Presentational Communication: Structured Spoken and Written Japanese
What this domain tests
Presentational tasks ask you to produce organised Japanese on your own: a short speech, a letter or email, a blog post, a description, or an opinion piece. Marks come from task fulfilment, structure, range of vocabulary and grammar, and accuracy - not from length alone.
Concepts you must control
- Genre conventions. Speeches open with 皆さん、こんにちは。今日は～について話します and close with ご清聴ありがとうございました. Emails use 件名, ～様, お世話になっております, and よろしくお願いいたします. Letters use 拝啓／敬具 in formal style.
- Paragraph logic. Topic sentence, supporting detail with a reason (～から／ので), example (たとえば), and a concluding comment (～と思います).
- Connectors. まず, 次に, それから, また, しかし, したがって, 最後に - these make structure visible to the assessor.
- Opinion language. ～と思います, ～のではないでしょうか, ～に賛成です, その理由は～からです.
- Range devices. Vary sentence endings; use ～て form chaining, relative clauses (私が住んでいる町), and ～たり～たりする.
Traps
- Writing a list of unrelated sentences with no linking words.
- Using plain form throughout a formal email, or polite form in a casual blog.
- Forgetting the audience-specific opening and closing.
- Stating an opinion with no reason or example.
- Over-reaching with unfamiliar grammar and losing accuracy marks.
Rule of thumb
Plan four boxes before writing: opening, point one, point two, closing. Fill each box with one topic sentence plus one support sentence, and link the boxes with まず／次に／最後に.
Worked example. For 私の好きな季節: 私が好きな季節は秋です。まず、天気がすずしくて過ごしやすいです。次に、紅葉がきれいで、写真をとるのが楽しいです。だから、秋がいちばん好きです。