Writing (Schriftlicher Ausdruck): text type, register and verb position
The Writing paper asks you to produce a letter, email or short composition based on bullet-point prompts, and often to manipulate structures (rephrasing, completing sentences, transforming tenses). Marks are split between communication - did you cover every prompt point and use the right format - and language: range, accuracy, spelling and punctuation.
Format and register
- Formal: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, / Sehr geehrte Frau Micallef, ending Mit freundlichen Grüßen. Keep Sie/Ihr capitalised.
- Informal: Liebe Anna, / Hallo Tom, ending Viele Grüße or Bis bald, with du/dein.
- Cover each bullet point in its own short paragraph; missing one loses content marks regardless of how good the German is.
Sentence grammar that earns marks
- Verb second in main clauses, verb last after weil, dass, obwohl, wenn.
- After deshalb, trotzdem, außerdem the verb comes straight after: "Ich war krank, deshalb konnte ich nicht kommen."
- Comma before every subordinate clause.
Worked example
Prompt: Explain why you missed a meeting. Original: "Ich konnte nicht kommen, weil ich krank war." Rewrite with deshalb: "Ich war krank, deshalb konnte ich nicht kommen." Reasoning: the reason moves to the first main clause; deshalb occupies position one of the second clause, so the verb (konnte) must come before the subject (ich). "..., deshalb ich konnte nicht kommen" is the classic word-order error.
Traps that cost marks
English and Maltese interference: "Ich bin 18 Jahre" (correct: Ich bin 18 Jahre alt) and "Ich bin ein Student" (correct: Ich bin Student); using wurde where würde is meant; forgetting the comma before dass; writing a 60-word text when 120 are required; and slipping into du in a formal letter.