Writing: Guided Composition, Sentence Production, and Prompt Responses
The writing section mixes controlled production (reordering words into a sentence, supplying a missing English line in a dialogue) with 条件英作文: a short free composition carrying several printed conditions. Most lost marks come from breaking a condition, not from bad ideas.
Core rules
- Read the conditions first and number them in the margin: number of sentences (often two or more), a word or phrase you must use (because, for example, when), the content required (your opinion plus a reason), and a minimum word count.
- Answer exactly the question asked. If it asks what you want to do and why, sentence one is the wish, sentence two the reason.
- Keep sentences short. Six to ten words per sentence is safer than one long attempt.
- Place the required word where it does its real job: because joins a reason, when marks a time, for example introduces an instance.
- Count words at the end. Only English words count; numbers and punctuation do not add to the sentence count.
- Check the mechanics that Aichi markers look for: capital letter at the start, full stop at the end, third-person -s, plural -s, past tense for past events.
Worked example
Prompt: A friend asks, "What do you want to do this summer?" Conditions: two sentences or more, use because, twelve words or more. Model: "I want to go to the sea with my family. I like swimming because the water is cool in summer." This answers the question in sentence one, gives a reason with because in sentence two, and runs about twenty words. A weak answer such as "Because I like summer." fails twice: it is one sentence and the because-clause has no main clause.
Traps
- Writing good English that ignores one of the four conditions.
- Forgetting the required word entirely under time pressure.
- Japanese word order leaking in, e.g. "I want to become able to speak English" for "I want to be able to speak English."
- Disagreeing with yourself: stating one opinion, then giving a reason for the opposite.