ENGLISH FOR FUTURE

DIPLOMATS
2018
by Jônathas Silveira
 Composition Writing

STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Coherence
The final (linear) plan should contain topic headings and sub-
headings. By looking at these headings before you start to write,
you can see if you have thought of the content in an organised,
logical way. Your composition should have a clear structure. The
skeleton of the composition – the organisation of the ideas –
should be visible to the person reading the text. You should
include a clear thesis statement which provides a road map for
you and your reader to follow.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Cohesion
You should also consider how your paragraphs will be connected to one
another and how the composition will form a complete text with a definite
shape to it.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Introduction and Conclusion

The introduction and conclusion are particularly important, because they
provide the examiner’s first and last impression of your writing skills.
It is worth devoting some time to the content and the language of these
sections. You should make a clear connection between the introduction and
the conclusion, but do not just repeat the same ideas in both. Many
compositions lose impact because the conclusion is (a) absent, (b) a
repetition of what has been said, or (c) not related to the evidence in
the composition.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Introduction and Conclusion

The introduction and conclusion are particularly important, because they
provide the examiner’s first and last impression of your writing skills.
It is worth devoting some time to the content and the language of these
sections. You should make a clear connection between the introduction and
the conclusion, but do not just repeat the same ideas in both. Many
compositions lose impact because the conclusion is (a) absent, (b) a
repetition of what has been said, or (c) not related to the evidence in
the composition.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Stick to your plan

Once you have made your plan, stick to it rigidly. As time is very
limited, you cannot give yourself the luxury of having second thoughts
and starting again. So if you are tempted to tear up your first draft and
start again, resist the temptation and trust to your original idea.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing
STRUCTURE OF THE COMPOSITION

Templates

It is useful to have a few templates, or types of plan, in your head.

Then you can quickly choose an appropriate type of plan and use it

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Audience awareness
Write your composition for an intelligent adult with no specialized
knowledge of the topic you are dealing with. Avoid being patronizing (I
know everything and my audience is ignorant); or too sophisticated (e.g.
referring to abstruse historical events or publications as if you expect
your reader to know all about them). Above all, show your ability in
critical thinking: you are not obliged to agree with quotations set for
composition writing, and are entirely free to disagree. Above all, try to
make your composition interesting to read. Even if your ideas are not
new, you can present them in an interesting way. This might be done by
using metaphor [or by providing pertinent evidence of your idea.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Evidence

Remember to provide evidence in support of your points

– preferably from several sources. In 2010, general
compositions which did not give appropriate examples
to back up their points scored very low marks for Plan
and Development of Ideas.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Concision
Try to find succinct and incisive ways of expressing
your ideas and avoid unnecessary repetition. Refer to
the key words in the title, but do not repeat the
whole quotation unless you have a very good reason to
do so.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Carefully organised paragraphs

The paragraphs should also be planned. The main weaknesses in
paragraphing are normally paragraphs which are too long (e.g. in
Model Composition 9) or too short (e.g. in Model Composition 5 –
paragraphs A and B). When short paragraphs are taken to extremes,
each sentence becomes a separate paragraph and the composition
ends up looking like a poem. In English texts, a paragraph has a
topic sentence which states the main point, plus related sub-
topics or illustrations of the topic sentence. While the topic
sentence often opens the paragraph, it does not have to. The
paragraph can be constructed, for instance, with an example first
and the main idea afterwards. Source: The Candidate’s
Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Good use of English

Avoid enormously long sentences, but try to vary sentence length between
short and longer ones. Use avariety of sentence structures. Try to
include interesting vocabulary and a few elegant structures. These might
include things like
• hypothetical conditions [If A had not happened, B might not have
ensued]
• inversion after a negative adverbial [Not only did Brazil seek to find
a diplomatic solution… but…]
and many others you can find for yourself. Try picking out interesting
sentence structures, and then changing the words and the situation to
adapt them to your own use, as you read texts in English to prepare for
the CACD exams. Source: The Candidate’s
Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Interesting and appropriate vocabulary

If the composition topic is linked to the theme of the translations and
the text for summary, you should be able to find many of the keywords you
need in other parts of the test. But it is also worth working hard on
vocabulary as you prepare for the exam. Store the new words and phrases
you learn in a table on your computer, with examples, a translation into
Portuguese and a note of the topic area e.g. economics, science,
philosophy, politics – elections, the United Nations, and so on. You can
also record the word class [noun, verb, adjective, etc.]. Store your
vocabulary in a table, so that you can rearrange it in different ways –
in alphabetical order, according to topic, by word class or any other
way, depending on the complexity of your table. Review your vocabulary
table[s] at frequent intervals. Source: The Candidate’s
Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Reasonable spelling and punctuation

If you use a computer to write practice compositions, use the spell
checker to help you. Learn all the words you spell wrongly and try not to
repeat the same mistakes. In the examination, try to visualize the words
you find difficult to spell, rather than working from the sound of the
word. English spelling is difficult, but there are a few rules that
can help you.

On the whole, English punctuation is very similar to Portuguese, with the

exception of some uses of capital letters.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Legible handwriting and sensible layout

You will be provided with lined paper in the exam.
Don’t write in the margins. Leave an uneven margin on
the right rather than separating syllables up with
hyphens – the cultural custom is different in Britain
and the USA and the right-hand margin need not be
straight. Make your writing as easy to read as you
can.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English
 Composition Writing

OTHER GOOD THINGS TO FIND IN COMPOSITIONS

Evidence of careful revision

Make sure you re-read your work very carefully and
correct it when necessary. Obviously the appearance of
your work should be clear and legible without too many
crossings out and changes. But occasional corrections
of your final text do not matter – they are vastly
preferable to careless mistakes in English.

Source: The Candidate’s

Handbook: English