Ysgrifennu Beirniadol (Critical Writing)

The objective's first bullet contains four distinct demands. Separate them and work out how each is prepared, because they need different practice.

1. 01Correctly

   Accuracy: mutations, syntax, orthography, agreement. It is drillable and finite, it is the content of iaith-ar-waith, and it is a floor rather than a peak — it will not lift a piece into the top band by itself but its absence will hold a good piece down. Prepared by drilling and by the accuracy sweep, not by writing more.

2. 02Clearly

   Whether a reader who does not already know your argument can follow it. This is a structural property and it is best tested by giving a piece to somebody who has not read the text: if they can restate your claim after one reading, it is clear. Prepared by planning before writing and by the connectives that signal relations between claims.

3. 03Proficiently

   Fluency and control — sentences that do what they are meant to, of varied lengths, without strain. This is the demand that improves only by writing, and by reading Welsh prose attentively. It is also the one that degrades most under time pressure, which is why timed practice is not optional for an objective of this size.

4. 04With a range of linguistic resources

   Vocabulary, idiom, sentence patterns, subordination, the ability to say the same thing several ways and choose. This is prepared by deliberate acquisition — a card of critical terminology, a small stock of accurate idioms, a dozen argument-shaping connectives — and it is the demand that most rewards a small, systematic effort, because the useful set is not large.

5. 05Why separating them matters

   The four demands are prepared by four different activities: drilling, planning, timed writing, and deliberate acquisition. A candidate doing only one of the four is preparing a quarter of the objective. Most candidates do only drilling, because it is the one that feels like revision — and it is the one demand that cannot lift a mark on its own.

Result: Four demands, four preparations: correctly (drilling plus the accuracy sweep), clearly (planning and connectives, tested on a reader who does not know the argument), proficiently (timed writing and attentive reading), and range (deliberate acquisition of terminology, idiom and connectives). Most candidates do only the first.

Write one observation four ways and show exactly what the vocabulary buys.

1. 01Without terminology

   “Mae'r bardd yn cymharu'r môr â rhywbeth arall dro ar ôl tro drwy'r gerdd, ac mae hynny'n creu teimlad arbennig.” Twenty words, and it has said that a comparison recurs and that this has an effect. Neither the device nor the effect has been named, and the sentence has used its whole length on approximation.

2. 02With the device named

   “Mae'r trosiad estynedig yn rhedeg drwy'r gerdd gyfan.” Eight words for what took twenty, and it is more precise: not a repeated comparison but a single metaphor sustained, which is a different thing. The twelve words saved are now available for the claim, which is where the marks are.

3. 03With the quality named too

   “Mae'r trosiad estynedig yn rhedeg drwy'r gerdd gyfan, ac mae'n gosod naws nad yw'r pwnc ei hun yn ei hawlio.” Now the effect has a name — naws — and the claim is arguable: the tone is at odds with the subject. That is a disputable statement about the poem, produced in one sentence, and it is what the first version was groping towards.

4. 04With the structural term as well

   “…ac mae'r ffaith ei fod yn cyrraedd yr uchafbwynt heb newid yn awgrymu nad datblygiad sydd yma ond gwrthodiad i ddatblygu.” A structural claim, in one clause, because uchafbwynt named the place instead of describing it. Four terms across two sentences, and every one of them bought space rather than filling it.

5. 05The version to avoid

   “Mae'r gerdd yn defnyddio trosiad estynedig, delweddaeth, ailadrodd a gwrthgyferbyniad.” Four correct terms, one sentence, and nothing said. This is terminology as inventory, and it is what happens when the vocabulary has been learned as a list to be deployed rather than as a way of being brief. The test is simple: does each term let a claim be made, or does it stand in for one?

Result: The vocabulary buys brevity, and brevity buys room for the claim: twenty words of approximation become eight of precision, and the twelve saved carry the argument. The failure mode is terminology as inventory — four correct terms in one sentence saying nothing. Test each term by asking whether it enables a claim or replaces one.

Build a critical paragraph from nothing, naming each move as it goes, and show the two versions of the fourth move.

1. 01Claim

   “Nid disgrifio galar y mae'r darn, ond gwrthod ei egluro.” Disputable — somebody could argue the passage does explain. About the text, not about literature. And it contains no evidence, so the paragraph has work to do. Note the emphatic nid construction, which belongs in written Welsh and is correct here.

2. 02Evidence

   Located and short: the line or the sentence, four or five words if the text is printed, a named episode if it is not. “Mae hynny i'w weld yn gliriaf yn y frawddeg lle mae'r llais yn torri ar draws ei hun.” One sentence, and it points rather than describes.

3. 03Justification

   “A'r hyn sy'n arwyddocaol ydy nad oes esboniad yn dilyn — mae'r frawddeg nesaf yn symud ymlaen fel pe na bai dim wedi digwydd.” This answers 'why that?': the evidence matters because of what does NOT follow it, which is a feature of that place in the text and of no other. The substitution test is passed.

