Presentational Communication: Structure, Cohesion and Register
What you must understand
Presentational tasks ask you to produce a sustained spoken or written text - a speech, article, letter, or report - for a specified audience. Markers reward organisation, cohesion, range of expression, and appropriate register, not just accuracy.
Plan with a clear frame. A Japanese speech typically opens with an あいさつ, states the topic (〜についてお話しします), gives two or three supporting points signposted by まず、次に、さらに、最後に, and closes with a summary and ご清聴ありがとうございました. Written reports use だ・である or です・ます consistently - mixing them within one text is a common penalty.
Traps to watch
- Register drift: switching from です・ます to plain form mid-paragraph without a reason (quoted content, casual aside).
- Underuse of connectives: short, unlinked sentences lose cohesion marks. Add そのため、しかし、また、つまり.
- Over-reliance on set phrases: formulaic openings are fine, but the body must carry your own content.
- Audience mismatch: a letter to a teacher needs 拝啓/敬具 or お世話になっております, not casual じゃあね.
- Kanji and punctuation: overuse of commas, or missing ー and っ in katakana, affects clarity.
Rule of thumb
One paragraph, one idea, one signpost. If a paragraph has no connective and no topic sentence, it will read as a list rather than an argument.
Worked example: You write an article on school uniforms. Weak: 「制服は便利です。高いです。デザインがいいです。」 Stronger: 「制服には多くの利点がある。まず、毎朝の服選びが不要になる。次に、一体感が生まれる。しかし、価格が高いという課題も残る。」 The second version keeps register consistent, signposts each point, and acknowledges a counterpoint - exactly what range and cohesion descriptors reward.