that you won’t. This can be especially helpful to do with students from other English classes! Their teacher may have approached a requirement in a different way and this may help you see aspects of your work from different perspectives.
• Your creative piece is an opportunity to show off your beautiful writing and rich descriptive language. Don’t worry about the plot. You will not be able to write an entire story in less than 800 words without sounding rushed. Focus on creating atmosphere and providing insight into your character(s).
• Be as specific as possible in your informative piece. Again, no fluffy adjectives! What information is most important to the reader and how will you relay this to them?
• In your media response piece, acknowledge every single point the text makes, explicit or implicit.  These points must be analysed and evaluated.  You must show that you understand the general tone of the text and the opinion of the writer. Do you agree with the journalist? Follow these pointers to write a cohesive and well-developed argument.

You need to produce a detailed essay, up to 2000 words in length, answering a question set by the school. You will need to do your own research from a variety of sources, evaluate different information and form your own opinion/argument. This year, we were asked to evaluate the significance of Gustav Stresemann, a chancellor and foreign minister from Germany’s Weimar years.

• Define the question clearly. Take significance: what does ‘significance’ mean? How is it different from importance? How will you measure it? Are there different kinds of significance? Answer these questions in your introductory paragraph.
• Read widely on the topic before you start writing, or even planning. This is the phase which should take the longest. It is really, really hard to write or plan an essay until you are totally familiar with the topic. By developing an opinion before you start writing, you can be consistent through the entire essay and really drive your point home.
• Read from a variety of reliable sources. Read any and all sources put on moodle by your teacher, check out books from the MMC, use JSTOR. This will set you apart from other candidates.
• You don’t need to mention every event in a period of time, or a person’s life.  Decide what is most important and what adds substance to your argument.
• Keep your ‘background information’ concise. The assessor is a History teacher – just assume they already know the details of the Weimar constitution, or the state of Germany at the time. The point of this essay is not to say what happened, but to evaluate events and develop your own argument.
• Keep referencing the question! You literally cannot use the keyword of the question, in our case, ‘significance’, too many times.  You defined your criteria at the start of the essay, you should use these criteria and explain how information fits into it.
• Don’t just organize chronologically. Organise chronologically and, within that, thematically. Reference events that happen later or earlier if it backs up an assertion that you have made.
• Compare and contrast similar events. What was different about the handling of situation A and situation B? What was the significance of each event? How much did each event impact the following years?
• Acknowledge both sides of the story, the role played by other figures and surrounding circumstances.
• Listen to your teacher’s advice. Like in English it is your teacher who will be assessing it and they have your best interests at heart.

Geography coursework is worth 27.5% of your overall geography grade. You will be taken on a field day to collect data and, after that, you have the summer to write it all up.

2017’s topic: “ An Investigation Into the Impact of Skiing on the Natural Environment” , carried out at Col de la Faucille.

2016’s topic: “ An investigation into River Processes on La Promenthouse”, carried out at La Promenthouse river.

Before going on the field trip, you will be given class time to prepare your investigation. You will come up with a research question, hypotheses to test and you will write out justifications for these hypotheses. The data collection will occur in groups and you can share results with students from other classes. But, you will be on your own when it comes to writing up your final report.

• Don’t leave it all to the end of summer, or the night before it is due! Especially if you did not finish your introductory work at the end of the year. It was a lot more time consuming than anyone expected.
• Focus on the analytical part of the coursework – this is what you should spend the most time and effort on. Any analysis or assertion you make is fine, as long as you can back it up with data and/or geographical theory.
• Use at least 4 types of graphs. Don’t just use the same scatter graphs or bar charts over and over again. Your teachers will have suggestions for other types. Building a GE graph may be more time-consuming, but it is more interesting than an excel column graph and will help you stand out from the other candidates.  
• Make your draft count. This is your only chance to get feedback, so make it as good as it can be. Your teacher is there to help.
• Don’t stress about the word count. Even our teacher admitted it would be very difficult to get an A* in 2000 words. You shouldn’t write a thesis, but it’s totally ok if you end up with 4000.
• Follow any checklist or rubric you are given. Make sure you are fulfilling every requirement. Don’t miss out on easy marks!

You will complete up to 8 prep sheets; it is preferable you make 8 to the best of your ability, as this will show the examiners you have a wide variety of skills. You will then do a final piece of work based on 2 of your prep sheets. You do have the option to do two exams, rather than coursework and one exam. While the coursework is more work overall, you will be under less time pressure than if you were taking an additional exam.

