2.7.- Writing a story

 Top 10 greatest fairy tales ever video 

How to write a story for B1 level

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?

The first thing to mention is that at B1 level they want a simple text with some complex grammar. It should be very easy to read and follow with very few mistakes. You must follow the instructions in the question!

 

TO AVOID ERRORS YOU SHOULD NOT GUESS VOCABULARY OR GRAMMAR STRUCTURES. ONLY USE WHAT YOU KNOW WELL. YOU SHOULD EXPERIMENT WITH LANGUAGE IN CLASS AND WHILE STUDYING, NOT IN THE EXAM

 

When writing a story, there are a few problems that most students find:

1. In only 100 words, how can I complete the task?
2. How do I organize the text?
3. What do they mean by complex grammar?

 

How to organise your story

The good thing about B1 Preliminary writing tasks is that you can always organise them in the same way. It is a little bit like a good cooking recipe because it works every time.

A good story usually has a beginning, a main part and an ending. The main part is the most important one so you want make it longer than the other parts. Most of the time, we get to a structure that looks like this:

1. First sentence / Beginning
2. Main part paragraph 1
3. Main part paragraph 2
4. Ending

Of course, you might have three main part paragraphs, but in most tasks the structure with only two works very well.

The different parts of a story

Now, we are going to find out what the different parts of a story typically look like and I will give you some useful tips about good language that will help you get good marks.

First sentence / Beginning

As I said above, in a PET story you always have to start with a sentence that you get directly from the task. Don’t change this sentence in any way, but simply copy it onto you answer sheet and begin your story from there.

I recommend adding one more sentence to complete the beginning of your story. For our example task this could look like this:

As the plane flew lower, Lou saw the golden beaches of the island below. The sun was shining brightly and he said to the woman next to him, “I’m so excited about my holidays!”

When we look at the first sentence from the task, there are a couple of things that are not 100% clear. For example, why was Lou on the plane? What island did he see? Why did the plane fly lower? In my second sentence I tried to make things a little bit clearer. Lou was on his way to spend his holidays on the island and the plane was getting ready for landing.

In terms of good language, I used past continuous (was shining), which we use to say what was happening in the background or at the same time as our main events. I also included an adverb (brightly) and an adjective (golden), which makes an action more interesting, and there is some direct speech (“I’m so excited about my holidays!”). This brings the reader closer to the characters compared to indirect or reported speech.

Main paragraphs

Once we set the scene, we can move on to the main part of the story. Here, we try to develop the plot and all the main events happen in these paragraphs. You can decide how many paragraphs you want to make, but in general you should be fine with two or three of them.

For our example task I chose two paragraphs:

As soon as Lou got off the plane he left the airport and took a taxi to the city centre because he really wanted to swim in the clear water and sunbathe on the beautiful beach he had seen earlier.

However, when he arrived at the beach he saw that the weather was changing and five minutes later it was raining heavily. Lou ran into a bar and was surprised because someone shouted, “Hi, it’s you again!”

 

Ending

Every good story has an ending. In PET, you want to finish your story in a surprising and/or funny way so the reader is happy.

Make sure that the ending is connected to the topic. Don’t introduce new characters or let the story move in a completely different direction. Just write one or two last sentences and that’s it.

There was the woman from the plane! They started to talk and became very good friends.

It’s a short ending with a little surprising element (the woman from the plane). It is nothing special or crazy, but it brings the whole story together in a nice way. That’s all you have to do to make the examiner happy and get great marks.

KEY PHRASES:

 

Ways to start your story

• Once upon a time
• One day
• At the beginning
• When it all began
• When it al started

 

Time Phrases (for the middle of the story)

• Firstly, secondly, thirdly
• in due time
• as long as
• as soon as
• just in time
• at the moment
• in good time
• in the meantime
• in a moment
• in ages
• whenever
• now that
• instantly
• without delay
• Suddenly
• all of a sudden
• at the present time
• from time to time
• sooner or later
• at the same time
• as soon as

 

Ways of ending the story

• In the end
• finally
• When it all ended
• After all of that
• After everything that had happened
• Once and for all
• At the end of the day

 

Complex grammar

• Passive
• reported/direct speech
• Conditionals
• Wish/ if only
• Past perfect
• Modal verbs
• relative clauses

Source: https://www.intercambioidiomasonline.com/2017/08/30/how-to-write-a-perfect-story-for-the-cambridge-b1-preliminary-free-pdf-with-example-questions/

https://teacherphill.com/pet-how-to-write-a-story/