Text Production and Composition
The writing task carries the largest share of the marks in the Niedersachsen Abitur. It ranges from the analytic essay (comment, discuss, evaluate, compare) to productive and creative formats - letter to the editor, speech, blog post, continuation of a literary text, interior monologue - often preceded by "Use the material from the text". Marks come from content (comprehension, argument, textual support) and from the separately assessed sprachliche Leistung: Ausdrucksvermögen and sprachliche Richtigkeit.
The architecture of a strong answer
- Introduction: text type, author, title, source and date if given; the topic in one sentence; a clear thesis or position.
- Body: one idea per paragraph, opened by a topic sentence, supported by evidence (short integrated quotation with line number, or a concrete example), then interpreted and explicitly linked to the thesis.
- Conclusion: synthesis and evaluation. No new arguments, no mere repetition.
Answering the operator
Discuss requires at least two positions weighed against each other before a reasoned judgement. Comment requires a clear, consistently argued stance. Evaluate requires stated criteria against which something is judged. Creative tasks require staying inside the world, register and perspective of the source text - no contradictions, no anachronisms.
Worked example
Weak: "Advertising is bad because it makes people buy things they don't need. Everyone knows this." Strong: "Advertising does not merely inform; it manufactures desire. The campaign's insistence that the product is 'not a luxury, but a necessity' (l. 12) redefines a want as a need, which makes the consumer's 'choice' largely rhetorical. This matters because it shifts responsibility away from the individual." Reasoning: the strong version has a claim, textual evidence, an interpretative step and a consequence - the four moves the marker looks for. The weak version offers an unsupported generalisation and a rhetorical gesture instead of an argument.
Language control
Vary sentence length and structure, but prioritise accuracy: complex sentences that collapse under German word order or comma rules cost more than they gain. Keep one register throughout, and choose either British or American spelling - not both.
Traps that cost marks
- Retelling the plot instead of arguing.
- An opinion with no reasons, or reasons with no evidence.
- Ignoring part of a multi-part prompt.
- Germanisms ("informations", "I am agree", "since three years").
- Overwriting: long, ornate sentences with collapsing syntax.