A2 Key · Writing Part 6: the 25-word message
A2 Key و B1 Preliminary (KET, PET) · Cambridge English · A2 Key (KET) الموضوع 3 3:50 سرد باللغة الإنجليزية · ترجمة مدمجة بالإنجليزية + الصينية
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Part six is a short message of at least twenty-five words, answering a friend's message, and the friend's message always contains three things to do. The memory hook: the task is a menu with three dishes; serve all three, in order, and the marks follow. The tone is friendly: short forms are welcome, and this is the one exam where I'm is not just allowed but encouraged. And count the words: under twenty-five loses marks.
The menu method. Circle the three jobs in the task before writing a word. Write one or two sentences per job, in order. Open with hi or dear plus the name; close with see you or write soon, plus your name. The exam rewards completeness over beauty: a correct boring answer beats a beautiful one that forgot the drinks, and one missing job is a missing dish the examiners notice.
Read the model. Hi Sam: I'd love to come to the picnic! I can bring some fruit and drinks. What time does it start? See you, Lin. Accept, offer, ask: the three dishes, three sentences, twenty-five plus words. And notice the question gets its flip: what time does it start, never what time it starts. The A1 question machine still collects marks.
Pause and choose. What time does it start? The question word jumps first, and the helper follows. What time it starts keeps the Chinese order inside an English sentence, and the other two options are furniture in the wrong rooms.
The bank of useful sentences. Accept: I'd love to come; that sounds great. Refuse politely: I'm sorry, but I can't come. Offer: I can bring some drinks, or shall I bring anything. Ask: what time does it start; where shall we meet. Suggest: let's meet at the gate; how about the park. Learn the bank by heart and spend it freely; one question per task is nearly always a job.
Pause and choose. Hi Sam. Part six writes to a friend, not a bank. Dear Sir or Madam and to whom it may concern are formal wear at a picnic, and respected teacher addresses someone who is not your friend Sam and not at the picnic.
The sixty-second check. The three classics: the third-person s, it starts; the articles, a picnic, the park; and after can and can't, the base form, I can bring. Sixty seconds of checking beats a fourth sentence. And keep it short: thirty to forty words is the sweet spot; a hundred-and-twenty-word masterpiece spends the time part seven needs and grows error trees.
Try it. Mia is having a birthday dinner on Friday: can you come, tell me what food you like, and could you bring your guitar. Three jobs: yes-or-no, the food, the guitar. The model: Hi Mia, I'd love to come! I like fish and rice, please. I'll bring my guitar, no problem. See you on Friday! Alex. Twenty-nine words, all three dishes served, and the guitar survives.
Pause for four checks. Three jobs per task; serve all three. What time does it start: the flip collects marks. Twenty-five words minimum, and thirty to forty is the sweet spot. And hi Sam, not dear Sir: a friend, not a bank. Next topic: the three-picture story, the most fun writing task on the paper.