Criminal Sentences: The GCSE English Card Game for Creative Writing Skills

Criminal Sentences is a fast-paced, flexible card game designed to boost students’ creative writing skills for AQA English Language Paper 1, Question 5. However, it can be used for any of the exam boards. I created it after noticing how much more excited students were by lunchtime card games than class writing exercises, and I wanted to channel that energy into something that would help them develop their use of a full range of appropriate sentence forms for effect, which is a key skill examiners look for.

The game comes with 180 cards, including sentence types, punctuation, language and structural techniques and more - you name it, it’s probably in there! Some cards cover the basics (like simple, compound, and complex sentences), while others push for more sophisticated control of structure and style.

You don’t have to use the full pack - teachers can easily mix and match cards depending on group ability or focus. Cards come in print-ready pages of 9 per sheet, so you can print out multiple sets and mix them all together. It doesn’t matter if they come back in separate stacks - it’s designed to be flexible and low-maintenance.

How to Play (Short Version)
There are full instructions included, but here are the basics.

• Players are dealt 3 cards each and take turns drawing, stealing, or discarding up to 6 cards.
• Each card has a sentence type, effect, example and a point value (1–5).
• The aim is to build a “stack” worth 15+ points before writing.
• Wild cards (and the rounds) allow students to steal from each other - hence the name Criminal Sentences!
• A genre randomiser (included) decides what they’ll write about (optional but the studens like it).
• Students then write a paragraph (or more), using the effects shown in their cards - as creatively and clearly as possible.

This game works brilliantly as a starter, but can also grow into a full lesson with extended writing, planning and peer feedback.

I’ve included two “versions” - only the backs of the cards are different. In one set (Set 2) they are all the same (this is my preferred version as students cannot see how many points a card is worth until they turn it over). The other set has how many points the card is worth on the back (this was for a group of students who wanted a set to use at lunchtime and requested this format, but would not elaborate why!). I think they invented their own, more twisted, version!