Canary Islands PAU Spanish Language and Literature II / Lengua Castellana y Literatura II common mistakes
Canary Islands PAU Spanish Language and Literature II / Lengua Castellana y Literatura II · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Writing a summary that reuses whole clauses from the text, or that includes personal opinion and value judgements ('el autor critica acertadamente...').
Candidates confuse 'resumen' with 'comentario' and, under time pressure, copy the opening sentence of each paragraph because it is faster than reformulating. The instruction to 'resumir con palabras propias' is read but not applied.
What to do instead
Draft the summary last, from a one-line-per-paragraph outline written in the margin, then close the text and write it from memory. Cap it at roughly a quarter of the original length and run a mechanical check: no sentence may share more than three consecutive words with the source, and no adjective may express approval or disapproval.
Producing a summary that lists details (dates, names, examples) instead of stating the global thesis and the argumentative steps that support it.
Candidates treat summarising as compression by deletion of adjectives rather than as selection of hierarchical information, so every fact looks equally important.
What to do instead
Before writing, label each paragraph as thesis / argument / example / conclusion. Keep thesis and arguments, drop examples and enumerations. Then verify the summary answers 'what does this text want to convince me of, and with which two or three reasons'.
Presenting the 'comentario' as a loose sequence of observations (theme, then a personal anecdote, then a jump to the linguistic questions) with no stated text typology or structure.
Candidates have memorised labels such as 'texto argumentativo' but never practised justifying them with textual evidence, so the classification is asserted in one line and abandoned.
What to do instead
Use a fixed three-part scaffold with headings: (1) typology justified by two concrete features (presence of thesis, modality, lexical selection, use of exemplification); (2) structure with line references (partes y función de cada una); (3) communicative situation (emisor, destinatario, intención, registro). Every claim must be anchored to a quoted fragment of three to six words.
Confusing 'tema' with 'argumento' or with the topic of a single paragraph, and offering a one-word theme ('la soledad') without the specific perspective the text takes.
The distinction between theme and thesis is rarely drilled, and candidates reproduce the title or the first noun phrase they see.
What to do instead
Write the theme as a noun phrase with a limiting complement ('la soledad del emigrante en la ciudad moderna'), and separately write the thesis as a full declarative sentence the author would sign. If the two sentences are interchangeable, the theme is still too vague.
Identifying word class by meaning rather than by distribution, e.g. calling 'según' a preposition, 'muy' an adjective, or 'que' always a relative pronoun.
School grammar teaching often relies on semantic definitions ('el sustantivo nombra personas, animales o cosas'), which fail for grammaticalised items and for homonymous forms.
What to do instead
Apply substitution and distribution tests explicitly in the answer: for 'que', test commutation with 'el cual' and check whether the clause has an antecedent; for degree words, test whether they can modify an adjective; for 'según', test whether it can head a prepositional phrase with a pronoun ('según él'). State the test in one clause as part of the justification.
Analysing syntax by labelling only the main subject and predicate and leaving subordinate clauses unanalysed, or misidentifying a subordinate clause as the direct object when it is the subject.
Candidates run out of time and stop at the first level of analysis; also, Spanish allows clauses in subject position without a preposition, which looks like an object.
What to do instead
Work top-down with a written bracket tree before writing prose, and always test clause function by substitution: replace the whole subordinate with 'eso' or 'lo' and see which pronoun works ('Eso me molesta' = subject; 'Lo sé' = direct object). Report function, not just type.
Explaining lexical semantics with vague synonyms ('significa lo mismo pero más fuerte') instead of naming the mechanism: metáfora, metonimia, eufemismo, polisemia, homonimia, antonimia graduable.
Candidates lack a working metalanguage for semantics and fall back on paraphrase, which earns no credit because it does not demonstrate analysis.
What to do instead
Keep a one-page taxonomy with an example of your own for each mechanism and force yourself to name the mechanism plus give the two terms involved ('eufemismo: "interrupción voluntaria del embarazo" por "aborto"'). If you cannot name it, describe the relation in terms of selection restriction or semantic field, never as 'sinónimo más fuerte'.
Answering the literature question with a general essay on the author's life and the century, without naming specific works, characters, or formal features, and without connecting the prescribed reading to its movement.
Candidates revise biographies and century overviews because they are easier to memorise than textual features, and they hope volume of prose will compensate for absence of specifics.
What to do instead
For each prescribed work, prepare a five-line card: movement and dates, two formal features with a quoted example, two characters with function, two themes with a scene, and one sentence on how the work marks a shift from the preceding movement. In the exam, use the card structure as the paragraph order and cite at least three textual details.
In the essay on the prescribed reading, retelling the plot for most of the answer and only reaching the argument in the final paragraph, or failing to take a position at all.
Plot summary is the safest material to produce under pressure, and candidates fear that a personal judgement will be marked wrong if it differs from the teacher's reading.
What to do instead
Invert the proportion: one sentence of plot maximum. Open with a thesis about the work ('La novela presenta el fracaso como consecuencia del determinismo social, no de la culpa individual'), then three body paragraphs each with claim, textual evidence, and interpretation, and a conclusion that answers the question. Judgement is rewarded when supported by the text.
Writing the essay with no quotation from the prescribed reading and no reference to narrative voice, time structure, or point of view, treating the work as if it were a real-life case study.
Candidates discuss themes in the abstract and do not realise that literary analysis requires formal evidence, so the answer would fit any book on the same topic.
What to do instead
Memorise four or five short quotations (under ten words each) covering voice, time, and a key scene, and rehearse inserting them. Before writing, decide which formal element (narrador, focalización, analepsis, estilo indirecto libre) will carry your argument, and make it explicit in the introduction.