165 Brainstorm ideas and sort them according to their importance for the task. Think of what you want your reader(s) to know or do once they have read your text. Make notes and cluster them or draw mind maps. Consider the following questions: What are your main ideas, examples, arguments? How can you support them? Do you need to elaborate on possible (dis)advantages, cause and effect, a sequence of events, your own experience, young people’s views, for example? Are you required to offer a recommendation or a solution? Does the task call for personal information? What will your introduction and conclusion be about? How can you make a title/a subject line/a heading work? Consider the vocabulary and grammatical structures that you might have to use to meet the level of required formality. Avoid prompt lifting1 and think of ways to express yourself other than what you read in the task. Using a variety of structures (e.g. conditionals, gerunds, modals, passives) and linking devices will help you write a coherent text that reads smoothly. Remember that using the PEEL strategy, if applicable, can help you structure your paragraphs. Example: D iscuss whether politicians earn too much money for the work they do. 2 a b c d Point Politicians earn far too much money for the job they do as their work is not at all strenuous. Example or evidence Working in the safety of an office or meeting room allows them to stay warm and dry, as opposed to someone who works outdoors in all weathers. They only need to go to meetings or, at most, travel around talking to members of the public, and this is not particulary hard work. Explanation As the type of duties politicians perform is not physically demanding or risky in any way, there is no reason why they should be paid more than people doing exhausting and possibly dangerous work. Link Considering the work that they actually do, politicians definitely earn too much. The content points are introduced with a variety of function words. Make sure you know what each of them requires you to do. Start a new paragraph for each content point. When dealing with them, be careful not to repeat yourself as each content point addresses a different aspect of the task. Make certain that you produce the required number of words. Do a rough word count at the end (the average number of words per line multiplied by the number of lines you have written). In a 250-word task, the average length of your body paragraphs will be around 80 words, in a 400-word task, it will be around 120 words. Think of how and where you can add or cut text if you have clearly failed to meet the expected number of words by more than 10%. Look at your text critically once you have finished it. Check if you have written an appropriate salutation, a closing, a title, headings – depending on the task type. Proofread your text and try to spot ‘personal’ mistakes that you might have made in earlier pieces of writing, for example concerning spelling, grammar or the wrong use of linking devices. 3 4 5 6 1 prompt lifting: copying expressions/chunks of language from the prompt Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigen um des Verlags öbv
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