To score highly, you will need to perfect your technical skill. It is also crucial to demonstrate your artistic development – you can do this by including small mind maps based on a theme/unit, and by doing small ‘test’ sketches exploring various arrangements for a more detailed piece. In addition, your prep sheets should be aesthetically pleasing, as presentation does count. Bluetack your pieces of work to the sheet when you first hand it in, so you can rearrange the layout, or remove/add/improve any work. Use a variety of mediums to show versatility. Fortunately, the course will force you to create large projects and use different media (batik, lino, still life, collage).

It is okay if you feel that you need to redo almost every prep sheet that you handed in during year 10 – with time and patience, you will improve. When you have time away from the art class, during the holidays, reflect on the work that you have finished and try to perfect it. This way, when the deadline comes around in year 11, you will have finished and will be ready to focus all your artistic energy on the exam!

The most daunting thing about coursework is how many weeks you have to complete it! The themes are open ended and you have a lot of freedom. Unfortunately, this can paralyze rather than inspire. Art is time-consuming, and you are juggling it with 8 other subjects which each have their own homework and tests. You might push art to the side in order to tackle more imminent deadlines, dreaming of the great work you will produce when you have the time to sit down and devote yourself to it… but this will not happen. There is never going to be a ‘good time’ to do it. I ended up spending 6 days solid over the Christmas break drawing my final piece, and by day 3 I had started to despair, but I am so glad I finished it.

You should be prepared to fail: allocate time to hate your work, feel frustrated by your work and then pick yourself up and start again. Grab a black sharpie and title all of the documents that you are given by the department, such as, “ Year 11 coursework requirements” and, “Art unit planner”, with PLAN TO FAIL. This will remind you to get your head out of the clouds and make you start work immediately. Coursework is composed of prep sheets and a final piece (that has its own prep sheet as well): it is a lot of physical work to produce.

• Plan to fail! It will go wrong, take a direction you did not intend or even want! You must factor in time to start over.
• C ommit to ideas. Brainstorm your theme exhaustively in the first week of the assignment to find an idea you really love, then commit. Don’t start over halfway through.
• Don’t start year 11 with incomplete prep sheets. Finish them all before the coursework final is due.
• Finish every drawing. You may hate it, but if you don’t finish it, you won’t learn anything from it.
• Use the guidelines the art department gives you. Pin them up on a notice board and share them with your parents – keep those deadlines firmly in sight.
• Use the Art room at lunchtime , consult your teachers regularly for advice and guidance.

You need to complete*:

• Two stylistically different compositions
• Two solo performances
• A group performance

*There is also set work covering the work of one artist (for us, Felix Mendelssohn), World Music, and the music of one particular region (for us, Latin America). These are not part of the coursework component but are part of the syllabus.

It is ok if you have never played an instrument or studied music theory – as long as you love the subject. It may be wise to take private lessons in music theory and an instrument from the beginning of year 10. If you already play an instrument and know some music theory, you are ahead of the game!

In year 10 you are informed about the coursework, but class time is not devoted to it until year 11. Because the deadline is so far away, it is rare anyone starts working on it. Many of my peers decided to take the internal exam after realising they wouldn’t have the time to acquire the skills needed. Get started immediately. Record your performance to the best of your ability in year 10, even if you find it disappointing. In year 11 you will have the opportunity to listen to it again and re-record, challenging yourself further on the content. Same for compositions – experiment with melodies and sounds even if you are not confident. When Year 11 begins you will have a starting point to build from.

For compositions, as they have to be very different, listen to music from a variety of genres. In doing this you will find out what you like and it will be easier to create something you enjoy. If you find using Garageband difficult, talk to Mr. Aram. He always makes himself available to help, so don’t be shy or insecure about your work. He is not expecting you to be a musical prodigy!

When you are happy with your compositions in Garageband you then have to transpose everything into note form, using software like Sibelius. This is time-consuming  and challenging, especially if you are not confident with musical notation. So, plan to learn and ask for help before it’s too late. Go to the music department at lunch or work on your score with your classmates so that you all struggle together and can help each other.

Music is such an enriching subject that allows insight into different cultures and can lead to global understanding and communication. You want your compositions to reflect this exposure – which is very challenging because you need a certain level of skill. You can acquire these with help from teachers and extracurricular lessons but it all takes time as you still have 8 other subjects with equal demands. Ultimately, plan to fail and to experiment so that you have the time to achieve your best.

