Written Production: Composition and Opinion/Argumentative Text
The written production block asks for a single text of about 120–150 words on one of two options, typically an opinion or argumentative essay but sometimes a narrative, a description, an informal email or a for-and-against piece. Marks are banded across four things: task achievement (do you answer the exact question, in the right genre and register?), organisation (paragraphing, topic sentences, linkers), lexical range (varied, precise, correctly collocated vocabulary) and grammatical accuracy (tenses, agreement, sentence structure). Range without accuracy and accuracy without range both cap your band.
Plan in three minutes
- Underline the task words: discuss, do you agree, describe, narrate, compare. They decide the genre.
- Fix a thesis in one sentence for an opinion essay. Vague theses ("this is a controversial topic") score nothing for task achievement.
- Sketch three paragraphs: introduction (thesis), body (one developed argument plus a concession and refutation), conclusion (restated position, no new argument). For narratives: set-up, complication, resolution.
Language that raises the band
- Concession and refutation: Admittedly, … However, …; While critics claim …, the evidence suggests …
- Hedging: tends to, is likely to, arguably, in most cases - safer than absolute claims and evidence of advanced control.
- Nominalisation: the introduction of fees rather than when they introduced fees.
- Cohesion: Consequently, By contrast, What is more, On balance. Avoid Firstly/Secondly/Finally in every paragraph.
- Register: no contractions, no generic you, no a lot of, stuff, kids, gonna.
Worked example
Prompt: Some people believe that university education should be free for everyone. Discuss. Thesis: Free tuition widens access, but funding it entirely from general taxation is neither fair nor sustainable. Body: Admittedly, graduates earn more, so a graduate contribution is defensible; however, debt deters applicants from low-income families, which defeats the purpose. Conclusion: A means-tested grant system, not universal free tuition, best balances access and cost. Reasoning: the thesis takes a position and previews the structure; the body concedes a real point and refutes it with a causal link; the conclusion names a concrete alternative instead of repeating the introduction. All three use subordination (so, which, rather than) instead of chains of short sentences.
Traps
- Copying the prompt or the reading text - it is ignored and signals an undeveloped answer.
- A memorised essay on a different topic: markers spot it and task achievement collapses.
- One unbroken block of text; no paragraph means no organisation marks.
- Ignoring the stated word range: 90 or 200 words signals an undeveloped or padded answer.
- Spanish calques: actualmente → currently, not actually; in my opinion, not under my point of view.