how to write an article in english fce exam

• How to Write a Great Article in the Cambridge B2 First Exam

• Posted on 11/12/2019
• Categories: Blog
• Tags: B2 First , Cambridge Exams , Writing

Writing in your only language can be a challenge, but writing in another language can be a complete nightmare ! Where do you even begin?

If you are taking your Cambridge B2 First exam you’ll have to write two texts in an 80-minute period. In part 1 you must write an essay but in part 2 you will be able to choose between a number of options. This could be could be an email, a letter, a report, a review or an article.

Read more about the format of the Cambridge B2 First exam .

In this writing guide, we’ll focus on how to write an article for the Cambridge B2 First Writing paper – part 2. We’ll also share with you some tricks and tips for passing this part of the exam. You’ll learn how to plan your article, structure it, use rhetorical questions , exclamation marks – and lots more. By the end, you’ll have the confidence to write an amazing article in English!

What is an article and how do you write one for the B2 First?

You’ll find lots of examples of articles in magazines, newspapers and internet blogs. In these texts, writers share information, guides and opinions on specific topics. The idea is to write in a way that grabs the reader’s attention and keeps them interested until the very end.

In the Cambridge B2 First Writing Paper – part 2, you could be asked to write about a variety of topics. However, it’s often something you’ve recently learned to do or know a lot about. For example, the question might be about a concert you’ve been to recently, you favourite hobby or your hometown.

Here’s an example of a B2 First article question.

Now let’s look at how to get started!

How to write an article in three simple steps

You’ve got the question in front of you, so now it’s time to start writing your article, right?

Wrong! If you do that, you’ve missed an essential stage: planning.

You can compare writing an article to preparing your favourite meal. No good tortilla de patatas was ever made without carefully preparing the ingredients first. It’s exactly the same with your writing – only, you’ll need fewer onions. Time management is also important. You only have about 40 minutes total so you need to plan your time carefully.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Make a plan (10 minutes)

Think about the question.

Really focus on the question. Decide who your role model is. Is he or she a sporting hero you really admire? Or someone closer to home? It could be a family member that you look up to or a person in the community who’s done something amazing. Think about why they inspire you and make some notes on your ideas.

Think about the tone

Consider the best blogs you read on the internet. Are they relaxed and friendly? Or do they sound like boring school essays? The truth is most articles are quite conversational. They are somewhere between semi-formal and informal. They are often informative, whilst entertaining and engaging the reader. You can also try to add some humour in too!

Think about the structure

Structuring your article is key and there’s normally more than one way to do it. Decide which structure makes sense for the question. Try to keep it logical and include different ideas in different paragraphs.

Here’s an example structure:

• Paragraph 1 Introduction Start with a catchy opening line to hook the readers. Then introduce your role model.
• Paragraph 2 – Describe what makes them special Giving examples and developing your answer.
• Paragraph 3 – Why you chose them as your role model This should be like a conclusion and give the reader a lasting comment or a question to think about.

Note: For many articles four paragraphs will be more appropriate – it depends on the question you are given.

Linkers are a fantastic way to organise your ideas. Experiment with some of these in your next article:

For a start…

Not to mention…

On top of that…

*Remember, you don’t need headings or titles in the article it should read as one continuous piece of work.

Think about vocabulary

Brainstorming vocabulary is a great way to get your ideas flowing . What are some great words related to the topic? List some adjectives for being a good role model. Pick out some verbs related to motivation or any good nouns or collocations you think would work. Throw some phrasal verbs and idioms in there too!

Here’s an example for the question above:

Think about ways to personalise your writing

Articles tend to have a personal touch. You can be a lot more familiar with the reader addressing them personally with pronouns like ‘you’ and ‘I’. Give your own opinion and also use contractions. Here are some more ways to sound personal:

Have you ever wondered…?

I’m sure you can imagine…

Can you believe…?

I will never forget…

There’s nothing more amazing than…

If you ask me…

Step Two: Write it (25 minutes)

An interesting introduction is the key to a first-rate article. You want to capture your audience’s attention whilst making it clear what it’s going to be about. Start with an opening line that sets the tone of the topic. Try to catch the attention from the first word. Here’s an example:

Firefighters and superheroes are obvious role models. But sometimes the person that inspires us the most is so much closer to home. I have never had a favourite singer or sports star but my father has always been an important inspiration for me.

Next, think about the original question. What makes your role model special? Remember to keep it interesting and include some personal feelings. Use exclamation marks like this:

One of the things that makes my father so special is that he always does everything for his family, and he’s an excellent listener too. Whenever we have a problem he’s always there for us. Not to mention the fact that he’s also really fun-loving! If there’s a party, my dad is the first person on the dancefloor.

But only include one or two exclamation marks in the article or they’ll lose their impact.