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A* Narrative Writing for First Language English IGCSE

About this resource.

This lesson reviews plot structure and features of narrative writing:

• Plot structure: introduction, inciting incident, rising tension, climax and resolution
• Features of narrative writing: characterisation, setting, description, dialogue, creating tension

Take your students through an A* exemplar story and unpick what makes this story so good.

This lesson is focused on the skills needed for IGCSE First Language English, but would be applicable to any English Language GCSE that features narrative writing.

What’s included?

• Student worksheet
• Full-length exemplar A* story for IGCSE narrative writing
• Review quiz
• Accompanying video lesson

Want to flip this lesson?

Give students access to the course version for free – with a 50 minute video lesson and a review quiz to test their understanding. The video has subtitles and is locally hosted, so should be easily viewable in all countries.

• Link to course
• Link to locally hosted video lesson
• Link to video lesson hosted on Youtube
• Link to accompanying quiz

Download the free resources below

Powerpoint and pdf version, worksheet word document and pdf version.

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English narrative coursework

The unsuspected traitor

The bells rang and three men Dave, Dan and Beck came barging out of the bank. Dave, Dan and Beck were all heavily built brutal men. They were twice the size of an average adult and they were armed to their teeth. Dan had a semi automatic shotgun in his hands and a Walther P99 (a semi automatic handgun) tucked in his belt. Beck had an AK-47 and Dave had a long and mean M15 in his huge arms.

“Go, go, be quick!” screamed Dave at Bruce as they jumped into the car.  

Bruce who was sitting on the driver seat of a two thousand and seven black BMW M5 slammed his big foot on the accelerator and the car revved well above six thousand RPM. The chase had begun. The black BMW M5 with four big guys seated in it was racing in the front, speeding well over the limit and 5 flashing police cars followed behind.

After turning a few corners Bruce thought he had lost the police and slowed his speed down a little, but then he could hear the police sirens once again. It was tough driving in the congested city center but Bruce was the right tool for the job. He quickly dropped the car to 1 st  gear and slammed his foot once again on the accelerator. After dodging all the traffic Bruce successfully reached the motorway, (which wasn’t busy). The police cars were close behind and by now three more police motorbikes had joined the cars.  

“Oh no, these guys are never gonna give up,” remarked Beck.

“Shoot ‘em, now!” commanded Dave.

The windows from all three sides went down, Dave, Dan and Beck rose out of their sides and started shooting at the police. Dave with his long and mean M15 held in his massive arms shot the drivers of two police cars going side by side. The cars collided with one another and went up in flames. Dan shot two police on motorbikes on the head with his powerful semi automatic shotgun and the motorbikes uncontrolled spun off the motorway. Bruce saw more police cars and motorbikes heading towards them and knew this meant trouble. He suggested to his friends that they should get in and he will try to overrun the police.

BANG! A bullet hit the back window of the BMW M5 and all three of them dropped back into the car and Bruce once again revved the car and left the police cars behind. The police cars could never compete with the BMW M5 in speed. After a long drive they stopped outside a big bungalow. Bruce pressed the button on a remote and the garage door opened with a buzz. Bruce parked the car while the others went in the bungalow.

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“It was a bloody tough day today,” remarked Beck. “The police just increase in number and seem to get tougher after every robbery.”

“They are on our tail now, we should be at full alert,” claimed Dan. “They search for us day and night.”

“Whatever it is, it is all over now,” responded Beck.

But he was wrong it had hardly begun, and everyone knew that including Beck. Everyone knew that Brad, the officer in charge of the mission was never going to give up until he had finished the most wanted criminals in the country Dave, Dan, Beck and Bruce.

“Just get the bag and check the money out will ye, we haven’t got time for this nonsense,” thundered Dave.

Bruce went to get the black bag and everyone had their eyes settled on it. Bruce unzipped the bag and they were in for a surprise. The bag was full of blank papers instead of notes!

How can this happen? Who could have tricked them? This was what went through everyone’s minds. They were sure they had checked the bag before they got out of the bank and it was full of crispy bank notes. Then how can the money change to blank papers? Everyone sat down to think about this calamity that had struck them not only the first time but four times in a row. Someone was playing games with them!

The sun was setting and the men were deep in thoughts about their lives, about their future. They had been deprived of something their lives depended on. The money could have freed them from the grasp of the godfather forever and they could have sated a new life as good people.  

