EDU-FEducation, Lifelong Learning and Careers

Free writing: a 12-line reply to a reader who wants to go back to studying

Idée directrice

Task 2 is worth eight marks and is not always an article: the paper also asks for a reply. A reader writes to an advice column, and the candidate answers as the columnist. The genre decides the layout — salutation, three pieces of advice, closing — and the content must answer this reader's worry about learning again as an adult.

Signature de reconnaissance — l'énoncé se trahit ainsi

« As an advice columnist, you received the following letter from a reader » ; « Write a 12-line reply to her/ him suggesting three pieces of advice » ; « Adherence to task and communicative effectiveness »

Sujet principal

Writing — Task 2 (free production, 8 marks)

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 2, 8 marks). As an advice columnist, you received the following letter from a reader.

Dear columnist,

I am a 38-year-old warehouse worker. I left school at sixteen and started working at once. Lately I feel out of date: the colleagues who finished their education have all been promoted. I am seriously thinking of enrolling in evening classes in logistics, but I am afraid of sitting in a class with people half my age. Can these courses really be useful to me?

A worried worker.

Write a 12-line reply to him, suggesting three pieces of advice. Marks: adherence to task and communicative effectiveness (3), language (3), mechanics of writing (2).

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

Model reply (about 12 lines)

Dear reader,

Thank you for writing. Your worry is common, and the good news is that adult learning works. First, choose a short course that matches the job you already do: evening classes in logistics will make sense to you at once, because you can test every lesson at work the next morning. Second, tell your employer what you are studying. Many companies pay part of the fees, and a manager who knows you are learning will think of you when a post opens. Third, do not worry about the age of the other students. In an evening class the young ones ask the questions and the older ones bring the experience, so both sides gain. Give yourself one term before you judge. Education does not stop at sixteen, and a school desk at thirty-eight is a choice, not a return.

Yours sincerely,

The columnist

Move 1 — Appropriate use of the prompts. The reply picks up every element of the letter: the age, the early school leaving, the promoted colleagues, the logistics course and the fear of the class. A reply that ignores the fear answers a different letter.

Move 2 — Adherence to task and content adequacy. The task asks for exactly three pieces of advice; they are marked First, Second, Third. Two pieces, or five sentences of general encouragement, do not meet the task.

Move 3 — Language (grammar and vocabulary). Advice is carried by imperatives (choose, tell, do not worry), by modals (will make sense, can test) and by learning vocabulary (course, fees, term, education). The register stays polite and direct.

Move 4 — Mechanics of writing. The letter layout is part of the two marks: Dear reader, on its own line, a comma after it, a closing formula, and capital letters after every full stop.

Exercices d'entraînement — une nuance à la fois

Entraînement 01 / 02

Drill EDU-F.1 — Three pieces of advice, numbered

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 2, 8 marks). A student writes to the school magazine's advice page.

Dear editor,

I am in my final year and I revise for six hours every evening, yet my marks are falling. My teacher says I am learning the pages, not the subject. I do not know what to change.

A tired student.

Write a 12-line reply giving three pieces of advice on how to revise. Each piece of advice must be a different method, not the same idea in other words.

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

Model reply

Dear reader,

Six hours of revision that does not work is six hours lost, so the problem is the method, not the effort. First, stop rereading. Close the book and write down what you remember, then open it and mark what was missing; recalling is what fixes a lesson, rereading only makes it familiar. Second, spread the same subject over several evenings instead of one long session: your school timetable already does this, and it is why a class every week beats a whole day once a term. Third, explain one lesson out loud to somebody else. If you cannot explain it, you have not learned it, and your teacher's remark points exactly there. Try these three changes for a fortnight before you judge them.

Yours sincerely,

The editor

Task (3 marks). Three distinct methods — active recall, spacing, explaining — not three ways of saying work harder. Each is tied to the reader's own situation.

Language (3 marks). Imperatives for the advice, a conditional for the test (if you cannot explain it), and education vocabulary used precisely: revision, lesson, timetable, term.

Mechanics (2 marks). Salutation, closing, capitals and full stops. The semicolon after what was missing is optional; a comma splice there would not be.

Entraînement 02 / 02

Drill EDU-F.2 — Repairing a reply that misses the task

1 questionCorrigé masqué

II - Writing (Task 2, 8 marks). A reader asks whether evening courses in car maintenance are worth the effort after twenty years in a factory. A candidate answered as follows.

« Education is very important in our life. Every student must go to school because school gives us knowledge and a good future. Teachers work hard and we must respect them. In conclusion education is the key of success. »

Answer these three questions, then rewrite the reply properly.

1. Which criterion does this answer fail first, and why?
2. How many pieces of advice does it actually give?
3. Which element of the letter is never mentioned?

Voir la correction commentéeAprès avoir posé votre démarche

1. It fails adherence to task before anything else. The task was a reply to one reader about one decision; the candidate produced a general essay on the value of education. The English is not the problem — the answer is off task.

2. None. There is no advice at all: four statements about education in general, and a closing formula that repeats them. The three marks for the task cannot be given.

3. The reader himself. His twenty years in the factory, the maintenance course and his hesitation never appear, so nothing in the reply could not have been written before reading the letter.

Rewritten reply

Dear reader,

Twenty years on the shop floor are not a gap in your education; they are the reason the course will be easy for you. First, ask the training centre for the syllabus and tick what you already do every day. You will see that half the class is your own experience, written down. Second, choose the evening group rather than the weekend one, so that a working week keeps its rhythm. Third, keep a small notebook of the faults you meet at work and bring it to the teacher; a question from the workshop is worth three from the textbook. After one term you will know whether the certificate is worth the second year.

Yours sincerely,

The columnist

Méthode / Automatismes

Underline in the letter what the reader actually asks: that is your plan.
Open with one line that acknowledges the worry, then give the three pieces of advice.
Number them with First / Second / Third — the marker is counting.
Keep the layout of the genre: salutation, body, closing formula.
Stop at twelve lines; length is not a criterion, coverage is.

Pièges classiques

Two classic failures: writing an article on the value of education instead of a reply to this reader, and giving advice that contradicts the letter (go back to school full time when the reader works). A third is the missing salutation, which alone can take a mark out of the two for mechanics.