Finally you want to tackle the last question. Why did you choose him as your role model? A great technique here would be to address your reader personally and even include a rhetorical question at the end. This gives them something to think about. A little bit like this:

I think my father is the best role model because he is the most hardworking person I know. He has a really difficult job as a doctor and is always saving lives. That’s so inspiring for me!

I really look up to him and he really pushes me to be the best I can be. Wouldn’t you want a role model like my dad?

Step Three: Check it (5 minutes)

Everything has come together and you’ve got your final article. Now you can sit back, relax and put your feet up until the examiner says stop. Wait, not quite!

You’re missing the last important step. Always check your writing. You’d hate for all your hard work to be wasted at the last moment. Here are some things to check for.

• You included everything in the question
• You’ve used a variety of sentence lengths
• The spelling is correct
• It’s personal and engaging
• You haven’t repeated the same vocabulary too often
• It’s not too formal

What are the examiners looking out for?

To get the very best results, you need to know what the examiners are looking out for when they are marking your writing.

These are the four most important things to consider:

Ask yourself these questions when checking your work and make any necessary changes before the time is up!

Any other advice for writing an article?

Read, read, read. Go online and search for blogs in English that interest you. If you love sports, look at the sports news. If you prefer fashion, find fashion articles. Whatever it is read real examples for real inspiration!

If you’re still not confident about writing in English, or you want some help preparing for the B2 First exam, take a look at our exam courses .

You can also check out our articles on how to write an Essay or a Review in the Cambridge B2 First.

Glossary for Language Learners

Find the following words in the article and then write down any new ones you didn’t know.

Nightmare (n): : a bad dream.

Rhetorical question (n): a question that doesn’t need to be answered, for dramatic effect.

Time management (n): the way to use your time effectively.

Look up to somebody (pv) : to admire someone.

Humour (n): something amusing or funny.

To hook (v): to attract and captivate your attention.

To flow (v): to move steadily and constantly.

First-rate (adj): excellent, top quality, well made or done.

An exclamation mark (n): this punctuation symbol: !.

To tackle (v): dealing with a challenge or something difficult.

To put your feet up (exp): to rest and relax.

pv = phrasal verb

adj = adjective

exp = expression

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Cambridge B2 First (FCE): How to Write an Article

• Mandatory task : no
• Word count : 140-190
• Main characteristics : interesting, engaging, personal opinion / comment
• Register : semi-informal to informal
• Structure : Title/introduction, 2-3 topic paragraphs, closing paragraph / conclusion
• Language : adjectives/adverbs, colloquial expressions, phrasal verbs, idioms, linking words, interesting grammar

The most useful thing I’ve ever learned Have you ever learned something that completely changed your life? I can remember exactly how it was for me when I got interested in learning English and who helped me become the person I am today. I had always been in love with English music and I put in some work by myself, but only when I ended up in the English class of Mr. Weiss I got completely hooked. His amazing style of teaching struck a chord and my skills skyrocketed in no time. Feeling confident, I took the leap and moved to beautiful Australia where I was able to travel and even call it home for over seven years. And you know what?! I became an English teacher and now help people who are just like I used to be with the same passion as Mr. Weiss. I really think that I wouldn’t be teaching English had it not been for Mr. Weiss and his inspirational lessons. So, looking back, I hope my experience inspires others to find ways to help the people around them as well.

Introduction

An article is usually written for an English-language magazine or newsletter, and the reader is assumed to have similar interests to the writer. The main purpose is to interest and engage the reader, so there should be some opinion or comment. from: Cambridge English First Handbook for Teachers

Articles are part of the second section of the FCE writing exam. This means, that, actually, you can decide if you want to choose this type of text or, instead, pick one of the other ones available in this part (a review, report, letter/email or, if you take FCE for Schools, a story).

Articles are interesting and engaging

You might think that I’m joking because how could writing an article be interesting and engaging? The thing is that I’m not talking about you as the writer, but about the reader. Articles are less formal than, for example, an essay or a letter of application so they are usually more interesting and engaging to read.

However, keeping this in mind, writing an article can also become more fun. If you keep thinking about what would be interesting for the reader, it is easier and more engaging for you too.

So, in this article we are going to look at similarities which we can find in almost every FCE article writing task, such as structure, requirements, useful language and other things to pay attention to. This way, I hope you will feel more confident and knowledgeable.

What a typical article task looks like

Even though there are many different topics to write articles about and they might change a lot from exam to exam, there are certain similarities that I don’t want you to miss and with a little practice you will be able to find these characteristics really fast in every single task.

When you see a task like this (and please remember this for the future) you have to check two things:

• What do you have to include in your article?
• Who is going to read it?

Below you can see that I have underlined the key pieces of information for you and don’t forget to do the same with every writing task you see.

OK, let’s start with what we have to include. In the box I underlined three questions we have to answer:

• What is the most useful thing you have learned?
• Who did you learn it from?
• Why is it useful?

There are three topic points to write about and you will see that there are always three things that you have to include in your articles. If you can’t find three topic points, then look again because they must be there.

