Introduction
First and foremost, you need to get introduced to the format of CAE Writing closely. Secondly, when you’re doing a writing task, pay attention to some details, such as:
1)Target reader.
Who is your target reader? Whether it’s your boss, friend, stranger, colleagues, etc.? That is, should you use formal or informal style?
Here are the differences between formal and informal register:
Formal & Informal Writing. Differences
2)Required information.
What information exactly are you required to give? Make sure you don’t omit or overlook any keywords in the input (and as a result misinterpret the task) so you won’t write any irrelevant information.
3)Layout.
How should you organise your essay, that is, how many paragraphs should you include? Should you include an introduction, a conclusion, headings or not? Each task requires a particular layout. (For more detail have a look at the examples of each writing task by following the links in the end of the article)
4)Advanced vocabulary and constructions.
What advanced vocabulary and grammar structures would be most suitable for a particular task, topic, paragraph in an essay? This means you need to plan your writing for a little while before starting off. (For more detail have a look at the examples of each writing task by following the links in the end of the article)
Where you get topic related vocabulary from
Obviously, each task is on a certain topic, which means you need vocabulary related to the topic. And where can you get it? 2 Points:
1)Use a book called ‘English Vocabulary in Use. Advanced’ by Michael McCarthy and Filicity O’Dell
2)Watch videos (from ted.com, for instance), listen to podcasts on certain topics and make your own lists of topic-related vocabulary and use them when writing an essay, but not all the time, since in the exam you, obviously, won’t have this opportunity.
And here are the most frequently encountered topics to be taken into account:
Career/Job/Success
Modern technology
The Internet
Education
Travel
Health/Sport
Language studying
Ecology/the environment
Science
Psychology/Personal growth
Relationships (friends, colleagues, teammates, etc.)
The arts
History
Justice (much more rare encountered than the others, but still is)
5)Coherent devices (linking words).
This point is actually connected with 3) and 4) in a way, but I decided to single it out because linking words and phrases are highly important to make your writing coherent and also help it flow smoothly.
So watch out for those things as it’s very easy to leave them out. However, if you underline these points in the input of a task, it will be much easier for you to stick to them.
Some additional points
How to count words
Each work should be written in 220-260 words, but to ensure you have satisfied this requirement, you don’t need to count the words one by one. There won’t be that much time in the exam. The best strategy is to count lines and then multiply them by the average number of the words in a line. To cover 220-260 words you need around 40 lines. As regards words, their average quantity in a line depends on your handwriting. Just count them in the first 4 lines to figure out the average, though a small inaccuracy doesn’t matter much.
For instance, you have written 40 lines. Then you count words in lines. 1st line – 6 words, 2nd line – 5 words, 3rd line – 6 words, 4th line – 7 words. So, in terms of the average, let it be – 6.
40 multiplied by 6 equals 240, which satisfies the requirement.
Write your essay on the clean copy only
Don’t make a draft of your writing in the exam. There won’t be time for that. Use the draft copy for planning only.
If you notice a mistake you can cross it out and write the correct word nearby. They won’t mark you down for that but ensure that your corrections are illegible.
Time limit
There are 45 minutes for each task. Use around 10 minutes for planning the essay, 30 minutes for writing it and a few minutes left for checking your writing for mistakes.
(By the bye, don’t be concerned about mistakes too much. They won’t mark you down for your errors as long as they don’t prevent others from understanding what exactly you wanted to say, that is if despite the mistake your idea is still clear.)
To be able to finish your essay within the time limit you need to practise it. At first, you may complete your writing for twice as much time as you should or so, but with practice, you’ll be getting better and better at it. Just maintain a discipline (also remembering to stick to this article’s tips). Try to write 2 essays a week at least (one from Part1 and one from Part2).
Can I spell in North American English? Or is there British version only to use?
You can choose either, but the point is you should be consistent throughout your writing. For example, If you chose British English, there shouldn’t be American words in your essay, So watch out for differences in British and American English and try to be as consistent as possible when writing.
The Writing Tasks
The writing paper consists of 2 parts: Part1 (Essay), Part2 (Letter/Email, Report, Review, Proposal)
Interestingly, you can choose a task in part2. So some of you might ask,
“Since I will have a choice in the exam, should/can I practise only one (or two) task(s)?”
The trick is that there are only 3 tasks to choose from in the exam, not 4. So, it means that if you commit to ‘review’ only or whatever task it is you commit to, you may not come across it in the actual exam. So it’s very random. Another thing is that if you do come across the task, you may not know much what to write about it, that is, its topic may turn out to be something which you are not really aware of. So practise all the tasks or, at least, 2-3 of them, if there some of them which you don’t really like.
Here are the examples of each task in detail (+descriptions & strategies)
Part1
Part2
Letter/Email
Review
Proposal
Report
(The examples of the other tasks will be published in the future)
The other parts of this series:
How to Reach Excellence in CAE. Reading & Use of English
How to Reach Excellence in CAE. Listening
How to Reach Excellence in CAE. Speaking