Written Production
Written Production
The written paper asks for a short message and a longer composition - a letter, article, or opinion piece. Examiners assess task achievement, organisation, range of language, and accuracy; a fluent but off-task answer scores poorly.
Core rules
- Identify the text type and its conventions: letter formulas, article headline, clear paragraphs.
- Plan before writing: introduction, two developed arguments, conclusion.
- Use linkers: d'une part, en revanche, par conséquent, cependant, de plus.
- Vary structures: relative clauses, subjunctive after bien que, conditional for hypothesis.
- Respect the word count and every bullet in the task.
Worked example
Task: write about whether social media is dangerous for young people. Plan: thesis (yes, partly), argument with example (cyberbullying), counterargument (useful for contact), conclusion. Sentence: Bien que les réseaux sociaux permettent de garder le contact, ils peuvent exposer les jeunes au harcèlement. Reasoning: the subjunctive after bien que and the contrast structure show range; a concrete risk follows. A list of opinions without development would lose marks.
Traps that cost marks
- Writing fewer than the required words; it limits content marks.
- Mixing tu and vous in the same text.
- Using memorised paragraphs that do not answer the task.
- Forgetting the conclusion or the greeting formula.
- Overusing English cognates that are false friends (actuellement = currently, not actually).