The second question I asked above was about who is going to read your article. In this case we are going to write for an English-language website, which means that normal people like you and me are the target readers.

In the FCE writing exam you always have to consider the reader of your texts as you have to adjust the register (formal, neutral, informal language) in your writing. With different levels of formality come different things you should or shouldn’t write, but in articles we normally expect the readers to be people like us so we can write in a more informal style .

Informal English means that you should use contractions like ‘I’m’ or ‘don’t’, colloquial words and expressions, for example, ‘awesome’ or ‘tons of’. Also, try to add some phrasal verbs because they are definitely a feature of informal language as well and last but not least, involve the reader personally by addressing them directly and even ask a question or two.

Again, always look out for three topic points to include in your article and be prepared to use informal language. If you cover all of this, you are already on a very good way to pass. However, there are still a few more things to consider.

How to organise your article

OK, we went through the first step analysing the task. Now we need to think about how we can organise the article so it is logical and with all the different parts included and well connected.

This step might be a little bit different from task to task, but, generally speaking, you can follow this process every time and you should be alright.

Can you remember the three things we have to include in our article? Yes, you can? You are a very good student 🙂 . We have to talk about what the most useful thing you’ve ever learned is (1), who you learned it from (2) and why it is useful (3).

It probably makes sense to give each of these points a paragraph in our article so we already have three sections. To me it seems as if we could use the first topic point in our introduction, which means that we don’t need a separate one, but it is always nice to have a short closing paragraph (similar to a conclusion in an essay). Adding that and a title, we end up with four paragraphs and our article would look like this:

• Title & Introduction / Topic point 1 (What is the thing you learned?)
• Topic point 2 (Who did you learn it from?)
• Topic point 3 (Why is it useful?)
• Closing paragraph / conclusion

Of course, there is always the option of separating the intro and the first topic point or combining two topic points in one paragraph and again, this depends on each task, but, in general, this is what every article looks like in the FCE exam.

Always make a plan

I can’t say it often enough, but, unfortunately, this is something that drives me crazy and a lot of students simply forget to do.

Always plan your articles before you start writing. It takes just a few minutes to create a list of paragraphs like the one above with a couple of words to remind you of what you want to write added to each heading.

There is nothing worse than writing for 25 minutes and then realising that you have to change something or move around different parts. Don’t make the same mistake and write a plan.

The different parts of an article

In this part of my post we are going to look at the different sections of an article in the FCE exam using our task from above so I can give you example paragraphs which include everything you should put in there as well if you want to become the boss of article writing.

In your introduction you always want to get the reader interested in your article. Your goal is to make the reader want to continue. As always, there are a couple of things for you to remember when you start writing:

• Give your article a title.
• Start with a personalised question.
• Include the topic and give your opinion or comment on it.

An example could look like this:

The most useful thing I’ve ever learned Have you ever learned something that completely changed your life? I can remember exactly how it was for me when I got interested in learning English and who helped me become the person I am today.

There you have it. My article has a title, which doesn’t have to be super creative, the intro includes a question as well as the topic and my comment (“…helped me become the person I am today.”) and I’ve already answered the first topic question in the task (What is the thing you learned?).

I also kept some information to myself (Who did I learn from? Why is it useful?) so the reader wants to continue. Try to keep them guessing as this can be very engaging.

Topic points

Once we have our introduction ready and our readers can’t wait to find out more, we need to think about how we can present the rest of the information.

In our plan we decided to break the topic points up into two paragraphs, but we also have to focus on the other requirements of an FCE article:

• Stick to the topic and don’t write about unrelated things.
• Support your answers with some examples and/or reasons.
• Use neutral to informal language (check the section ‘What a typical article task looks like’ above to find out what that means).
• Use other language to make your article sound more interesting (adjectives/adverbs, idioms, phrasal verbs, linking words, play with some grammar).

And with all of this in mind, I wrote these two paragraphs:

I had always been in love with English music and I put in some work by myself, but only when I ended up in the English class of Mr. Weiss I got completely hooked . His amazing style of teaching struck a chord and my skills skyrocketed in no time . Feeling confident, I took the leap and moved to beautiful Australia where I was able to travel and even call it home for over seven years. And you know what?! I became an English teacher and now help people who are just like I used to be with the same passion as Mr. Weiss.

As you can see, I broke everything up in two paragraphs and only wrote about the questions supporting my answers. On top of that, I included a lot of useful informal language ( highlighted ).

Closing paragraph / Conclusion

Last but not least, we want to round off our article with a good closing paragraph. In the conclusion we want to achieve a few different things:

• Summarise what you wrote in your article.
• Comment on the topic or give your opinion one last time.
• End your article in an interesting way.

The last paragraph shouldn’t be too hard to write if you’ve done a good job with your introduction and topic paragraphs. Because we have done exactly that further above in this post the conclusion becomes something like this:

I really think that I wouldn’t be teaching English had it not been for Mr. Weiss and his inspirational lessons. So, looking back, I hope my experience inspires others to find ways to help the people around them as well.

I put everything together nice and short. I summarise the points I made in the introduction and the topic paragraphs, gave my opinion (“I really think…”) and also addressed the reader directly again to end my article in an interesting way.

How your article is marked

Marking FCE writing tasks is like a science and for a lot of students it feels as if there is this big mystery and nobody really knows how it works. Actually, there are very clear rules that the examiners have to follow and the criteria are publicly available.

While it is possible to find all the information on your own I thought it would be a good idea to put everything together in an article for you. Check out how your writing tasks are marked by clicking  here .

Practice makes perfect

With all this detailed information it is now time for you to get active. Look for different example tasks online and follow my step-by-step process to improve and become an expert when it comes to writing FCE articles. All you need is experience until you can find the different characteristics discussed here so you can write your texts almost on autopilot.

Please let me know if you like my post and if there are other things I can include or improve. Until then, happy practice.

Lots of love,

Teacher Phill 🙂

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Thanks for the useful tips 🙏✅

You are very welcome. 🙂

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Exam English ✓

• B2 First (FCE)
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Free Practice Tests for learners of English

Cambridge english: b2 first (fce) writing.

Difficulty level : B2 /Upper Intermediate

What is the B2 First (FCE) Writing test like? The test has two sections and takes about 80 minutes:

• Part 1 - write an essay based on prompts
• Part 2 - write one from a choice of 3 questions: an article , an essay , a letter, a report , a review , a story

Scoring Each of the two writing parts are marked out of 20. There are five marks for each of the following: Content, Communicative Achievement, Organisation and Language. You must write 140-190 words for each part.

How to prepare for the B2 First (FCE) Writing test

• Choose a question that you are interested in. You will write better if you know the subject.
• Read the instructions carefully before you start. Make notes. You must include all the points from the instructions in your writing .
• Make a plan before you start writing. Decide what information to put in each paragraph.
• Think about who you are writing to and use an appropriate style of language.
• Try to use a range of complex language.

Read this explanation of how to write an article for FCE Writing part 2.

First (FCE) Writing tests

• Writing part 1 (essay)
• Writing part 2 (review)
• Writing part 2 (article)
• Writing part 2 (email)
• Writing part 2 (report)
• How to write an article
• Writing essay introductions
• Brainstorming ideas for essays
• Answer the question!

First (FCE) Sections

• Cambridge First (FCE)

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Home » B2 First » FCE Course » FCE Writing » FCE Article Writing

FCE Article Writing

Table of Contents

Do you know how to write an FCE article which will get the examiners smiling?

The way to do this is simple. You need to tick their boxes.

What are their boxes?

Their boxes are what you studied on my FCE Writing Marking criteria page. If you cannot remember them, you should go back and watch that video.

These marking criteria will guide you in your FCE article preparation.

We will look at these in more detail by examining some FCE exam samples .

FCE Writing Tip :  this is available for paid members only.

To access these, register here >>

Fce article format.

Remember for part 2 of the FCE writing part 2 you might have to write: an article, an informal email or letter, a formal email, letter, a report or a review.

They give you 3 questions from the above options and you have to answer 1 question.

One of the questions could be an article.

As I explain in the video below, you need to write between 140-190 words.

How To Pass B2 First FCE Writing Part 2 Articles

Below is a video I made a couple of years ago. You will:

See An Example Question

Critique An Example Answer

Learn Some Advice For Writing An Article

Read Some Examiner Comments

Correct Some Article Mistakes

Learn More General Tips For Writing An Article

Video Links:

FCE Handbook for Teachers

FCE Article Advice – Summary

Target reader:

English language magazine or newsletter

Style of writing:

Your article should be interesting and engaging.

You should write your own opinions or comments, so you can write in the first person “I think…” and you can write in an informal way.

You can also ask the reader questions “….don’t you agree?” This is a good way to keep the reader engaged.

You should give your article a title….we will talk more about the organisation and language to use in an article later on this page.

FCE Article Question 1

If you watched the first video above (I highly recommend watching it), you will have seen the Article question below. In the video above I showed you what an examiner thought of an example answer. On the rest of this page I will critique another answer for the same question, but before that we will remind ourselves of the question and then write a plan.

Remember, this question has come from the Cambridge English Handbook for Teachers .

FCE Writing Part 2 – Article – Plan Template

Did you see my last lesson on Part 1 Essays ?

Can you remember how long to plan your answer?

a) 2 minutes

b) 5 minutes

The answer: I recommend taking 5  minutes to plan your answer in the exam! I talk about this in my next video…

Write A B2 First: FCE Article Plan

Have you planned any academic writings before?

Maybe you have your own approach to planning, which is great.

Exam preparation is not a ‘ one size fits all ‘ approach.

FCE Exam Tip :  this tip is available for paid members only.

Different student have different ways of preparing and that is fine. The trick is to find the best method for you and that is where I can help.

Many of my students have found my FCE writing plan template very useful…so you can try this, download it here:  My plan template or complete a plan online here .

Try to complete the template using the question above and spend no more than 5 minutes on this. You may need to add another paragraph or make small changes to the template if you think they are necessary.

Are you a fan of George Michael’s music? (Tell me in the comments at the bottom of this page)

I quite like some of his songs. This song is stuck in my head at the moment….writing a plan shouldn’t take much longer than the length of this song:

My B2 Article Plan

This is available for Gold FCE members only. Register here >>

Sample FCE Article Answer 1

Below is an article which one of my students wrote.

I recommend downloading the answer and correcting any mistakes you find.

Download This Sample FCE Article Answer

FCE – Examiner Assessment Scale Template

Have you finished marking the article?

Great, now I want you to get into the mindset of an examiner and fill out the assessment scale below.

FCE Vocabulary Tip :  this tip is available for paid members only.

If you can’t remember how to complete the form below, go back to an earlier page in this course and look at the FCE writing marking criteria page .

Complete the template here and you will be emailed a copy of your answers. It looks a bit different to the template below .

Sample FCE Article Answer 1 With My Critique

The most useful thing that I have ever learned is using a computer. When I was young, the computer was not widespread. Not every family had one because it was very expensive and it was considered a luxury good. At school, I learned to use a PC when I was 8 years old. It was strange because if I think about my nieces , they have been able to use a lot of electric al devices since they were 1 year old .

It was different for every child that was born in the 1990s. At school we used only two Windows programs: word and excel. Our best school work was writ ing a book of world recipes . Then, when I studied at High School I achieved an ECDL certification. I passed seven exams on seven different computer modules. However , I think that I learn t much more from the other people tha n from the courses: when I work with somebody , I note what he does, if he knows something different than me, so in this way I learn a lot of different things about different programs. I note th at computer ability is very important for everyday life but also for work ( ‘work’ is an uncountable noun ) . Using Windows programs is the basis for every company.

Examiner Assessment Scale Template With My Comments

Fce article – pass or fail.

Your writing will be marked according to how many marks it was awarded on the examiner assessment scale. You need a minimum of 24 out of 40 possible marks to pass the FCE writing paper. Remember, there are 2 different writing to complete, so you need to average 12 out of 20 for each writing task.

This student got:

Content: 4/5

Communicative Achievement: 2/5

Organisation: 2/5

Language: 3/5

Total: 11/20

If the student got 11/20 for their part 2 writing task, they would need to get 13/20 in the part 1 essay in order to pass the writing paper.

You do not need to pass every exam paper to get the B2 First certificate, but you do need to average 60% + across all 5 exam papers.

FCE Article Vocabulary

Engaging the target reader:

What would you think if….? Would you ever….? Does…..appeal to you? ….., don’t you think/agree? What if….

Linking words: The first thing that springs to my mind is…. Funnily enough, … Imagine + second conditional/verbing Amazingly, …. Interestingly, ….

Classroom/Homework Activities

Here are some B2 article activities for you or your students to complete:

• Make sure you are a  Gold member in order to access all website exercises.
• Watch this video and fill in this form (a copy will be emailed to you)
• Read this article question,  take 5 minutes and write a plan for it here.
• Compare my plan with yours
• Print, find and correct mistakes on this example article
• Fill in this assessment scale template with your ideas from the example answer
• Compare your mistakes with the ones I found here
• Compare your assessment with my assessment
• Add more notes to this worksheet in future lessons.

Class handouts/hard copies…

• Article video
• Writing tips worksheet
• Article question
• Plan worksheet
• Example article printout
• Examiner assessment scale template printout
• My mistakes
• My assessment scale notes

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How to Write an Essay for B2 First (FCE) Writing

Luis @ kse academy.

• noviembre 24, 2019

As you probably know already, Cambridge English exams usually have some or all of the following parts: Reading, Writing, Use of English and Listening. In this post I am going to talk about the FCE Writing B2 part and, more specifically, about how to write an essay for FCE Writing . We will see a good example of an essay for FCE and you can check out a full FCE Writing Guide where you can find more examples of emails , letters and other types of writings.

Essay Sample Answer

Este artículo también está disponible en castellano.

What are the parts of the FCE Writing?

The First (FCE) Writing has only two parts. For each part, you must write a composition which will depend on the instructions you receive for each task. For the  first part , you will always be asked to  write an essay , as it is the only option provided. However, in the  second part , they allow you to choose one out of 3 options. These include  different types of writing , which are : letters/emails ,  articles ,  reviews and  reports . Each piece of writing must have between 140 and 190 words , approximately.

