Selective Writing Test Topics & Prompts (2026)

The Writing test is one of the four tests in the NSW Selective High School Placement Test. Students have 30 minutes to respond to one task, typed on a computer at the test centre. In the official timetable it is the last test of the day.

The department describes it as assessing a student's creativity of ideas and their ability to write effectively for a purpose and audience. That second part matters: the task usually tells students exactly who they are writing for and why, and responses that ignore the purpose or audience score poorly however polished the sentences are.

This guide focuses on topics — what students might be asked to write. For technique, see our Writing test tips and strategy.

The best evidence of what the real test looks like is the department's own practice tests. Their writing tasks show how varied the prompts are:

Practice task	What students are asked to write	Text type
New to the area	An advice sheet helping three new students get on well at school and in the local area	Informative / advice
Chaos on the beach	A newspaper report for the local paper about a burst shipping container of party supplies washed up on a beach	Informative / report
In the future	A diary entry by someone their own age living on 19 July 2099	Imaginative / diary
A new superhero	An email to a movie company competition pitching an original superhero	Persuasive

Two patterns stand out. First, prompts give a specific form — an advice sheet, a newspaper report, a diary entry, an email — not just "write a story". Second, many name a reader (new students, a movie company). Students who practise only narratives are underprepared.

Selective writing prompts use everyday themes that any 11-year-old can write about. No specialist knowledge is needed. Themes that recur across official and commercial practice material include:

• Belonging and change: moving house, a new school, a new sibling, starting something unfamiliar
• The future and technology: life in 50 or 100 years, an invention, a robot helper
• Community and fairness: a problem at school, a local issue, helping someone
• Nature and places: a storm, the beach, the bush, a place that matters to you
• Imagination and adventure: a mysterious object, a door that wasn't there yesterday, a new character

Use these for timed 30-minute practice. Each one names a form and a reader, like the real test.

Imaginative

1. Write a story that begins: "The map was not in Grandma's handwriting."
2. Write a diary entry from a student on the first day of a school built on the Moon.
3. Write a story in which a lost dog finds its way home across the city, told from the dog's point of view.
4. Write a story about a day when everyone in your town could hear each other's thoughts.
5. Write a story set during a blackout in a thunderstorm.
6. Write the opening chapter of an adventure in which a school excursion goes wrong.

Persuasive

7. Write a letter to your principal arguing for a longer lunch break.
8. Write a speech for a class debate: "Homework should be banned in primary school."
9. Write an email to your local council persuading it to build a new skate park.
10. Write a competition entry explaining why your invention should win a $10,000 prize.
11. Write a letter to a newspaper about whether children should be allowed phones at school.
12. Write a pitch to a TV network for a new children's show.

Informative and advice

13. Write a guide for a Year 3 student starting at your school.
14. Write instructions for a game you have invented, for players who have never seen it.
15. Write a welcome letter for an exchange student arriving from overseas.
16. Write a fact sheet about an animal you know well, for a younger class.
17. Write advice for a friend who is nervous about a big test.
18. Write a newspaper report for your local paper about an unusual event at your school fete.

Reflective and discursive

19. Write about a time you changed your mind about something important.
20. Write about an object that matters to your family and explain why.
21. Write about whether it is better to be good at one thing or pretty good at many things.
22. Write a letter to your future self to be opened in ten years.
23. Write about a mistake that taught you something.
24. Write about what makes a place feel like home.

Thirty minutes goes quickly. Spending the first five planning makes the next 25 far more productive:

1. Circle the form and the reader (30 seconds). An email to a company needs a different voice from a diary entry.
2. Choose one clear idea (1 minute). One strong idea explored properly beats three thin ones.
3. Sketch the shape (2 minutes). For a story: opening situation, problem, turning point, ending. For persuasion: position, three reasons, strongest reason last, call to action.
4. Collect three specific details (1 minute). A name, a sound, a number — details make writing believable.
5. Write the first sentence (30 seconds). Start in the middle of something, not with "One day".

Leave the final three minutes to reread and fix errors — the test is typed, so check for missed words and autocorrect-style slips.

• Rotate text types. Plan a week so your child writes one imaginative, one persuasive and one informative piece.
• Practise typing. The real test is typed. A child who writes well by hand but types slowly will run out of time.
• Plan more than you write. Five-minute plans for several prompts build flexibility faster than one full piece.
• Get feedback on purpose and audience. Ask: would the named reader be informed, persuaded or entertained? That is what the task is testing.

Writing is one of four tests. For the other three, see our guides to Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills.