Your writing is a skill that you can only develop by… -guess!- writing. Writing is a rich and complex exercise in that it makes it possible, and necessary, to combine the knowledge about many different aspects of the language in one single activity. It also can give you some focus, and purpose for your learning. Being able to write well in a foreign language is a very good skill to have. Just being able to communicate, albeit some mistakes, is a great achievement, and one that can be reached even at beginners’ level.
Part of the secret, of course, is to keep up with learning the vocabulary you need for certain topics, plus the grammar that gets you to write things correctly. But also, sometimes, it is important to restrict yourself to what you know, and to what you can say. This is a clear case for any writing that will be submitted for marking. You can be very experimental if you want, but it is always a bit risky to do that for an exam. Therefore, it is good to train in writing by meeting certain criteria or specifications. In addition, there is no harm in timing that activity. This way you will develop a sense of how much time you need to invest on a particular piece. That is normally what you will be expected to do when your work is assessed. If the work counts towards your final mark, this is particularly relevant.
So I thought I would compile a list of specific things that may help you in your next writing practice. I have compiled this list mostly as a result of reading through writing produced at beginners’ level. Therefore, your writing at beginners’ level may benefit from keeping at least some of these points in mind:
1. Relevance is important. Stick to what you are asked to do. It may seem common sense for some, but I have seen how easy it is to forget to write within the topic or topics given. If you are asked to write about your daily routine there is no need to write about likes or dislikes. This counts as missing the point, which is not going to help.
2. Style-wise, try to avoid repetition. Repeating words may help you to reach the word limit you are asked to aim for, but it may make your writing appear limited. The range of words you know, the variety of vocabulary you display (including verbs, nouns, adjectives and connectors where relevant) are part of what counts towards your mark. 
3. Accuracy is important too. Learn your verb conjugation well. It is possible, and very useful. Especially when you need to demonstrate that you can talk about your likes and dislikes as opposed to your grandparents’. You need a good command of all those endings. Do not forget the especial ‘mechanics’ involved in making a particular type of verb, or a particular tense, work.
4. Learn the basics. After a few weeks learning Spanish you need to hold on tight to some useful knowledge that will show that you have done your homework (in both a literal and a figurative way!). I am talking about things such as the following:
a) When you write numbers, you have to remember that they turn into a 3-bits-word between 31 and 99, whenever you need to add anything from 1 to 9 to 30, or 40, 50, etc… That is, you write “veintinueve’, but “treinta y uno”, “ochenta y seis”… Once you reach the hundreds another important thing to remember is that there is no connector equivalent to ‘and’ between hundred and whatever else follows. Example: ciento uno, ciento cincuenta y tres, trescientos ochenta.
b) To state what profession someone has doesn’t need an article, unlike in English. ‘I am a nurse’ becomes “soy enfermera”.
c) The linking word “y” in Spanish should be changed into “e”, whenever the next word starts with an /i/ sound. To avoid having two /i/ sounds together. That includes cases where something may be written with an ‘h’ followed by an /i/ sound, as the ‘h’ is silent. So you should be prepared to say or write things such as: “habla español e italiano”, “estudio geografía e historia”, etc.
d) The adjectives of nationality, the days of the week and months of the year are not written in capital letters unless they start a sentence.
e) Do not confuse the way you give the time: “son las ocho”, “es la una y cuarto” with the way you say at what time something happens: “a las ocho”, “a la una y cuarto”.
d) “Dormir” and “acostarse” are not the same verb, and they are used to say something different, and therefore they are used differently, although they belong to the same semantic field. You can say “duermo 8 horas todos los días”, or “me acuesto a las 8 todos los días”. You cannot say: “duermo a las ocho todos los días”.
e) When you write anything that involves the number one at the end of the number you are saying or writing, you need to remember that there are two possible translations of one into Spaish: “un” & “uno”. So you can have “veintiún años”, or “veintiuno”, “ciento un dálmatas”, or “ciento uno”, etc. The reason being that the short version acts as an adjective, and the longer one as a pronoun.
f) Some verbs need another verb to follow. This may happen with and without connectors. Some verbs will need them such as EMPEZAR A + infinitve, TERMINAR DE + infinitive, VOLVER A + infinitive, IR A + infinitive, TENER QUE + infinitive, but others don’t, for example: PREFERIR+ infinitive, QUERER + infinitive, PODER + infinitive.
g) The personal pronouns in Spanish are rarely used compared to English. They are left for very specific purposes, such as expressing emphasis, clarification or both.
h) Useful connectors to write a sequence of events are: “luego”, “después”, “más tarde”, meaning ‘then’ and ‘later’.
i) ANTES DE (before) and DESPUÉS DE (after) are followed by an infinitive. “Desayuno antes de ir a trabajar”, “me limpio los dientes después de ducharme“ (ATTENTION to the reflexive verb used in the infinitive form. This will still require ‘activating’ the reflexive pronoun to express who is receiving the action -1st person singular!).
j) If you want to link items in a negative sentence you need to use ni… ni… For example: No me gustan ni los plátanos ni las manzanas. No tengo ni hermanos ni hermanas.
Next time you look at your writing, big or small, check out the points above, in case. As you go along and discover new interesting and important things to remember just add it to the list. You can do that by commenting on this article too. Happy writing!
No comments yet.