Introduction

In every story task you get one sentence which has to be the first sentence of your story
and the text has to be related to this. Your language should be neutral to informal.

This is the situation you have to start your story from and everything you write has to be
related to this beginning.
The second question is a little bit more open than the first one because you can pretty much
write about anything you like. The only restriction, again, is the first sentence and the
situation that comes with it. You can make your story funny, sad, full of action or fantasy
and include whatever you can imagine, but connect it to the first sentence.

Last but not least, your English teacher is going to read your story. In other writing tasks you
need to be very careful with your language, but in a story you are freer. You decide if your
characters use very formal English or if they are informal. Just remember, don’t use rude
language or words that are not in the dictionary.

You see, there is a lot of freedom that you have when you write a story, but, at the same time,
you have to make sure that you focus on the topic in the first sentence and that you are careful
with your language because the rules are not as strict as in an email or article.

How to organise your story

The good thing about B1 Preliminary writing tasks is that you can always organise them in the
same way. It is a little bit like a good cooking recipe because it works every time.
A good story usually has a beginning, a main part and an ending. The main part is the
most important one so you want make it longer than the other parts. Most of the time, we
get to a structure that looks like this:
1. First sentence / Beginning
2. Main part paragraph 1
3. Main part paragraph 2
4. Ending
Of course, you might have three main part paragraphs, but in most tasks the structure with only
two works very well.

Always plan your story

If you start to write your story without thinking about it first, you might run into some big
problems. You can’t really change everything once you’ve started because you only have 45
minutes to write your story AND an email.
That’s why you should always make a plan. Use the structure above and just add a few
ideas so it works like a map. You will know exactly where your story is going and you only
have to worry about using good language.

The different parts of a story

Now, we are going to find out what the different parts of a story typically look like and I will
give you some useful tips about good language that will help you get good marks.

First sentence / Beginning

As I said above, in a PET story you always have to start with a sentence that you get
directly from the task. DON’T CHANGE THIS SENTENCE IN ANY WAY, BUT
SIMPLY COPY IT ONTO YOU ANSWER SHEET AND BEGIN YOUR STORY FROM
THERE.

Always try to make sure to set the scene. Give some background information (past
continuous) to introduce the main character(s). Add some adjectives and adverbs as well
as direct speech because this makes the reader feel more interested in your story and they
want to keep reading.

Main paragraphs

Once we set the scene, we can move on to the main part of the story. Here, we try to develop
the plot and all the main events happen in these paragraphs. You can decide how many
paragraphs you want to make, but in general you should be fine with two or three of them.
It is a good idea to use some contrast (however) and surprising elements (someone shouted) in
your story because, again, you want to make the story as interesting as possible.

Ending

Every good story has an ending. In PET, you want to finish your story in a surprising
and/or funny way so the reader is happy.
Make sure that the ending is connected to the topic. Don’t introduce new characters or let
the story move in a completely different direction. Just write one or two last sentences and
that’s it.

Useful language for PET story writing

In this part I’m going to give you a summary of the different types of useful language for your
Cambridge B1 story.

Past verb forms

Past simple, past continuous and past perfect are the three most important verb forms when you
write a story.
 Past simple describes the main events of your story.
 Past continuous describes what was happening at the same time as the main events.
 Past perfect describes what happened before the main events.
Study these verb tenses and practise as much as you can.

Time expressions

Time expressions put the events of your story in a sequence. When you use them in the right
way, the reader understands what happened first and the sequence of events.
Some examples of time expressions that you can use in almost every story are:
 when
 as soon as
 immediately
 before
 earlier
  until
 while
 after that
 next (day/morning etc.)
 x minutes/days/years later
Use one or two of these in every paragraph so the examiner is happy and gives you high

marks.

Adjectives and adverbs: (Look for them in the example)

Direct speech

Direct speech describes the things that somebody actually says in that moment. We always use
quotation marks (“) to show that we are using direct speech.
Used in a story it gives the reader the feeling of being closer to the action and the characters feel
more alive. Always try to have a couple of sentences in direct speech in your stories.
My examples are:
 …he said to the woman next to him, “I’m so excited about my holidays!”
 …someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!”

Example:

As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below. The sun was
shining brightly and he said to the woman next to him, “I’m so excited about my holidays!”

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because
he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen
earlier.

However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes
later it was raining heavily. Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted,
“Hi, it’s you again!”

There was the woman from the plane! They started to talk and became very good friends.
You see that I didn’t overuse adjective and adverbs, but two or three in every paragraph are
already going to improve your story a lot.