2.7.- Writing a story

Talk about the plot of a tale you remember.

Writing a PET story

Your English teacher has asked you to write a story. Your story must begin with When Jenny looked out of the window, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

 

Write your story in about 100 words.

 

Student’s  Answer:

When Jenny looked out of the window, she couldn’t believe her eyes. There was an elephant walking down the street! Jenny closed her eyes and opened them again. She thought she must be dreaming.

 

The elephant was walking very slowly and was quite relaxed. It stopped at an apple tree and started to eat the fruit. Then, Jenny saw two men running towards the elephant. One of the men was dressed as a clown.

 

Jenny realised that they had come from the circus that had just arrived in town the day before. The elephant must have escaped.

 

It was the strangest thing she had ever seen in her life. 

How to write a story for B1 level

 

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 to 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 PET story

First sentence / Beginning

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 your 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!”

In terms of good language, it is advisable the use of the 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.

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.

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/