Writing folder 10 The Writing Paper: general guidance | In other Writing folders you have worked on, you practised | writing the different individual tasks tested in the Writing test | But this folder focuses on some general and very important aspects of the test. 1 Discuss the following general pieces of advice about the ‘Writing Paper. Which verb do you think is needed to complete ‘each tip? 1 Before you start to write itis very important to vvvnsan th€ question carefally 2 It may be useful to... _ the key words in the task instructions, 3 Itis important to allow time to think about how you are going to... into paragraphs. 4 Im Part 2, make sure you you to answer. 5 When you have completed your answer, dont forget to a vw What you have written very carefully ~ if you find a mistake, it as neatly as you can, soos YOUE aUSWEE — vnnom Your ideas _.. the best question for Reading the question 2 Lookat this Part 1 task. Which aspects of the task would you underline or highlight? Your class has watched a panel discussion on the benefits | | of young people doing voluntary work. You have made the | notes below. of youn, * contribute to society ® learn about others © gain skills le doing v work: ‘Some opinions expressed in the discussion: ‘It's good for them to help others.” "ean open ha eh rola some | people face.” | “They learn how to do useful things.’ | ‘Write an essay discussing two of the benefits in your notes. You should identify which benefit is more | important, giving reasons for your choice. WRITING FOLDER 10 3. This is what some exam candidates do they answer the question. Have they d: anything wrong? If so, what? 1 Suzi compares the benefits of contributing to society, learning abot others lives and learning useful skills and explains how learning about o lives is the most important from her point of view. 2 Marco writes an entertaining article about his own experience of doing voluntary work, explaining what skills learned from doing so. 3 Lisa talks about the first two benefits copying the words in the quotations se that she does not make any language errors. | Planning 4. Work with a partner. Discuss how you write an answer to the task in exercise 2. 1 Brainstorm some ideas. 2 Note down some good expressions tha you might be able to use. 3 Decide how many paragraphs you are going to write and note down the tops of each paragraph. 4 Compare what you and your partner decided the work of ather pairs Choosing the best task Part 2 of the Writing Paper isthe only past _ of the exam where you have a choice of ‘question. It is important to choose the bes task for you. 5. Discuss these questions with a partner. 1 Is it better to choose the most inte: ‘question or the one that you know the vocabulary for? 2 Isit better to choose to write a letter, 2 report, a propusel ut a teview? 3 Is ita good idea to choose a task that = rather similar to one you already did your teacher?6 Look at these tasks. Discuss with a partner which task you think would be the best one for you to answer and why. 1 This is part of a letter which you receive from an Australian friend. We're doing a project at college about using websites rather than books for study purposes. How much do students use websites in your country? What's your favourite study site and what do you use it for? Do you think students will eventually stop using traditional libraries?” Write a letter to your friend replying to their questions. 2 You work for a travel company. Read this email from company management. We are planning to make our offices look much more stylish and inviting for customers and would like staff to submit proposals suggesting how you feel we should do this, Your proposal should outline your ideas, describing how they could be put into practice and explaining why this kind of office would be of benentt to tne company. Write your proposal. 3 The manager of a sports centre where you have been going for some time has asked you to write a report on what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of the centre and describing one or two improvements that could be made in order to attract new customers. Write your report. Checking your work 7 Here are some of the mistakes which the Cambridge Learner Corpus shows to be very frequently made by students taking the Cambridge English Advanced exam. Which of ‘these mistakes do you tend to make? «tense errors especially with present perfect + articles + dependent prepositions «+ collocations with do and make «misspellings 8. Look back through some pieces of writing you have recently done. Notice the mistakes you made. Make alist of errors that you need to try to avoid making in future. 9 Write an answer to one of the tasks in this Folder (the Part 7 task or one of the Part 2 tasks). When you finish, check it very carefully. EXAM ADVICE _/- Remember that in both parts ofthe Witing ‘eojeter of yout answers. You wil lose mars ifyou Go not write ina way thats appropriate to the genre or the target reader. WRITING FOLDER 10/153