Consejos para la parte de "writing" del examen del B2 (First)

Si estás aprendiendo inglés para presentarte al Cambridge First Exam (nivel B2), esto te interesa. Además debes saber que una de las partes en las que los correctores más tiquismiquis son es precisamente la de writing. Y no solo lo serán con tu uso del inglés; también te quitarán puntos si no estructuras correctamente lo que escribas en esta parte.

Aunque hay varios tipos de pruebas en la parte de writing, en este artículo nos centramos en la estructura del ejercicio de writing tipo «essay». ¿Cómo sabes si te piden que uses esta estructura? Bueno, seguro que te lo están pidiendo si te encuentras un enunciado como este:

You have recently been talking about the career options for young people who have just or are about to leave school, and your teacher has asked you to write an essay giving your opinions on the following statement:

 All Young People Should Work as a Waiter

 ¿Cómo tienes que estructurar tu essay?

 Así:

1. La apertura

Comienza en un sentido muy amplio con la idea de ir paulatinamente avanzando hacia la tesis central de la composición. Por lo tanto, la primera frase del párrafo debe ser muy general y la segunda, un poco más específica, hasta llegar al enunciado de la tesis central.

2. Concesión 1

El primer párrafo del cuerpo del escrito debe ser una primera concesión a la opinión contraria, reconociéndola pero minimizándola.

3. Concesión 2

El segundo párrafo puede ser una segunda concesión a la opinión contraria. De nuevo debes reducir la relevancia del argumen­to en contra o situarlo en su justa medida.

4. Defensa 1

El tercer párrafo constituye el primer argumento de defensa de la tesis y debe empezar con una palabra en contraposición a las concesiones anteriores, una palabra como however (en cambio), on the other hand (por otro lado), but (pero), etc. Después, debes explicar con claridad y buena argumentación una sola razón a favor de la tesis central, más una o dos frases más en apoyo del argumento.

5. Defensa 2

El cuarto párrafo debe introducir un segundo argumento diferente y de igual peso o más. Nunca debe tener menos peso que el argumento anterior. El inicio del párrafo debe incluir una palabra de enlace con el párrafo anterior (secondly, in addition, etc.).

6. Defensa 3

El quinto párrafo y, en este caso, el último en defensa de la tesis, debe contener el argumento de más peso, dejando muy claro, por el propio peso del argumento en sí, que los argumentos a favor tienen mucho más peso que los argumentos en contra.

7. La conclusión

El párrafo comienza por lo específico, replanteando la tesis central, seguido de frases más generales que avanzan paulatina­mente hacia conclusiones lo más amplias posible.

EJEMPLO

Ahora que  ya tienes clara la estructura de tu essay, ¡veamos un ejemplo! Fíjate bien en el uso de los conectores de párrafo however, secondly, finally y therefore.

For people, young and old, advanced societies like Europe and North America offer a broad spectrum of job possibilities. For young people especially, the spectrum is interesting and colourful, with possibilities ranging from serving hamburgers at a famous chain of restaurants to helping construction companies during the summer. For a teenager, almost any job is a positive experience, as it trains the person in the way of responsibility, teamwork, respect for authority and the positive feeling of independence, a feeling that one is finally making his or her own money. Of all the possible temporary jobs, however, the most productive for a young person is, without a doubt, the job of a waiter at a busy restaurant.

Some will object that a waiter’s job is not lucrative nor profitable from the viewpoint of upward mobility within the res­taurant organization. This is true. But an 18 year-old should not, at this point in his or her life, try to start a career in an organization. It would be a serious mistake.

Others might say that working as a waiter is a degrading and sometimes humiliating job. No doubt a waiter experiences moments in which certain clients, colleagues or supervisors might treat him or her with disrespect, but this is not usually frequent nor is it necessarily negative within the ledger of experience that the young waiter is seeking.

However, working as a waiter in a busy restaurant is the ideal atmosphere to teach a young person the importance of being alert and active. The constant expectations of each table and each client force the waiter to use the full range of his or her faculties and talents to keep everyone happy, including the head waiter. The fast pace of a busy restaurant teaches young men and women how to use their adrenaline and how to ration it, something that will be important and useful for the rest of their professional life.

 Secondly, the work flow at a successful restaurant is an interesting learning experience for a young person. Seating guests, serving the aperitif, taking orders, monitoring the order throughout the meal, dealing with the kitchen and, in general, keeping the clients happy require an important degree of process control. Restaurants are, in essence, meal fac­tories and good restaurants always teach important lessons in organization and work flow.

Finally, the fast pace found at a busy restaurant requires strict adherence to hierarchy and rank. It is far from a military atmosphere, but there are two or three hours every day in which orders are often given curtly and productivity is imperati­ve. An intelligent teenager who works for several months in this kind of atmosphere absorbs lessons in efficiency, organi­zation, and customer care that are invaluable in almost any future activity he or she may perform.

Therefore, it is clear that the general atmosphere a teenager will find working in a busy restaurant is an atmosphere highly conducive to acquiring good working habits and to gaining an understanding of the imperatives of the real world. An 18 year-old who does his or her best to add productivity to a high-powered, fast-paced restaurant learns many simple truths about the professional world very quickly. Productivity is the question and understanding how productivity is achieved is a valuable lesson, especially if learned at an early age. A busy restaurant is, undoubtedly, an ideal setting for a young person to learn the lessons of productivity. And any economist will tell you, even a Marxist economist, that productivity, either through improve­ments in labor or in capital, has always been the most important element in increasing the wealth of nations.

Si te ha gustado este artículo, te encantará prepararte para el Cambridge First Exam con el método Vaughan.

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