Guided writing and composition
What this domain tests
A short free-composition task with conditions: state an opinion on a familiar topic, give reasons, and stay within a stated word count. Marks come from task fulfilment (did you answer, did you give the required number of reasons), organisation, and control of basic grammar and spelling - not from impressive vocabulary.
Core rules
- Answer in the first sentence. Never begin with background («Nowadays, many people think…»); it wastes words and hides your position.
- Follow a fixed frame: claim → reason 1 with a concrete detail → reason 2 or a consequence → one-sentence conclusion. Two reasons and one example are usually enough.
- Count the words. Stay inside the range; being five words short is a task-fulfilment penalty.
- Use only structures you can control. A correct If lessons began later, students would concentrate better earns more than an ambitious sentence with a broken relative clause.
- Link with a small, reliable set: because, for example, also, however, as a result, in short.
Worked example
Prompt: Should high schools start classes later in the morning? (50–60 words) "I think high schools should start later. Many students study until midnight and cannot concentrate in a first-period class. If lessons began at nine thirty, they would sleep longer and learn more. In short, a later start would cost little and help a lot." (53 words) Reasoning: sentence 1 states the position; sentence 2 gives evidence; sentence 3 draws the consequence with a past-subjunctive conditional (began … would), which signals a hypothetical change; sentence 4 closes without adding a new idea.
Traps
- Translating a Japanese sentence structure word for word, producing a sentence with two subjects.
- Hedging so much that no position is visible.
- Repeating the prompt as content instead of answering it.
- Errors in third-person -s, articles, and plural forms - the items markers check most often.