The Writing paper is paper 2 of the FCE exam and it lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes. In this paper you have to complete 2 writing tasks.
In task 1 you will be asked to write either a letter or an email. They give you some material to read and you must respond to that material with your letter or base your letter on the material given. For example, you might have to respond positively to an invitation, give or ask for information, express an opinion, give reasons for doing or not doing an activity or convey a preference. It's really important to show that you understand the reasons you are writing and to whom.
n Task 2 you could be asked to write an article, an essay, a letter, a report, a review or a story in questions 2-4. They are based on general topics such as health and fitness, sport, music and so on.
What are the examiners looking for?
The examiners are highly trained and have many criteria for marking your writing. As a general summary they are looking at the following aspects:
- Content - have you included what you are asked to include - not just part of the required content, but all of it? This is where writing a plan really helps. It takes just 3 minutes but can save you time when you are writing and help you not to miss important information. There's an example at the bottom of the article.
- Organisation and cohesion - is it organised? Are all the ideas linked together? Does it read like 1 piece of writing or lots of little bits thrown together? Paragraphs!!! (Generally speaking 3 is minimum and more than 5 would probably be an exaggeration). If you have written a good plan this part shouldn't be a problem for you.
- Appropriacy and format - if it's a letter, does it look like a letter? if it's a report, does it look like a report? E.g. A letter starts with Dear , a report doesn't. This also includes 'register' - this means the level of formality of language - if you are writing to a friend you should write more informally, if you are writing to someone in authority you should use a more formal style.
- Range - this is the area you really show off in. You must show that you know a variety of grammar structures and vocabulary. This will also make your work more interesting for the reader.
- Accuracy - mistakes!! Try not to make them! Spelling, punctuation, wrong vocabulary, grammar mistakes. When you check your work I think it's a good idea to check at least 3 or 4 times, but each time you check for something different. E.g. many people have problems with a/the - so check your work by looking at the nouns and seeing if you have the right article or no article. Tenses are tough in English, so check through your work by looking at the verbs. Spelling could be another check. What about checking to find ways to improve your range(see the point above)?
- Target reader. When he or she is checking your work, the examiner puts himself in the position of the target reader and wants to see what impression you make. Does your letter, email, article, essay etc have the right effect on the reader. For example if you are asked to write a letter of complaint don't be too critical and aggressive because this would have a rather negative effect on the reader in real life and you may not get what you want - compensation etc. Remember the Brit's are generally a polite lot. So if you do the same in the FC exam the examiner puts himself in the position of the target reader and will give you a lower mark because of the bad effect on the target reader.
PLAN before you write
Question: You have just come back from a holiday which was a disaster. The hotel was a building site although the brochure had shown only beautiful pictures. The hotel workers were rude. The food was disgusting. The flights were late and there was no airport transfer. Write a letter of complaint.
Para 1. Intro: I am writing to complain . (general introduction)
Para 2. Organisational problems - Flights, brochure - what they had promised
Para 3. Problems in the hotel - food, service
Para 4. What do I want? Compensation (be realistic!) Ending comment - I look forward to receiving your reply
As you can see preparing a very simple plan will help you with several of the points above - it's logically organised, I can see the paragraphs, I have included all the information necessary and I have given myself a start and a finish in a formal style which should help me continue in this style. This kind of simple plan takes just a couple of minutes. Also I think this will help me write better because my brain doesn't now need to think about the content and organisation so much - I can concentrate on just writing really good English! Write a plan!! Please!!
My other piece of advice is practise, practise, practise! Most students don't like writing but it's one of the best ways to work on your general level of English. When you are preparing for the exam practise using more complicated structures and use a dictionary or a thesaurus to find and use more 'advanced' vocabulary. In the exam you can't use dictionary, but you can when you are studying. Give your work to your teacher to check - generally teachers love proactive students. When it is checked re-write it with the teacher's suggestions or, if they just marked the bad bits, try to correct it yourself and show it to your teacher again.
An important last question: What if I write too much? Try to shorten it - although if you make a plan you will probably be OK. If it is too long, though, the examiner draws a line where you hit the word limit and only marks this part. However, if there is relevant material after the line you are given some credit.
If you write too little then you probably haven't answered the question fully and your chances of passing are quite slim. You also lose marks in proportion to how much shorter you writing is than the required length.
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