Writing and Composition
What the section tests
Writing and Composition asks you to produce clear, organised text - a short message, email, description, or opinion paragraph - and to answer questions about structure, sentence correctness, and register. Both production and editing skills matter.
Concepts you must know
- Paragraph structure: topic sentence, supporting details, concluding sentence.
- Linking words: first, in addition, however, because, therefore, finally.
- Sentence variety and correctness: avoid run-ons and fragments; join ideas with conjunctions.
- Register: informal for friends (Hi, thanks), formal for teachers or applications (Dear Sir or Madam).
- Punctuation: capital letters, commas after introductory phrases, correct apostrophes.
Traps in questions
Common traps are missing linking words that make a paragraph jump between ideas, wrong register (slang in a formal letter), and punctuation errors such as comma splices. In editing questions, the error is often a small one - a missing capital, an apostrophe in its/it's, or a verb tense slip. Do not rewrite a whole sentence when only one word is wrong.
Worked example
"i went to the market, it was very busy." Two errors: capital I and a comma splice. Correct: "I went to the market. It was very busy." Rule of thumb: separate complete sentences with a full stop, or join them with a conjunction such as and or because - never a comma alone.
Preparation
Plan before writing (three bullet points), use one linking word per sentence where natural, and re-read for capitals, apostrophes, and full stops.