Since they are different types of writing , the language and structures to use will also differ. But that’s what I’m here for, to explain to you exactly how to write each part. And today, I’m starting with  how to write an essay .

How to Write an Essay for FCE Writing

An  essay is an opinion writing with which we analyse a topic , a situation or an issue from different points of view , providing different arguments and expressing our opinion about it. For this reason, an  essay must have the following features:

• Purpose: What we usually do with an essay is to analyse and assess a topic, situation or issue which, in some way, is interesting or controversial. It is normally set as a writing task after a class debate. In the exam, you have to imagine the debate, obviously.
• Tone and style: Given that you’re writing about a  serious or controversial issue , an essay is written in a formal style, so we must stick to an objective tone and style . Our language must be formal, thus avoiding words that are simply too common or generic (E.g.:  things, stuff, get,   etc.) and contractions (E.g.:  can’t, don’t, won’t,  etc.).
• Structure: Like every piece of writing,  an essay must present a defined structure . For starters, we can choose either to give it a title or not. Personally, I would say that it is more appropriate to have an essay with title . Then, the body must be divided into introduction, idea 1, idea 2, idea 3 and conclusion. This means that, in general,  essays must have 5 paragraphs ,   although it is not entirely necessary.
• Opinion:  There are countless ways of expressing your opinion in an essay, so you must choose the one that suits you best. However,  it is advisable to remain impartial throughout your writing and give your opinion only in the last paragraph , as a conclusion. But, as I say, it is optional. The most important thing is that you justify everything you say in your essay.
• Coherence: Coherence is essential in every type of writing, but especially in an essay. As it tends to be an argumentative text, you must avoid writing incoherent paragraphs that have nothing to do with one another. Your ideas must  follow a logical order and be well connected with appropriate linkers .

FCE Writing Essay Example

Now that we are familiar with the  characteristics of an essay for First (FCE) Writing , let’s take a look at an  example of an essay at B2 level , both at the task and at a sample answer.

Instructions of an Essay

In the following image you can see the instructions of an essay which involves a typical topic, that of the environment:

In these instructions, we must pay attention to the following:

• The  first paragraph introduces the topic: … different ways in which you can protect the environment.
• The  second sentence is usually the same in every task:  Write an essay using  all the notes…
• In the box , you are given the main topic as a question and they give you something to talk about:  recycle, using bicycles and walking, your own idea . As you can see, you have to come up with the third idea, something connected to the topic which is not provided in the exam task.

Given the model task above, each paragraph will correspond to a different idea, apart from the introduction and conclusion. Again, it is only natural to have 5 paragraphs. So, the best way to know how to write an essay for FCE Writing is to take a look at an  example of an actual essay for FCE Writing :

At first sight, the essay has  a title and 5 paragraphs (introduction + idea 1 + idea 2 + idea 3 + conclusion). And if we stop to read the essay more carefully, we’ll notice the following things:

• The paragraphs are visual and well defined , which is very important.
• The title summarises the topic  of the essay. Another option is to use the question ( What can people do to help protect the environment? ) as title. However, it usually tends to be too long, so I prefer to summarise it into a shorter heading.
• Introduction: it introduces the topic in a general way and it leads to the second paragraph (first idea).
• Paragraph 2: it deals with idea 1.
• Paragraph 3: it deals with idea 2.
• Paragraph 4: it deals with idea 3.
• Conclusion: we express our opinion to conclude and summarise the essay.
• It uses connectors to define the development of the essay:  firstly, second, finally, etc.
• It doesn’t use many contractions or pet words.
• One of the things that
• In the last few decades,
• For this reason,
• First, / Second, / Third,
• By doing so,
• For example,
• In conclusion,

This is a good example of an essay for FCE Writing . By the way, you must bear in mind that it has been written to simulate a strong B2 level, without reaching C1.

FAQ: Do I get penalised for writing over 190 words?

This is the most typical question in this part of the exam and the answer is « yes and no «. Let me explain myself. Cambridge English examiners don’t count the number of words and penalise you based upon that fact alone. There’s a rumour going around among teachers and pupils that says that for every 10 words over 190, they take «this many» points off, but it is not true. However, think about this: if you’ve written 50 or 100 words more than asked, you are probably including irrelevant information to the task , right? Now that’s a reason for losing points. In the same way that if you  write under 140 words you are probably missing essential information , don’t you think?

For this reason, I always recommend writing up to 10 or 20 words over the limit. In this way, you won’t lose any points for including irrelevant information.

FCE Writing Guide with examples (pdf)

Although I intend to write more posts on how to do each piece of writing for FCE, if you don’t want to wait any more, simply download the official KSE Academy FCE Writing Guide . In this guide you will learn:

• How to write an essay  and 3 examples.
• How to write an article  and 3 examples.
• How to write a review  and 3 examples.
• How to write a report  and 3 examples.
• How to write an email or letter  and 3 examples.
• Over 300 useful expressions for every FCE Writing .

