Adapting a Written Description for a Younger Reader
Your class must produce a short Greek description of your school for visiting primary-school children from Greece. Your draft is written for adults: it uses long sentences, several subordinate clauses, and vocabulary such as words for 'facilities', 'curriculum' and 'administration'. Your teacher says the content is accurate but the language is wrong for the audience. You have a 120-word limit and a beginner vocabulary of about 400 words. You must keep four facts: the school has 900 students, it opens at 8:15, there is a large yard, and lunch is at 12:30. You cannot add new facts.
1. Rewrite the plan for the description, explaining which language changes you would make and why, while keeping all four facts.
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Plan: (1) Shorten sentences. Break long multi-clause sentences into short main clauses, one fact per sentence, because younger readers and beginners process short units more easily. (2) Replace abstract nouns with concrete words. Drop adult terms like 'facilities', 'curriculum' and 'administration' and use simple concrete vocabulary within your 400-word range (numbers, times, place words, the word for 'big'). (3) Keep all four facts - 900 students, 8:15 opening, large yard, 12:30 lunch - each in its own clear sentence. (4) Respect the 120-word limit by cutting anything that is not one of the four facts. (5) Add simple connectives so the text still flows. Why: audience-appropriate language is a communication skill, not a simplification failure; accuracy of facts is preserved while accessibility improves.
2. Your shortened draft now sounds like a list. Suggest two ways to make it read as a connected text without adding new facts or exceeding the word limit.
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Way 1 - Use simple ordering connectives (words for 'first', 'then', 'also') to link the four facts into a sequence, which creates flow without new information. Way 2 - Group related facts so that the school size and the large yard sit together, and the opening time and lunch time sit together, giving the text two clear parts rather than four isolated items. Constraint check: both changes use only function words and reordering, so no new facts are added and the 120-word limit is respected. Why it matters: cohesion comes from connectives and grouping, not from extra content; a beginner can achieve readable flow with a small set of linking words. This also shows the examiner you can control structure, not just vocabulary.