Writing and Text Production
Writing and Text Production tests short practical texts: an email or message, postcard, invitation, excuse, form, or simple description. Marks depend on covering every content point, choosing the right register, writing understandable sentences and controlling basic spelling and punctuation.
Core rules
- Before writing, identify the recipient and purpose. A message to a friend uses du and an informal greeting; a message to an office, teacher or landlord uses Sie and a formal greeting.
- Formal email frame: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, or Sehr geehrte Frau Klein,; state the reason; make the request; close with Mit freundlichen Grüßen and your name. Informal frame: Liebe Anna, or Hallo Tom,; close with Viele Grüße or Bis bald.
- Cover all task points. If the task says you cannot come, give a reason, and ask for a new appointment, each point needs one clear sentence. Missing a point loses more than an elegant phrase gains.
- Keep the conjugated verb in second position in main clauses. After a time expression, invert: Am Montag kann ich nicht kommen, not Am Montag ich kann nicht kommen.
- Use present tense for future arrangements: Ich komme morgen. Use the perfect for past events: Ich habe den Termin vergessen. With modals, put the infinitive at the end: Ich kann morgen nicht kommen.
- Connect ideas with und, aber, weil, deshalb, dann, außerdem, leider. A subordinate clause with weil sends the verb to the end.
- Capitalize all nouns, including Termin, Kurs, Montag and E-Mail. Use umlauts and ß where needed; do not replace ü with u in an exam.
Worked example
Task: Write to your course leader, Frau Klein. You cannot come on Monday; ask for a new appointment. Model: Sehr geehrte Frau Klein, leider kann ich am Montag nicht zum Kurs kommen, weil ich einen Arzttermin habe. Können wir einen neuen Termin vereinbaren? Mit freundlichen Grüßen, Anna Schmidt. The greeting is formal and correct. Leider signals the problem; weil sends habe to the end. The question uses Können wir and the infinitive vereinbaren. The closing matches the formal register.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing du and Sie in the same text, or using Hallo to a formal recipient.
- Forgetting the reason or the request, so a content point is missing.
- For neutral written order prefer Ich kann am Montag nicht kommen. A final am Montag can occur as a spoken afterthought or contrast, so it is not categorically ungrammatical.
- Lowercasing nouns or dropping umlauts.
- Using a casual closing such as Bis bald in a formal email.
- Omitting the comma before weil or dass.