Dave, Dan, and Beck never really wanted to turn to the crime world but incidents persuaded them to. The three brothers were orphans since the age of ten. They grew up in the streets and one day they met another orphan called Bruce and they become really good friends.  They use to live by begging from people in the streets because they had no one to look after them. One day a really high classed person came to them when they were all around the age of fourteen years old. He told them that he will give them a nice home to live in, and they will be given good food as well.

Dave denied his invitation because he knew that the man was none other than Edward the godfather. He knew that his works were bad and evil. Bruce who was a quiet but a greedy person persuaded his friends to join Edward and they agreed with him after many arguments. The godfather’s intention was obviously to use them for his dirty works and after the first robbery the greed for money fell in their hearts and they started to adapt the bad ways of Edward. Dave, Dan and Beck still had a little feeling at the back of their hearts that they were going to do something bad that they will regret later and that is what happened exactly.

Once when Bruce was sent to threaten someone for not paying money to the godfather, Beck, Dan and Dave were sent to kill a woman named Michael because she had been causing problems in the godfather’s gang. They succeeded in killing her but after they killed her they saw a necklace in her neck that seemed familiar. It was the same necklace their mum used to wear and she had given to their sister! That is when they realised that they were caught up in a big mess.

Dave, Dan and Beck were all in tears when they realised what they had done. They knew that they had to give up this work right now and so they asked the godfather to remove them from the gang. But the godfather never really cared about their sister because all he wanted was money. The godfather knew that the three brothers were his best men and if he let them leave his gang then his gang will tremble.

He still agreed to let them go, but he wanted them to use them for his last job. He wanted them to steal a very rich bank and give all the stolen money to him. They rejected to do that but then he threatened them by saying he will kill them if they deny. They had no other choice but to agree.

They robbed a bank three times but when they will open the bag after the robbery all they would see was blank papers. The godfather acted as thought he was being generous to them and gave them a last chance. But now it happened again, and they had no money to pay him which meant they had to prepare for their death!    

“Dan, what did you do with the bag when I gave it to you,” said Dave staring in to his eyes.

“I…I…don’t know really I just left it near my feet in the car and took it in when we reached the house,” replied Dan unconfidently.

“Bruce did you do anything to it,” asked Dave.

No answer. Dave looked around to where Bruce was sitting but he was missing!  

“Where is he,” demanded Dave.

“He was said he needs to go to the toilet, but that was a long time ago.” replied Beck and Dan together.

They searched for him everywhere in the house but could not find him and his car was gone as well. Where could he have gone? Before they could go any further with the search for Bruce disaster stroked. BANG! BANG! BANG! Bullets were fired from the outside and a voice was heard on the microphone.

“This is the police, we have got your house surrounded, and you have no chance of escaping.” “Surrender or we open fire.”

The announcement was repeated once again and all three of them raced from one window to another. It was true there was no chance to escape; it was fully surrounded by police. What the police never thought of was the garage. The garage had a door to it from the inside of the house and there was a car parked there as well. Dan, Beck and Dave ran to the garage as the police started to fire at their house.

Brad, the police officer, heard the starting noise of the engine. He realized that he had missed a spot and ordered the team to gather around the garage but it was too late the garage broke with a smash and a black Porsche Cayenne jumped out. The police started to chase them close behind and this time they were prepared for them. The gang’s skilled driver Bruce wasn’t there to help them dodge the police. The police shot their car and the Porsche went out of control but luckily it stopped after a few spinning and Dave, Beck and Dan ran out of the car.  They did their best to fight but as you know crime pays its price and they were all killed by the fearless police officer, Brad.

The news was on every channel, every newspaper and every street of the country. The most wanted criminals were killed. Bruce was watching the television with Edward and laughed at the stupidity of his friends. He had betrayed his friends for money, he had made them come towards the criminal world, and he had helped Edward use them for the last and the biggest robbery in their life and then to take the money of them. He had to pay for this. Someone had to kill him and the godfather. That someone was always at their tail, and he will not stop until he had finished the godfather and Bruce.

This story shows us that it does not matter who tells you to follow the bad path you should not follow it. You should not listen to your friend if they insist you to follow the bad path especially if you know it is the bad path because you are surely to regret later. Crime pays for its price.  

Document Details

• Word Count 1837
• Page Count 3
• Subject English

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