Written Production
Written Production tests your ability to complete a short communicative task in German: a message, email, postcard, note or description. Marks reward task completion, appropriate register, connected sentences and control of core grammar.
Core rules and concepts
- Read the bullet points; every bullet needs a response. Underline each requirement and tick it off as you write.
- Use a clear structure: greeting, opening, two or three developed points, closing. Informal: Liebe/Lieber ..., Liebe Grüße. Formal: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, Mit freundlichen Grüßen.
- Main clauses keep the finite verb in second position: Ich fahre morgen nach Hamburg. If a time expression starts, the verb still comes second: Morgen fahre ich ...
- Subordinate clauses with weil, dass, wenn or obwohl send the finite verb to the end.
- Choose tenses you can control: present for routines, perfect for past events, modal plus infinitive for plans.
Worked example
Task: Write a short email saying you are tired and going to bed early, giving a reason. Draft: „Ich bin heute sehr müde, weil ich früh aufstehen muss. Deshalb gehe ich jetzt ins Bett.“ Reasoning: the weil clause has the finite verb muss at the end; deshalb occupies position one, so gehe is in position two; ins Bett is accusative neuter. The reason is explicit, so the task is complete.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing a list of nouns without verbs; examiners need connected sentences.
- Forgetting the greeting or closing, or mixing du and Sie.
- Using weil with normal word order: „weil ich bin müde“.
- Ignoring the word limit: too short loses content marks; too long adds errors.