90-word message to the host family: cutting, register, meaning
Candidate: Eoin. Writing task: a message of about 90 words to the Italian family he will stay with in July. The prompt lists five points: (1) thank them for the invitation; (2) say you arrive on 3 July at 19:30 by train; (3) explain that you cannot eat fish; (4) ask what the weather is like; (5) say you like football and ask whether there is a local team. The family's own email opened 'Ciao Eoin, dacci del tu!' The mark scheme allots marks both for communicating each point and for language accuracy.
Eoin's draft is 132 words. It opens 'Gentile famiglia, La ringrazio molto per la Sua gentile invito', covers points 1, 2, 3 and 5, omits the weather question, and writes 'Non mi piace il pesce' although he means an allergy. He uses 'arriverò' for the arrival time, a future form his class has not yet covered. He has 25 minutes left and asks whether he should rewrite the whole message from scratch.
1. Plan the rebuild: what do you cut, what do you add, and why that order?
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Do not rewrite from scratch - that is how the missing point stays missing. Work to a five-line plan, one line per prompt point, then join the lines.
Cuts: 'Gentile famiglia, La ringrazio molto per la Sua gentile invito' is eleven words spent on one mark and on the wrong register. Replace with 'Ciao a tutti, grazie mille per l'invito'. The journey can become one clause: 'Arrivo il 3 luglio alle 19:30 in treno'. Food: 'Sono allergico al pesce: per me niente pesce, per favore'. Weather (the missing point): 'Che tempo fa da voi a luglio? Devo portare una giacca?' Football: 'Mi piace il calcio: c'è una squadra qui vicino?' Close with 'A presto'.
That is roughly 60 words, well under the limit, so two short connectives ('Allora', 'Poi') can be added for flow without risk. The gain is threefold: point 4 now earns its mark, the register matches the family's email, and shorter sentences are easier to keep accurate. Padding to reach a word count earns nothing.
2. The family wrote 'dacci del tu'. Decide the register and list the knock-on forms that decision controls.
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'Tu' is obligatory here, not optional. 'Gentile famiglia... La ringrazio' is not merely old-fashioned; it shows the candidate has not understood the invitation, and examiners read register as comprehension of the prompt.
Once 'tu' is chosen, the following must follow it: possessives ('tuo/tua'), object pronouns ('ti ringrazio'), verb endings ('come stai?', 'puoi?'), and imperatives ('scrivimi'). Address the household with 'Ciao a tutti' plus 'voi' forms, which is safe and natural for a family.
Do a final pass hunting capitalised 'La', 'Le', 'Sua': a single leftover 'Lei' form in a text otherwise in 'tu' reads as a control slip rather than a stylistic choice, and mixed address is one of the most conspicuous errors in this task type. It is also cheap to fix - a two-minute check, not a rewrite.
3. Evaluate the sentence 'Non mi piace il pesce' against what Eoin actually means.
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Both sentences are comprehensible; only one is safe. 'Non mi piace il pesce' means he dislikes it, which invites the host to serve it 'just a little', or to treat him as fussy - a real risk when the meaning is medical. 'Sono allergico al pesce' (or 'Ho un'allergia al pesce') is a fixed, high-frequency chunk worth memorising and changes what the family cooks.
If he cannot spell 'allergico' under exam pressure, the fallback is 'Non posso mangiare il pesce - è importante', which communicates the constraint without the technical term. Marking note: a clear statement of dislike still earns the communication mark in most schemes, so he should add one clarifying clause and move on rather than spend five minutes perfecting it. Preference and constraint are not interchangeable in real hosting, which is the point of the item.