Composition and Essay Writing in Arabic
Composition (التعبير والإنشاء)
You are asked to write 200–350 words in MSA on a set topic: an opinion essay, a letter to an editor, a report or a descriptive/narrative piece. Marks reward a clear thesis, organised paragraphs, varied and correct sentence structure, and a register that stays formal throughout - not length.
Core rules
- Plan three moves: مقدمة (hook plus thesis), عرض (two or three developed arguments), خاتمة (restated position plus recommendation).
- Signpost with connectors: من ناحية أخرى, في المقابل, فضلًا عن ذلك, بناءً على ذلك, ومن ثمّ, ختامًا. Do not chain clauses with و alone.
- Vary sentence type: verbal sentences for narrative, nominal sentences for definition and argument; use maṣdar and إضافة to compress ideas.
- Register: MSA only - no مش, كتير, هلّأ - and no unnecessary English words.
- Spelling items that carry discrete marks: همزة القطع vs همزة الوصل (إلى, ابن, استعمل), التاء المربوطة vs الهاء (مدرسة, مكتبه), tanwīn fatḥ with the supporting alif (شكرًا, أحيانًا), الألف المقصورة (هدى, رمى).
- Match demonstratives and adjectives in gender and number; non-human plurals take feminine singular.
Worked example
Weak: «أنا أعتقد أن الرياضة مفيدة جدًا للطلاب.» Better: «لا شكّ في أنّ للرياضة أثرًا بالغًا في صحة الطلاب ونفسيّتهم.» Reasoning: the personal «أنا أعتقد» is weak in formal prose; «لا شكّ في أنّ» is an impersonal formulation that also demonstrates إنّ + accusative (أثرًا). The prepositional predicate (للرياضة) plus إضافة (صحة الطلاب) compresses two ideas into one clause, and «بالغًا» gives a precise adjective instead of the vague جدًا.
Traps
Writing a list of arguments with no development; opening every sentence with و; mixing dialect vocabulary under exam pressure; exceeding or falling far short of the word limit and losing the content marks attached to it.