C2 Proficiency article writing practice and tips

• Engaging the reader in the first two sentences without resorting to a cliché.
• Maintaining a consistent voice appropriate to the stated publication.
• Rhetorical technique: the well-placed question, the short sentence, the concrete example.
• Direct address to the reader and when it is appropriate.
• Semi-formal register, which is neither an essay nor a conversation.
• Structuring an argument for a reader who is skimming.
• Concrete detail used as evidence rather than decoration.
• A close that leaves the reader with something to do or think.
• Covering every element of the prompt while still sounding like an article.
• Range and accuracy of language under time pressure, including deliberate stylistic choices.

1. Step 1: 1

   Underline the reader before you plan

   The prompt names a publication and an audience. Fellow students, an international magazine and a specialist newsletter want three different registers, and the tone mark is decided by how well you match the one you were given.

2. Step 2: 2

   Write the hook last, but plan it first

   Decide early what your first sentence will do: a surprising fact, a scene, a question worth asking. Then write the body, then come back and sharpen the opening, which is the sentence you will have most to say about once the argument exists.

3. Step 3: 3

   Give every paragraph one idea and a concrete example

   An article that argues in the abstract reads like a weak essay. Name the street, the price, the week it happened. Detail is what separates article voice from essay voice.

4. Step 4: 4

   Vary sentence length deliberately

   A long sentence that builds, then a short one that lands. This is a stylistic resource the mark scheme rewards under language range, and it is the easiest kind of range to control.

5. Step 5: 5

   Use questions sparingly and answer them

   One rhetorical question in an article is a technique; three is a tic. If you ask the reader something, the next paragraph must do something with the answer.

6. Step 6: 6

   Address the reader only if the publication would

   A student magazine can say you; a serious features piece often prefers we or an impersonal construction. Decide once and hold it, because switching halfway is more damaging than either choice.

7. Step 7: 7

   Cover the whole prompt

   Most articles ask for two or three things: describe, explain, recommend. An article with a wonderful voice that answers two thirds of the question cannot reach the top band for content.

8. Step 8: 8

   End on a turn, not a summary

   The strongest closes reframe the subject, issue a challenge or return to the opening image with new meaning. Repeating your three points is the ending that costs marks.

• Not thisNowadays, in our modern society, technology is everywhere.

  ThisThe queue for the college printer is longer than the queue for the careers office. That tells you something.

  Nowadays in our modern society is the most over-used opening in exam writing. A concrete, specific first line signals a real writer immediately.

• Not thisIn this article I am going to discuss three reasons why students should travel.

  ThisThree weeks of sleeping on trains taught me more than a term of lectures. Here is why.

  Announcing the structure is essay behaviour. An article earns attention rather than declaring an agenda.

• Not thisSwitching from 'you' in paragraph one to 'one' in paragraph three.

  ThisChoosing one mode of address and keeping it.

  Inconsistent address reads as loss of control of register, which is assessed directly under communicative achievement.

• Not thisWriting an article that is entirely opinion, with no example.

  ThisOne vivid example per claim.

  Without detail, the article has nothing a reader could not have written themselves, and the content mark drops even where the language is strong.

• Not thisTo sum up, these are the three reasons I mentioned above.

  ThisThe next time the timetable changes, ask who was consulted. The answer explains more than the timetable.

  A summary close wastes the most memorable position in the piece. Articles end with a turn.

• Not thisUsing a chatty register for a serious international magazine.

  ThisMatching the register to the named publication.

  The prompt is the brief. Writing well for the wrong reader is still writing for the wrong reader.

• Not thisInventing a headline in capitals and a byline.

  ThisA short title if the task suggests one, then straight into the text.

  Layout theatrics take words from the argument and earn nothing. The marks are in the prose.

a hook

the opening that makes a reader continue

strike a chord

resonate with the reader’s own experience

make no mistake

an emphatic aside insisting on a point

here is the thing

informal marker introducing the real point

for all the talk of

despite the amount said about

the upshot

the eventual result

more often than not

usually

when it comes down to it

at the decisive point

a case can be made for

there is a defensible argument for

give or take

approximately, with a small margin

to put it mildly

understating deliberately for effect

on the face of it

judging by appearances, before investigation

the irony is

introduces an outcome that contradicts expectation

all the same

nevertheless

few things are more

an emphatic comparative opening

worth every penny

clearly good value

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