Writing tips for CAE and FCE

First, ANALYSE the keywords in the question.  How many points are there? Make a note of the first idea that you have for each point.  At this point, keep your ideas simple!

Here’s an example from the Cambridge FCE Handbook:

Let’s analyse it:

“Every country in the world has problems with pollution and damage to the environment.  Do you think these problems can be solved?

Notes
Write about:
1. Transport
2. Rivers and Seas.
3. ........ (your own idea)."

Quickly decide whether your answer is “yes” or “no”.  Let’s imagine that my answer is “yes”.

Next there are 3 points.  Because I’ve decided that my position is “yes”, I need to use these 3 points to support my opinion.  Here are the notes I could now make for the first two points:

1. Transport – causes pollution now, cleaner transport in future?
2. Rivers and seas – very dirty because of plastic, change our habits.

For the 3rd point, I need to provide my own idea.  Be careful: “your own idea” doesn’t mean “your own opinion”, it means “your own idea for a third point to consider”.  We would choose “food”, “animal life”, “health” or something similar. Once I’ve chosen my idea, I should add a couple of keywords to my plan:

3. Food – polluted food -> health problems.

Now I can make a simple outline for my essay, using these three points.  If you’re doing a Paper Based Exam then you could make these notes directly on the question booklet to save time:

OUTLINE:

INTRO

1. Transport – causes pollution now, cleaner transport in future?
2. Rivers and seas – very dirty because of plastic, change our habits.
3. Food – polluted food -> health problems.

CONC

LANGUAGE:

Now, I need to think about the language I’m going to use.  Remember, this is a language exam – so I need to show the examiner my best vocabulary and grammar.  That’s why it’s really important for me to think about these points BEFORE I start writing.

What can I include to prove that I’m at B2 level?  Here are some ideas.

Grammar:

Conditionals.  

    An easy way to create sentences with conditionals is to take the present situation and imagine the opposite (-> 2nd conditional).  Another option is to take a past event and imagine the opposite (-> 3rd conditional).  For example:

    Reality:  We use too many plastic bags, so the sea is polluted.

    2nd conditional:  If we didn’t use so many plastic bags, the sea wouldn’t be so polluted.

    3rd conditional:  If supermarkets hadn’t started using plastic bags 30 years ago, the sea wouldn’t have become so polluted.  

A variety of past and future forms.  

    Try to escape from the present simple by thinking back to the history (past) and the consequences (future) of things.  For example:

    Present simple sentence:  We use lots of plastic bags.

    Other options:  

For years, consumers have used too many plastic bags.

Companies have been manufacturing billions of plastic bags for decades.

Our use of plastic bags will soon cause an environmental crisis.

Comparatives and superlatives.

Vocabulary:

Try to think of specific vocabulary that’s related to the topic area.  One way to do this is to look for inspiration in the essay question and think of synonyms or other words that are related to keywords in the question.

Word from Essay Question	Related words
Country	Nation, region, continent
Problems	Challenges, difficulties, issues
Damage	Harm
Transport	Diesel, fuel, toxic  fumes, infrastructure, hybrid vehicles, electrical cars, traffic jams
Rivers and seas	Marine habitats, coral reefs
Food	Pesticides, chemicals, consumers
Solve	Fix, Remedy

I can also think of B2 adjectives and adverbs that I can add to those words:

Suitable, effective, realistic, sustainable, industrial, affordable, precious, extinct.

Suitably, effectively, realistically, sustainably, industrially, affordably and so on.

Don’t worry if you wouldn’t have thought of these exact words – the idea is to take a few minutes before writing to think of some good vocabulary that can be useful later.  Of course, I can only use a few of these words in my essay.

I have the raw materials that I need to write my essay.  I now need to write my paragraphs.

WRITING THE INTRODUCTION

This is the easiest paragraph to write, because all you need to do is paraphrase the question and state your opinion.  It’s nice if you can add some sophisticated language, like reporting verbs, a passive form or something else.  Try to use different words to the question where possible.

The question was:

“Every country in the world has problems with pollution and damage to the environment.  Do you think these problems can be solved?”

My introduction could be:

It is widely believed that there is no solution to the damage that human society has done to the planet.  However, I believe that if we make big changes, we can save our environment.

OR

Many people think that our environment is so badly damaged that nothing can be done to improve the situation.  In my opinion, although there are serious problems, the situation is not hopeless.

WRITING A BODY PARAGRAPH

Each body paragraph should contain 1 (or maybe 2) of the points from my outline.  I need to show the examiner that I have organised my points well, so it’s best to use cohesive devices (words and phrases that link one idea to another) and signposting (things like “First of all”, “Secondly,” and “Finally,”)

The first sentence in each body paragraph should be a “Topic Sentence”.  It’s a relatively short sentence that clearly states the point of the paragraph.  Here are examples for my 3 main points:

One of the biggest causes of pollution in today’s society is transportation.

A second issue is the damage done to our rivers and seas.

Finally, pollution also affects the food that we eat.

In each paragraph, after my topic sentence I can add a sentence to explain my main point and another one to show how it relates to my opinion.  Ideally, each sentence should be linked to the one before it (I can use pronouns, “this”, “as a result”, and so on). Here is the complete essay:

It is widely believed that there is no solution to the damage that human society has done to the planet.  However, I believe that if we make big changes, we can save our environment.

One of the biggest causes of pollution today is transportation.  Every day, millions of vehicles produce toxic fumes that cause lung cancer.  If we replaced all of the cars being driven today with electric cars, we could solve this problem.

A second issue is the damage done to our rivers and seas.  Vast numbers of plastic bags are produced each year and these cause significant damage to marine animals.  It is clear that we need to eliminate plastic bags completely to save their habitats. 

Finally, pollution also affects the food that we eat.  This is because of the presence of pesticides, insecticides and other chemicals in our food supply.  We can resolve this problem too, but we need to be willing to pay more for the food that we eat.  

Although it may seem that we are in a terrible situation, if we change our behaviour we can make a huge difference to our future.

(189 words)