Te reo whakaputa ā-tuhi - written production in te reo Māori
What this domain tests
Te reo whakaputa ā-tuhi asks you to compose written Māori - a pakiwaitara, a tuhinga whakaaro, a reta, a karere - that a reader can follow without you in the room. Because there is no voice, no gesture and no chance to correct yourself, every link between sentences must be carried by the words on the page.
Know the conventions of the text type
- Reta: rā and wāhi at the top, mihi ki te kaipānui, ngā take, kupu whakakapi, ingoa.
- Pakiwaitara: tīmatanga (setting and characters), puku (problem and complication), whakamutunga (resolution).
- Tuhinga whakaaro: position stated early, then taunaki, then a conclusion that answers the question.
- Karere poto: short, direct, one purpose only.
Build with kupu ārahi
Start paragraphs with connectives that show the relationship between ideas: engari, heoi anō, otirā, nō reira, i tua atu, kātahi, ā. A page of sentences all beginning with I or Ka reads as a list, not a text.
Worked example
Flat version: I haere au ki te marae. I kai au i te kai. I kōrero au ki a Mere. Rewritten: Nō taku taenga atu ki te marae, ka kai tahi māua ko Mere, ā, ka kōrero mō te kaupapa o te rā. Reasoning: the nō ... construction sets the time and folds two events into one sentence; ka carries the narrative forward; ā joins the final clause; repeated au disappears. The rewritten version has a thread, the original has three disconnected facts.
Traps that cost marks
Translating an English sentence one-for-one; using me to mean "and" between clauses instead of ā or a restructure; missing macrons in a final proofread; a pakiwaitara with no whakamutunga; shifting tense halfway through; swapping between au and ahau with no reason.