Writing
The two tasks
Writing lasts 90 minutes and contains two tasks of roughly 220–260 words each. Part 1 is compulsory: an essay built from two of three bullet points, plus an idea of your own. Part 2 offers a choice - letter or email, proposal, report or review - always addressed to a specified reader.
What examiners reward
Four equally weighted criteria. Content: are all the task points covered and developed? Communicative Achievement: is the register and genre convention right, and does the text do its job for that reader? Organisation: paragraphing, sequencing, linking. Language: range and accuracy together. A fluent, accurate answer that ignores one bullet point loses Content marks it cannot win back elsewhere.
Genres are contracts
A review evaluates and recommends; it does not merely describe. A proposal states a need, proposes action and predicts a benefit. A report presents findings, often under headings, and ends with a recommendation. An informal letter needs contractions and direct address; a letter to an editor does not. Breaking the contract costs Communicative Achievement even when the English is strong.
Traps
- Lifting the rubric's wording instead of paraphrasing the task.
- Pre-learned opening paragraphs that do not fit this exact question.
- One solid block of text rather than three or four paragraphs with a clear function each.
- In the essay, listing the bullet points separately instead of building a position that links them.
Rule of thumb
Plan for five minutes and write one sentence per paragraph stating its job before you start. If a paragraph has no job, it should not exist.