hi i'm kasia welcome to oxford online
english
in this lesson you could learn how to
write an essay for the cambridge fce
exam step by step
you'll see exactly what to do at each
stage and how to get the best possible
score
there are four steps to the writing
process you'll see what to do at each
step then you'll learn how the writing
is assessed
i said there were four steps to the
process
so what's first
first you need to read the task and
identify exactly what needs to be
included
let's look at a sample question
you've recently had a discussion in
english class about society
now your teacher has asked you to write
an essay
write an essay using all the notes and
give reasons for your point of view
university should be free for everyone
do you agree or disagree
notes
taxes
opportunity
your own idea
okay
so what do you need to do
most importantly you need to say if you
agree or disagree that university should
be free for everyone
you also need to use all the notes and
give reasons for your point of view
that means your essay needs to include
three central ideas
taxes
opportunity and one other
it also means that you need to reach a
clear justified conclusion
you can't just say i agree or i disagree
think of it like this
you need to convince the examiner that
your conclusion is correct
you might think at this point yeah
obvious thanks for the help kasia
trust me it's harder than it sounds
many fce essays that we see don't get
these basic things right it's very easy
to leave something out or to go in the
wrong direction
next you're writing this answer for your
teacher so what style do you think it
will be in
formal or informal
an essay should be formal
what does that mean
formal writing doesn't use contractions
like i'd your or don't
write the full forms
you should also avoid using slang
colloquial vocabulary or anything which
sounds very conversational
next think
what do you need to include you need to
talk about taxes opportunity and you
also need to add your own idea
even the ideas which are given to you
taxes and opportunity are quite vague
that means you need to decide exactly
what to talk about
you also need to think about how to
connect your ideas
for example with taxes you could say
that if you pay taxes then this should
go back into society to benefit everyone
you could add to this by pointing out
that having equal opportunities also
benefits society
and for your own idea you could talk
about how people with higher education
are more likely to be economically
productive
this is just one example of course
there are many paths you could take
let's talk about that in more detail
here's what you need to do when you plan
your essay
first you need to decide what your
conclusion is going to be
are you going to agree or disagree that
university should be free for everyone
decide your conclusion first because
everything else in your essay needs to
lead to it
secondly you need to plan
how many paragraphs you're going to have
and what you'll put in each one
thirdly
you need to make sure your paragraphs
are connected to your conclusion
let's see an example
pause the video if you want some more
time to read the plan
you can see that we use the key idea of
education in the notes for each
paragraph
doing this can help you to stay focused
and on topic because you're connecting
each paragraph back to the main idea of
the question
when you plan make sure that each
paragraph has a clear focus
do you know what every good paragraph
starts with
a topic sentence
what's a topic sentence
a topic sentence is the first sentence
of a paragraph it summarizes the main
point of the paragraph
the sentences which follow
are called supporting sentences
these include reasons and examples to
support your topic sentence
a good exercise during planning is to
take a paragraph and think to yourself
what's this paragraph about
if you can answer that question in one
simple sentence then that's a good sign
hopefully your plan is clear
however if you can't answer that
question that shows that your plan isn't
totally clear in your head
once you've finished your plan you're
ready to write your answer
in your candidate answer book you will
now write your essay
let's look at a model answer
pause the video to read and start again
when you're ready
first question have we answered the
question
yes
the conclusion states that free
university benefits all members of
society
this shows that we agree that university
should be free for everyone
next
have we used topic sentences
yes we have the first sentence of the
essay tells you what the entire essay
will be about
then each paragraph's topic sentence
contains a key word from our plan
we have taxes opportunities and economy
also the topic sentences and paragraphs
all reference the idea of education
either directly or indirectly
this shows that our points are relevant
and connected to the task
so now you're finished right
no
there's one more step
this answer is not bad but it could be
better
the final step is to check your answer
what type of things do you think you
should look for
grammar of course but what else check
for spelling mistakes
check for style
have you used any conversational
language which doesn't fit the tone of
an essay like this
check your use of linking words and
phrases
many students overuse them
don't use a linking word like
nevertheless
unless you're sure it fits
check for repetition of vocabulary could
you replace any simple vocabulary with
something more advanced
look at the model answer again
the underlined parts are either mistakes
or they could be improved somehow
how would you improve this
pause the video while you read and
decide
the first problem is with grammar
unless you're talking about one specific
university you don't use the
okay what's wrong with doesn't
we've used a contraction
don't use contractions in your essay so
it should be does not
the next problem is a spelling mistake
when a word ends in a y
it changes to i e s in the plural
next is a punctuation mistake there's a
comma missing there are two clauses in
the sentence and they need to be
separated by a comma
there's nothing wrong with people with
degrees
but it's quite basic
what else could you say
you could say
educated people or even
highly educated people
either of which is slightly more elegant
so is not a mistake but we used so in
the second paragraph already
you want to show the examiner your range
of language
so here you could use something more
precise like consequently
our conclusion is only one sentence so
let's add an extra point
we're still under the maximum word count
let's change it to
in conclusion free university should be
free
for everyone
it makes economic sense and ultimately
benefits all members of society
at this point it's looking good
next let's focus on what you can do to
produce a good fce essay which will get
a high score in your exam
your essay score is made up of four
parts
for each part you get a score from zero
to five
first there's content
the mark scheme says this focuses on how
well you have fulfilled the task
in other words have you done everything
you were asked to do
this corresponds to step one of our
writing process
analyze the task carefully and make sure
you do everything it asks you to
a good tip
is to underline the keywords in the task
to help you identify what you need to do
next there is communicative achievement
this focuses on how appropriate your
writing is for the task
have you used the correct register
have you used contractions
basically does your essay look and sound
like an essay
then we have organization this looks at
how the writing is put together
is it logical and organized
by planning your writing correctly it
will already be organized
remember to plan your paragraphs
carefully and write a clear topic
sentence at the beginning of each
paragraph
you can also use linking words and
phrases to make the connections between
paragraphs even clearer
in our essay we used many linking words
including firstly secondly in addition
although consequently and in conclusion
look through the essay again and note
how the linking words and phrases are
used
can you find any more examples of
linking words in the essay
finally you have language
vocabulary and grammar
the examiners will be looking for a
range of language as well as how
accurate it is
in step 4 you saw how checking your
essay can improve your language
are you worried that making mistakes
will affect your mark
of course
making a lot of mistakes will lower your
mark but remember this is only one part
of the score
for b2 level the cambridge mark scheme
says
occasional errors may be present but do
not impede communication
that means you can still score five from
five even with some small mistakes
but hopefully you'll catch most of them
when you're on step four checking and
improving your answer
you've seen how to write an essay for
fce
but you can use the same process for
other cambridge exams including the cae
and cpe when you get that far
if you enjoyed this lesson and would
like more free lessons you can visit our
website
oxfordonlineenglish.com
good luck with your exam preparation and
let us know when you pass
thanks for watching