Would you like to see a sample of this guide? Here it is!

Did you find this useful?  Why not share it with other teachers and students of English? Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, y YouTube. 🙂

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Fce (b2 first) writing exam – write a review – video.

In this lesson, you can learn how to write a review for the FCE writing exam. For many people, the writing section is the most challenging part of the FCE test. In this lesson, you’ll see a step-by-step process for writing a review. You’ll see exactly what to do at each stage and how to improve your FCE writing score .

1. how to analyse your fce writing task.

Let’s look at a sample question:

• Book reviews wanted Have your read a book recently that you couldn’t put down? Write a review of the book. Say why you liked it and who you would recommend it to. The best reviews will be published in the magazine.

There are four steps to writing an effective answer. So, what’s the first step? Read the question and identify exactly what the examiners want from you.

Your FCE writing is assessed on four points:

• Communicative achievement
• Organisation

Each area is worth up to five marks.

First, let’s focus on content. To get five marks for content you need to make sure, “all content is relevant and the reader is fully informed.”

Those aren’t my words—those are the words from the official mark scheme! But what do they mean?

Very simple: they mean you need to do everything the question asks you to do.

Look at our sample question again.

There are three things you need to include in this task; Do you know what they are?

Number one: you need to write a review of a book. This means you should include some basic information about the book, like its title, the author, and what genre it is: crime, historical, romance, etc.

Number two: say why you liked it.

Finally, say who you would recommend it to.

Easy, right? Yes and no. It’s simple, but most people don’t get full marks for content. You should aim to get five out of five. Here’s how you do this:

One: make sure you cover everything fully. Don’t leave any parts of the question out! Two: make sure you cover everything equally. In this question, there are three points to include. You should have a more-or-less equal number of words for each point. Three: make sure you support your ideas with reasons or details. Four: don’t include anything unnecessary or irrelevant. Your task is to do what the question asks, and nothing more!

Now, you’ve identified the three things you need to include. You can move on to step two: planning!

2. How to Plan Your FCE Writing Review

Planning is the most important step.

The FCE writing test is one hour 20 minutes long. Parts one and two are worth equal marks, twenty each, so you should spend about 40 minutes on each.

Of those 40 minutes, you should spend five to ten minutes on planning.

It can be tempting to think, “I need all of that time to write! I don’t have time to plan!” However, this is a bad idea.

Not planning your writing is like going on a journey without map: you’re likely to get lost.

Planning is especially important for your organisation score. Your writing needs to be well-structured and coherent to earn marks in this area.

Organisation focuses on “how well the writing is put together”. By planning your writing carefully, it will naturally be organised. This gives you a good chance to get high scores in organisation.

You can also use this step to maximise your score in “Communicative Achievement”. This focuses on “how appropriate your writing is for the task”.

So, when you’re planning, think about questions like this:

• What kind of language should you use: formal, neutral or informal?
• Do you need a title or subheadings ?
• How should you organise your text? Do you need an introduction or conclusion?

The answers to these questions will depend on the exact task.

For a book review, it should probably have a title, but it doesn’t need sub-headings. It should be written in a neutral style, and it should use specific language for the task: for example to describe books, or make recommendations.

You don’t really need an introduction or a conclusion, because it’s not an essay; you’re not trying to prove anything.

Now, let’s make a basic plan together. When you plan, you need to decide how many paragraphs you’ll have, and what main idea will go in each paragraph.

How many paragraphs do you think you’ll need?

There isn’t one right way to do this, but you have three main points to include for your content score. So, it makes sense to have three paragraphs, and an extra paragraph to explain what happens in the book, like this:

• Basic information about the book
• What happens in the book
• Why you liked it
• Recommendation

Remember: this isn’t the only possibility. A different structure might make more sense for you. That’s fine; just make sure the structure is clear in your head. ‘Clear’ means that each paragraph has one main point, and you know exactly what that main point is.

After you have your basic outline, you should add some key words or phrases to each point.

A book I read recently was ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ by Truman Capote. Maybe you’ve read it, or perhaps you’ve seen the film!

So, here’s my plan. You don’t need full sentences, just an idea of what you’re going to say.

• Title -> Breakfast at Tiffany’s – A jewel of a book.
• Basic information about the book -> Breakfast at Tiffany’s , Truman Capote, modern American fiction
• Explain what the story is about -> a lonely writer fascinated by a girl who lives downstairs, set in 1940s Manhattan
• Why you liked it -> the characters are believable, they have interesting backgrounds
• Recommendation -> yes to teenagers and older but younger not appropriate

Pause the video if you want some more time to read the plan.

3. How to Write Your FCE Review

Okay, now it’s time to write your answer! You have between 140 and 190 words.

Count the number of words you write in your practice answers so you can get a feel for how much to write.

Here’s something you might not know: Cambridge does not allow correction fluid, correction tape or erasable pens. Make sure you leave plenty of space on the page in case you want to cross something out and change it.