4. 04Consequence, version one — forward

   “Ac os felly, mae'r penderfyniad hwnnw'n gosod y patrwm ar gyfer gweddill y gerdd.” This tells the reader that the next paragraph will show the pattern, so the essay has direction. It is the easiest of the three forms and it is usually the right one in the middle of an essay.

5. 05Consequence, version two — backward

   “Ac mae hynny'n newid sut mae'r agoriad yn darllen: nid oedi oedd yno, ond yr un gwrthodiad ar raddfa lai.” This makes an earlier paragraph mean something different, which is the more sophisticated move and the one that most clearly demonstrates unity. Use it once or twice in an essay; used every paragraph it becomes a mannerism.

Result: Claim (disputable, about the text, no evidence in it), evidence (located, short, pointing not describing), justification (answering 'why THAT?' — here, because of what does not follow), consequence (forward: this sets a pattern; or backward: this changes how the opening reads). Use the backward form once or twice, not every paragraph.

Take two claims and join them with eight different connectives. Show that the connective, not the claims, determines what the argument is.

1. 01The two claims, unjoined

   Claim A: the poem refuses to explain the loss it describes. Claim B: the final stanza offers an image that could be read as consolation. Set side by side with no connective, they simply sit there, and a reader has to decide for themselves whether B undermines A, qualifies it, or is explained by it. That decision is the writer's job.

2. 02As contradiction and as concession

   “Ond mae'r pennill olaf yn cynnig delwedd…” makes B a problem for A. “Serch hynny, mae'r pennill olaf yn cynnig delwedd…” makes B a qualification that A survives. Those are different arguments, and the difference is one word. The second is nearly always the better reading, because a text that does one thing throughout and something else at the end is usually doing something more interesting than contradicting itself.

3. 03As consequence and as accumulation

   “O ganlyniad, mae'r pennill olaf…” claims that B follows from A, which is a strong and interesting move — the refusal to explain is what makes the final image possible. “At hynny, mae'r pennill olaf…” claims that B is more of the same, which is a weaker but sometimes accurate reading. Both are arguments the bare juxtaposition did not make.

4. 04As restatement and as confirmation

   “Hynny yw, mae'r pennill olaf yn gwneud yn union yr un peth mewn ffordd arall” claims that A and B are one thing described twice. “Yn wir, mae'r pennill olaf yn cadarnhau hynny” claims that B is evidence for A. Again, different arguments, and each is available in one word.

5. 05The lesson

   Eight connectives, eight different essays, and the claims never changed. That is why connectives are examinable and why they belong to AO3 rather than to AO2: the claims are the reading, and the connectives are the argument. A candidate who has twelve of them available is choosing between twelve arguments; a candidate with four is choosing between four.

Result: The connective, not the claims, determines the argument: ond makes the second claim a problem, serch hynny makes it a qualification the first survives, o ganlyniad makes it a consequence, at hynny makes it more of the same, hynny yw makes it a restatement, yn wir makes it confirmation. Same two claims, six different essays.

Here is the discipline. Run the six passes over a paragraph of your own critical Welsh and name each error by class, its cause and its repair.

1. 01Pass one — mutations, two found

   First: a soft mutation lost on the object of an inflected verb, in a long sentence where the object had drifted away from its verb — the classic pressure error, and the reason a long sentence is worth a second look. Second: a locative yn left unmutated before a place name, because the radical form of the name is so familiar in print. Both are rules the writer knows; neither survived the speed.

2. 02Pass two — gender, one found

   An adjective left unmutated after a feminine singular noun. The tell is usually the article: if you wrote y or the noun softened after the article, the noun is feminine and the adjective must follow. This pass is quick because it only has to look at noun-plus-adjective pairs, and there are not many in a paragraph of critical prose.

3. 03Pass three — relative particles, one found

   A y where an a was needed, in a clause whose noun was the object of the verb. This is the error most often mistaken for a mutation error, because the mutation on the verb may look wrong when in fact the particle is. Check every relative clause for whether the antecedent is subject, object or oblique before looking at the mutation.

4. 04Pass four — circumflexes, one found

   A missing acen grom that turned one word into another. This pass is a scan rather than a read: you are looking at word shapes, not sentences, and it takes under a minute for a page. It is worth doing last among the grammatical passes because it needs the least attention and is therefore safe to do when you are tired.

5. 05Passes five and six — register and punctuation, one found

   A single nid yw stranded in a paragraph otherwise written in standard modern prose — not wrong in itself, but inconsistent, and inconsistency of register is what the mark schemes notice rather than formality as such. Punctuation found nothing this time, which is usual: it is the fastest pass and the one that most often comes back clean, which is why it goes last.

Result: Six passes, six errors, and every one of them a rule the writer knew: two mutations lost to sentence length and print-familiarity, one adjective unmutated after a feminine noun, one wrong relative particle mistaken for a mutation problem, one missing circumflex, and one stranded literary form. Punctuation came back clean, which is why it goes last.