Written Production: Writing in Chinese
What you must understand
You will produce texts such as emails, letters, diary entries, notices, short articles, and narratives. Each text type has conventions: an email needs a subject line, greeting, body, and sign-off; a diary entry uses time expressions and personal reflection; a notice is short and factual with a clear heading. Marks come from task fulfilment, content and ideas, grammar and vocabulary range, and accuracy, plus correct text-type format.
Planning
Spend a few minutes planning: who is the audience, what is the purpose, what register, and which 3–4 points must be covered. A well-organised answer with simple, accurate sentences scores better than an ambitious answer full of errors.
Grammar you must control
- Aspect markers: 了 (completed), 过 (experience), 着 (ongoing state).
- Complements: 得 (manner/degree), 结果补语 (写完, 看见), 方向补语 (起来, 下去).
- 把 and 被 sentences for handling and passive meaning.
- Comparisons: 比, 跟…一样, 没有…那么.
- Time and place order: time before verb, place before verb.
Common traps
Forgetting the greeting or sign-off; mixing formal and informal address; writing English-style long sentences with 和 and 但是 repeated; omitting measure words (个, 次, 位, 件); and ignoring the word limit.
Worked example
Task: write an email to a teacher declining an invitation politely. Model opening: "王老师：您好！谢谢您的邀请。很抱歉，那天我正好有考试，不能参加。希望以后还有机会。" Note 您, the apology, the reason, and a closing wish - all four moves earn content marks.
Rule of thumb
Cover every bullet in the prompt, use the format of the required text type, and keep sentences short enough to control.