PD3 writing practice: email, structure and sentence checks

Good PD3 writing makes your answer easy to follow. Cover the instructions, explain your points and leave time to check the sentence patterns you repeatedly find difficult.

Plan before you draft

The official writing session lasts 2½ hours. A useful practice allocation is 10 minutes to read and plan both tasks, 30 minutes for the email, 90 minutes for the longer answer and 20 minutes for checking. Treat this as a starting plan, not a scoring rule. Record actual minutes and adjust the next session.

Answer the email you received

Turn each question in the prompt into a small checkbox on your planning sheet. Write a direct answer beside it before adding details. If the sender asks how your new kitchen turned out, describe the finished kitchen; advice about how the sender could decorate does not answer that question.

Keep the tone natural for the relationship. Use a short opening, a paragraph for each group of questions and the requested closing action. A simple, accurate response is more useful than a memorised opening that does not fit.

Develop a longer answer

In a diagram task, identify the overall pattern before selecting a few useful comparisons. Distinguish what the diagram shows from your explanation of why it may happen. In a discussion task, state your point, explain the mechanism and give a relevant example. Connect the example back to the question.

“It saves money” is a start. Explaining whose costs fall, how they fall and what trade-off remains gives the reader something to evaluate. Do not invent percentages and present them as facts.

Choose connectors by meaning

Do not add a connector just to make a sentence sound advanced. Decide what relationship you actually mean.

Three checks from real learner difficulties

• Subject before verb in a subordinate clause: “Jeg mener, at det skal være nemt.” With “ikke”: “Jeg mener, at det ikke skal være dyrt.”
• Verb before subject after an opening adverb: “Derfor tager jeg toget.” Compare “Jeg tager derfor toget.”
• Infinitive after a modal: “Hun kan bruge pengene”, not “Hun kan brug pengene”.

Underline the finite verb and circle the subject in a few sentences you are unsure about. Finish by checking that each paragraph answers the task. Writing on PD3.online can be saved and exported for a teacher; it does not receive an automatic examiner grade.