Producing Texts: Structure, Cohesion and Accuracy
What this domain tests
Producing texts requires you to write in a specified format (email, article, letter, diary entry, review, short essay) for a specified audience and purpose, within a word limit. Marks come from three places: task fulfilment (all bullet points covered, right register), cohesion and range (varied connectives, rich lexis, complex sentences), and accuracy (agreement, tense, spelling, accents).
Concepts to master
- Text structure: opening, developed body paragraphs each with one idea, and a closing that matches the format (Cordiali saluti for formal; A presto for informal).
- Connectives for range: innanzitutto, inoltre, d'altronde, di conseguenza, mentre, sebbene + subjunctive, poiché.
- Complex syntax: relative clauses (che, cui), gerunds (pur riconoscendo che…), and impersonal forms (si ritiene che, è opportuno).
- Lexical precision: choose the exact verb - aumentare (intransitive) vs aumentare + object, rendere + adjective, consentire di + infinitive.
- Agreement chains: article–noun–adjective, and past participle with essere and with direct object pronouns (le ho viste).
Traps
Candidates lose marks by ignoring one bullet point, by drifting into the wrong register mid-text, or by padding with memorised phrases that do not fit the prompt. Accents are marked: e (and) vs è (is); ne vs né; si vs sì. Do not translate an English structure literally - fare una domanda is correct, chiedere una domanda is not.
Rule of thumb
Spend the first two minutes planning: list the bullet points, assign one paragraph to each, and decide the register. Then write with a connective at the start of each body paragraph and a varied verb tense in each. Reserve three minutes to check accents, participle agreement and register consistency.
Worked example
Prompt: an email to a host family thanking them and explaining your arrival. Plan: greeting (Cara famiglia Rossi), thanks with a specific detail (grazie per l'ospitalità che mi avete offerto), arrival information (arriverò il 3 luglio, quindi avrò bisogno di…), closing (A presto). Each bullet becomes one short paragraph; quindi and inoltre supply cohesion; the future tense supplies range.