Writing / Composition (Expresión escrita)
Writing asks you to produce a short text of about 80–120 words in Spanish. Typical HSC tasks: an informal letter or email to a friend, a note or message (recado), a dialogue completion, a descriptive paragraph about your family, city or routine, or a short narrative or opinion piece built on a prompt with two or three bullet points.
Register and formulas
Decide first who is speaking to whom. Friend: tú, «Querido/a Ana», «¡Hola!», «Un abrazo», «Hasta pronto». Unknown adult or official: usted, «Estimado señor», «Atentamente», «Le saluda». Mixing the two - «Estimado amigo, ¿puedes...?» - is the most common register error in this section.
A structure you can reuse
- Greeting plus an opening line stating the purpose: «Te escribo porque...»
- Two short body paragraphs, one idea each, joined by connectors: además, sin embargo, por eso, primero... luego.
- A closing request or comment, a farewell formula and your name.
Tense control
Narration needs pretérito indefinido for events and imperfecto for background. Invitations and plans take ir a + infinitive or the future: «Voy a celebrar mi cumpleaños el sábado». Requests: «¿Puedes venir?», «¿Te apetece...?»
Worked example
Prompt: write an email inviting a friend to your birthday. Required points: greeting, invitation, date and place, request for a reply, farewell. Model opening: «¡Hola, Ravi! ¿Qué tal? Te escribo porque voy a celebrar mi cumpleaños el sábado 12 en mi casa, a las siete. ¿Puedes venir? Sería estupendo verte. Contéstame pronto. Un abrazo, Meera.» Reasoning: every bullet is answered in one short sentence; «voy a celebrar» supplies the future, «Sería estupendo» softens the invitation, the farewell matches the tú register.
Traps
Omitting a bullet point, since each is marked separately; writing 40 words when 80 are required; carrying English essay structure across word for word; dropping accents that change meaning (año/ano, papá/papa); using calques like «Dear friend» instead of Spanish formulas.