Here’s our first draft:

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s grabbed my attention right from the start. The novella by Truman Capote opens with an intriguing mystery about how the protagonist, Holly Golightly, may have travelled to Africa, which is quite different to the film!The book is narrated by an unnamed male writer and is set in Manhattan in the 1940’s. He’s fascinated by Holly, who lives downstairs. She’s a society girl who is devoted to her brother Fred, and makes her living by convincing rich men to give her money.What I enjoyed the most is that the characters are believable. It’s not difficult to imagine a lonely young man trying to help the beautiful young girl who lives downstairs. It’s more difficult to relate to Holly but the hints Truman drops about her troubled past help explain her behavior.I’d definitely recommend reading ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ to older readers. Particularly if they’ve seen the film. As for younger readers, I’d recommend it teenagers but I don’t think the content is appropriate for anyone younger.

Pause the video for as long as you need to read it.

How does it look to you?

It’s not bad but it’s not perfect either. Now for the last step!

4. How to Check and Improve Your FCE Writing Answer

It’s time to find the mistakes. Even if you’re short of time, try to leave two to three minutes at the end to check your work. It can make a difference to your score, so it’s important!

This is where you can improve your score in the ‘language’ section of the assessment.

To get a high language score, you need to “use a range of vocabulary, including less common vocabulary,” “use a range of simple and complex grammatical forms,” and make only “occasional errors.”

Again, these are direct quotes from the Cambridge mark scheme.

Learn more with this Oxford Online English lesson on using a notebook to expand your vocabulary .

There will be mistakes and things you can improve in your writing. Look at our model review again. There are at least seven things which could be changed in this answer. Can you find what they are?

Here are some questions to help you:

• Have you forgotten to include anything?
• Is all the punctuation, grammar and spelling correct?
• Can you replace very common words with more interesting, specific vocabulary?
• Have you used linking words and phrases to make it easy for your reader to follow?
• Are you within the word count?

These are questions you can ask yourself after you’ve finished your own practice answers. Pause the video and read our answer. See how many things you can find.

First, did you notice I forgot to include a title? A book review in a magazine or a newspaper normally has a title, so our review should have one, too.

What else could I have done better? Look at the bold text in the answer. Can you improve them?

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s grabbed my attention right from the start. The novella by Truman Capote opens with an intriguing mystery about how the protagonist, Holly Golightly, may have travelled to Africa, which is quite different to the film!The book is narrated by an unnamed male writer and is set in Manhattan in the 1940’s. He’s fascinated by Holly, who lives downstairs. She’s a society girl who is devoted to her brother Fred, and makes her living by convincing rich men to give her money.What I really enjoyed is that the characters are believable. It’s not difficult to imagine a lonely young man trying to help the beautiful young girl who lives downstairs. It’s more difficult to relate to Holly but the hints Truman drops about her troubled past help explain her behavior. * I’d definitely recommend ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ to older readers, particularly if they’ve seen the film. As for younger readers, I’d recommend it teenagers but I don’t think the content is appropriate for anyone younger.

Okay, let’s see how you did!

First, titles of books and movies are normally written in italics or placed inside speech marks. Let’s put it inside single speech marks here:

• ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’

Then, in the 2nd paragraph, 1940s should not have an apostrophe:

• 1940’s 1940s

In the third paragraph, I’ve repeated who lives downstairs which I said in the second paragraph. Can you think of another way to say this?

You could say …who rents the apartment downstairs, …who lives in the apartment below his, or …who is a tenant in the apartment downstairs.

This shows a greater range of vocabulary and will improve your language score.

The next one is similar: can you think of a synonym for more difficult?

How about more challenging?

More difficult is not wrong, but challenging is a less common and more specific word. If you show a range of language, you’ll get more marks for your language score.

Next, behavior. Why is this a problem?

Behavior is the American spelling.

It’s fine to use American spelling, but you must be consistent! Earlier I spelt travelled with two l’s, which is British spelling. I need to change one, so let’s change behaviour to the UK spelling by adding a ‘u’:

• behavior behaviour

Next, let’s look at the gap at the start of the last paragraph. What do you think we could add here?

You could add a linking word or phrase. It would make it much easier for the reader to follow. You would also improve your organisation score.

You have a few options. For example:

What about in conclusion? Would it be a good choice?

Maybe, but it’s not ideal. It’s too formal! Save this one for your essay and keep your review in a neutral style.

Finally, what’s wrong with I’d recommend it teenagers?

Remember after recommend you need the proposition to: recommend something to someone.

• I’d recommend it teenagers. I’d recommend it to teenagers.

By correcting these errors and making these improvements, you could improve your FCE writing score without very much work.

We used this process to write a review, but you can use it for any Cambridge exam writing task, including the CAE and CPE when you get that far.

Good luck with your exam preparation and let us know when you pass! Thanks for watching!

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