Writing - Skills for English C1
Writing in Skills for English C1 is a timed, two-task paper: a shorter transactional text (formal or semi-formal email, letter or proposal) and a longer discursive piece (essay or report-style argument). Markers weigh task achievement, organisation, lexical and grammatical range, and accuracy - so a technically clean text that never states a position still underperforms.
Register and purpose
- Transactional task: identify the reader and the outcome required. A message to a course director needs a clear subject line, direct request, justification and a polite close - no contractions, no chatty asides.
- Discursive task: take a position in the introduction, defend it in body paragraphs, and concede one counter-argument before dismissing or limiting it.
What separates C1 from B2
- Cohesion through referencing (this shift, such schemes, the former) rather than a chain of Firstly/Secondly/Moreover.
- Nominalisation and complex noun phrases: the reluctance of employers to fund training, not employers don't want to pay.
- Hedged claims: tends to, is likely to, in most cases.
Worked example
Weak topic sentence: "Nowadays cars are a big problem in cities." C1 topic sentence: "Restricting private cars in city centres cuts congestion mainly by moving short trips onto other modes, though the gain depends on credible alternatives." Reasoning: the second sentence makes a claim, names a mechanism (moving short trips) and states a condition (depends on). The paragraph then has something to prove, which is what the task-achievement descriptor is looking for.
Traps that cost marks
- Falling under the word count - it caps task achievement.
- Bolting on a memorised linking-phrase template that does not match the logic.
- Shifting register mid-text ("so, yeah, I reckon…" in a formal letter).
- Presenting both sides evenly in an essay that asks for your view.