B1 STORY

HOW TO WRITE A

STORY

FOR B1 PRELIMINARY (PET)

On B1 Preliminary Writing test part 2, you will be given two options to choose from: article or story. You need to write about 100 words and you´ll have 25 min. approx.

PARTS OF A STORY

1. Title: The title should summarise the whole story but WHITHOUT SPOILERS!2. Exposition: This is the beginning of the story, where the characters and setting are established. It serves as the introduction to the next part, the action, and the so-called conflict of our story. 3. Action: In this part, the characters deal with conflict and do things to solve it. 4. Resolution: This is where the conflict is resolved and the story concludes with an ending, normally without any loose ends.

Then Just thenAfter that a momet later Not long aftewards As soon as While Meanwhile ____ minutes later Later (th at morning/afternoon/day/night…)

Time Phrases:

In order to define the order of the events in the story, we must use time expressions or time phrases. So let’s see a few:

SuddenlyAll of a sudden Without warning Just at that moment Unexpectedly Out of the blue Out of nowhere Right away Straight away

A cool way to entertain is to create suspense, which we can do by using some of the following expressions:

creating suspense:

Direct speech

One of the reasons why stories are particularly challenging for B1 students is that they tend to take place in the past, which makes it necessary to use a range of past tenses appropriately. The main three past tenses you should really try to use are the following: Past simple (-ed/irregular form): This time I picked up the phone quickly and shouted, «Hello?!». Past continuous: It was midnight and I was trying to sleep. Past perfect: I had completely forgotten it was my birthday.

Remember that you will be given the first or last sentence of the story, DO NOT change it!!!

finishing your story

This paragraph, the resolution, should be separated from the rest, and it’s a good idea to start it with one of the following expressions: In the end Finally When it was all over EventuallyAfter everything that happened Luckily

super important

ADVERBS & ADJECTIVES

To provide strong descriptions and engage the reader

TOP 5 TIPS FOR WRITING A STORY

PRACTICE!!

LEARN

write

Write a well-structured and visually-appealing story. One of the things Cambridge English examiners pay attention to is the organisation of your piece writing, so make sure not to write an incoherent story. Also, remember that punctuation matters, so be sure to separate your sentences with stops and commas and don’t write sentences which are too long.

practice, practice. Experiment at home, be conservative in the exam.

memorise and use some of these expressions.

BRAINSTORM

before you write

REVISE

edit & improve

thanks!!

let´s practice!