French Language Proficiency and Academic Communication
What is assessed
Even non-specialists are assessed on command of academic French: correctness, clarity, coherence and register. You must master grammar (agreement, tense sequencing, subordinate clauses), lexicon (precise, non-colloquial vocabulary), spelling, and discourse organisation (introduction, development, conclusion; connectors; paragraph unity).
Academic writing conventions
Know how to write a structured answer, a commentary, and a synthesis. Use connectors of addition, opposition, cause, consequence and illustration. Avoid ambiguity, redundancy and familiar register. In an essay, the thesis must be explicit and each paragraph must develop one idea supported by an example.
Traps
Common errors: confusing dont and que, faulty past-participle agreement with avoir, misuse of en revanche (contrast) for de plus (addition), and dangling participles. Another trap is treating a long answer as necessarily good: length without structure loses marks.
Worked example
Wrong: Les élèves que j'ai parlé. Right: Les élèves à qui j'ai parlé (the verb parler à requires an indirect object). Rule of thumb: identify the verb's construction before choosing the relative pronoun.