200–300자 안에 세 개의 표현을 넣기: 삭제 순서와 반말 교정
Haruto must answer a KLAT 쓰기 prompt in 200–300자, with spaces counted. The prompt is 여행 계획, and the answer must use all three of: -(으)려고 하다, -기 전에, -는 편이다. His draft is 412자, written throughout in 반말, and reads:
「나는 다음 달에 부산에 가는 편이야. 여행을 가기 전에 여행 계획을 세워. 여행 가방은 여행 하루 전에 싸려고 해. 여행은 혼자 하는 여행이 좋아. 여행지에서 여행 음식을 먹고 여행 사진을 찍을 거야. 여행은 사람마다 다르지만 나는 여행을 많이 다니는 편이야.」
The word 여행 appears nine times. Haruto has deleted nothing, and asks whether he can drop -는 편이다 because "it doesn't fit a plan" - he also thinks switching to 해요체 will not change the length much.
1. Give a deletion and revision order that brings the draft under 300자 while preserving all three required expressions, and explain why that order matters.
Read the worked answer
Order of operations: content → repetition → register, never the reverse.
- Cut content first. Drop the food-and-photo sentence entirely (여행 음식을 먹고 여행 사진을 찍을 거야, ~28자). It carries no required expression and no information the prompt asks for. This is the cheapest deletion available.
- Collapse repetition. Nine instances of 여행 reduce to three without losing meaning: 나는 다음 달에 부산에 가려고 해 / 가기 전에 계획을 세워 / 혼자 다니는 편이야. Each removed occurrence saves 2자, and each also removes a 여행 + particle chunk of 3–5자.
- Convert register last. 반말 → 해요체 adds characters (가려고 해 → 가려고 해요, +2 per clause; 나는 → 저는, +1). If you convert first, you spend your cuts twice.
Never cut: the three required expressions. -(으)려고 하다 supplies the plan, -기 전에 supplies sequence, -는 편이다 supplies habit - they are the scoring criteria, not decoration. Cutting a required expression to save 6자 converts a length problem into a task-failure problem.
2. Is 「나는 다음 달에 부산에 가는 편이야」 a valid use of -는 편이다? Explain the semantics and rewrite so the expression is satisfied legitimately.
Read the worked answer
No. -는 편이다 attaches a habitual tendency or a general characteristic to a subject: it says on the whole, this is how things usually are. It cannot describe a single scheduled event. 다음 달에 부산에 가는 편이야 means roughly "I am generally the sort of person who goes to Busan next month", which is not a plan - it is a category error, and Korean readers notice it immediately even though no individual word is wrong.
Fix by giving the event its own ending and moving -는 편이다 onto something genuinely habitual:
- Plan: 「저는 다음 달에 부산에 가려고 해요.」 (-(으)려고 하다, satisfies the plan requirement)
- Sequence: 「가기 전에 숙소를 미리 예약해요.」 (-기 전에)
- Tendency: 「저는 여행 계획을 꼼꼼히 세우는 편이에요.」 (-는 편이다)
Note that the original draft already contained a legitimate use - 여행을 많이 다니는 편이야 - which Haruto was about to delete. The lesson: when an expression seems not to fit, check whether it is attached to the right kind of predicate before removing it. Here the expression was fine and the host sentence was wrong.
3. The examiner's prompt requires 여행 계획, but Haruto's real plan is a solo trip with no itinerary. How should he handle the mismatch without losing points for task fulfilment?
Read the worked answer
Task fulfilment is scored on whether he addresses 여행 계획, not on whether the plan is elaborate. He can keep the topic and be honest about the shape of the plan: 「계획을 많이 세우지 않는 편이에요. 하지만 가기 전에 숙소만은 꼭 예약하려고 해요.」
This does three things at once. It keeps the prompt's topic visible. It uses -는 편이다 correctly because the content is a tendency (계획을 많이 세우지 않다), which is exactly what the form wants. And it turns the apparent weakness into the required contrast structure, which is what distinguishes a 200자 answer that reads as a list from one that reads as writing.
What to avoid: writing a rich itinerary he does not intend (the register and vocabulary usually crack under invented detail) or abandoning the prompt to describe solo travel in general. Also budget the characters - this reframing costs about 45자, so the food-and-photo sentence must go regardless. If the answer lands at 305자, cut a full clause rather than shaving particles; partial clauses are where accuracy marks are lost.