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Original poster

Guess the age of the child that wrote this

157 replies

Cortina · 01/06/2011 10:54

My niece wrote this at school. What would you gauge her 'writing age' to be from this ( admittedly isolated) example?:

With a good ten minutes to spare I settled myself down in a corner seat on a train to London, and for a time it looked as if my only companion was to be an old lady. Then, almost at the last moment, a man and a girl hurried up the platform. The man pushed the girl into the carriage and threw her case in just after her. "Only just in time!" He said angrily. "And now, don't lose this one!" Besides a flush and tightly pressed lips the girl took no notice, leaving the ticket where he flung it in her lap. The man said a cold goodbye and walked off. The girl didn't look at him as the train drew off from the station.

OP posts:
MrBloomEatsVeggies · 02/06/2011 20:40

Ah, I see. I was getting a little wound up as people were making sarky comments (mainly first page), when the OP was simply asking a question. Haven't read the whole thread, as usual...must stop doing that.

So much of that on MN at the minute, winds me up a little. Hope you're not cross with me mrz, as no doubt I'll need advice from teachers on here as DS1 starts school in Sept!

thumbwitch · 02/06/2011 20:45

LaWeasel - I don't think anyone was suggesting this was standard for a 9yo - they were just assuming that the niece in question was younger than you would expect, else why start a thread about it?

TheFlyingOnion · 02/06/2011 20:52

45, special needs, but very verbal??

Fucks sake is it a trick question?

pickledsiblings · 02/06/2011 20:53

Random sample of DD's, Y4.

They found (when they went through the door) that they were falling. But slowly, like floating. All around them was an icy blue, with a snowflake dancing around them every now and again. Then suddenly the wind changed direction dragging them with it, again and again. They went in either zig-zags, across, up, down or diagonal. It was pretty much like a whirl-lift. Now, back to the children. They all had different opinions: Alfie was saying a series of different words for yikes (he was practically a human thesaurus), Jacob was sailing about like he did this every day, Mandy was kicking around, trying to go up and Emily was screaming her head off.

 Finally, after 5 minutes of being a thesaurus, sailing about, kicking around and screaming their heads off, they landed.  And I don't mean ow, ow, ow, landed, I mean in the most perfectly soft chair in the world, SITTING UP landed.

This is the story that DD wrote that gave rise to my MN name. The children go on to get separated and when Alfie finally catches up with his brother and sisters again they are handed to him in a jar labelled:

Pickled Siblings: Store in a warm, dry place. Look after them!

Perhaps not surprisingly the story goes no further Grin.

TheFlyingOnion · 02/06/2011 20:55

doesn't sets depend on what the other sare like and what she'slike in her other literacy topics? Its not all creative writing....

LaWeasel · 02/06/2011 21:01

Perhaps thumbiwtch, I think I would only have interpreted the thread that way if it was in G&T. Which is why the amount of people saying 9, when it could be but isn't very likely, seemed really inappropriate.

pickled I kind of love the whirl-lift!

LaWeasel · 02/06/2011 21:02

Bah, typos.

quirrelquarrel · 02/06/2011 21:03

PS- wow! Is that 8/9?

umf · 02/06/2011 21:03

When I left primary school at 11, several children in my class couldn't really write a sentence. Surely they'd be in the bottom set at a comprehensive? Or have schools miraculously improved?

quirrelquarrel · 02/06/2011 21:08

Oh and the OP's post- some people in my Y11 class (age 15-16), when they mixed all the sets up, could punctuate (or weren't interested in punctuating...) and spellings were all over the place. Bottom set? Must be a v. clever year group or she's slipped through the cracks.

Mumleigh · 02/06/2011 21:11

I've read this paragraph before. It's from a Rosamund Pilcher novel - can't remember the name of the book.Will try to remember - only read it in April( my MIL forced it on me!) and it wasn't great but I remember that scene on the train clearly.

TheFlyingOnion · 02/06/2011 21:12

ooh the plot thickens!

Mumleigh · 02/06/2011 21:14

It's from The Carousel by Rosamunde Pilcher

gapants · 02/06/2011 21:16

ah ha! I knew it was a plagiarised piece!! Thanks mumleigh

LaWeasel · 02/06/2011 21:18

Are you sure?

It doesn't seem to be on google books so hard to check.

HarryDan · 02/06/2011 21:19

lol @ rosamunde wrirting like a 9 y/o :D

ScrotalPantomime · 02/06/2011 21:19

WTF, haven't caught up with the thread

what have I missed? Shock

TheFlyingOnion · 02/06/2011 21:20

ooh so does she go into the top set as a "thinking outside the box" type or the bottom set as a meanie copycat?

thumbwitch · 02/06/2011 21:20

Is it an exact lift, Mumleigh? or paraphrasing? because if it's an exact lift then the OP certainly needs to have words with her sister about her niece plagiarising!!

pickledsiblings · 02/06/2011 21:27
quirrelquarrel · 02/06/2011 21:28

Lol at Flying Onion :o

And hark at the triumphant Mumsnetters...it's a pity that it's plagiarised. But maybe it's not exactly word for word. She could have read it and then remembered it a bit too well.

For 'fun'- I am 7/8 here:

The tiresome three
-----
There were once 3 girls who were the closest freind's. The were also tiresome. Once , Rosaliti said " why don't we make a gang called The Tiresome Three." The others were very pleased with that idea." let's start being tiresome and put some slug's on the window? I was told that it was a dreadfull sound at night! Let us do it on Robinette." said Mariania , exitedly. So , when the were meant to be in bed , the took their bucket of slugs and stuck them on the window.But they stuck them on with glue .In the night , Madge woke up for a glass of water. When she saw the three dark bob's , triing to get away from glue she went overt to the window she had a suprise . She pened the window and felt about. Soon she went to the Head's door and said " Mariania and Rosaliti and Whilhelmina have put a slug on Robinette's window .They stuck them on with glue . " (the Head had opened her door)In the morning The tiresome three were no longer bold and brazen! They had become good girls . The Head had spocken to then grimly about last night's disterbation , as the Head called it. They were always ecelant pupils .

Could I possibly have been reading the Chalet School the day before??
Apart from the nauseating ending, it's not exactly wildly imaginative. It can happen- re: subconcious plagiarism!

belledechocchipcookie · 02/06/2011 21:29

It's similar to a chapter from a Sherlock Holmes novel (according to google), almost word perfect.

coastgirl · 02/06/2011 21:29

It could have been an extract used in class to demonstrate different writing techniques.

thefirstMrsDeVere · 02/06/2011 21:32

I copied an entire page out of The Ghost of 'somebloke' (I cant remember the book!) It was a comedy about a boy who meets the ghost of a Elizabethan man and much hilarity ensues.

I copied it almost word for word and gave it in. I thought it was great and couldnt understand why I didnt get a fab mark for it. Hmm

I used to write in the style of whoever my favourite author was too. I recently found some of DD's stuff Sad and its very Jaquline Wilson'y.

LaWeasel · 02/06/2011 21:32

I wrote a story when I was 10 for a competition. Mine was picked to be entered from my class, and I had to read it out. When I'd finished one of the kids started yelling at me about how I'd nicked it from a tv show and the teachers face started going very pale...

Looking back on it, it was a mash up from lots of books and shows and not terribly individual, but very easy to do at that age and not really notice.