Written Communication and Composition
Written Communication and Composition tests whether you can plan, organize, and revise prose for a defined purpose and audience. It covers thesis and controlling ideas, paragraph unity, cohesion, concision, register, and revision decisions. The strongest answers are not merely correct sentences; they are sentences that do a job in sequence.
Core rules and concepts
- Purpose and audience first: identify whether the task is to inform, persuade, recommend, or explain, and what the reader already knows. That determines detail, tone, and jargon level.
- Paragraph unity: each paragraph should develop one controlling idea, usually stated in a topic sentence, supported by evidence, and closed with a link to the next point.
- Cohesion: place old information before new information; use transitions that name the logical relation, such as cause, contrast, sequence, or concession, not decorative ones.
- Concision: cut expletive openers ('It is important to note that'), nominalizations ('implementation of'), and redundant pairs ('future plans').
- Register: formal writing can still be plain; avoid slang and contractions in reports, but do not inflate with Latinate vocabulary.
Worked example
Draft: 'It is important to note that the implementation of the new policy will be undertaken by the department in the near future.' Reasoning: 'It is important to note that' adds no content. 'Implementation of' is a nominalization; the actor is 'the department'. 'Will be undertaken by' is passive when the actor matters. 'In the near future' is vague and wordy. Revision: 'The department will implement the new policy soon.' The revision keeps agent, action, and time in that order.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing a thesis that announces a topic ('This essay will discuss...') instead of making a claim.
- Overusing transitions to disguise weak logical links.
- Letting a paragraph introduce two competing ideas without signaling the relationship.
- Revising only for grammar and ignoring structure.