Composition – Technique

Tipps für den „nor­ma­len“ Auf­satz (also nicht Inter­view, Rede etc.) im (baye­ri­schen) Abitur. Falls du dei­nen Schü­lern die fol­gen­den Tipps als Hand­out geben und / oder den Text ver­än­dern möch­test, kannst du dir die Datei (doc) her­un­ter­la­den.

Choo­sing a topic: Have a look at all the topics and ask yours­elf the fol­lo­wing ques­ti­ons: How much do I know about this sub­ject? Can I give con­cre­te and con­vin­cing argu­ments / facts / details or can I only waff­le (schwa­feln)? Can I express my ide­as appropriately?

Brain­stor­ming: Once you have cho­sen a topic you should make a brain­stor­ming befo­re you actual­ly start wri­ting. Note all the pos­si­ble argu­ments / facts / examp­les that come to your mind on note-paper. Lea­ve enough space so that you can make addi­ti­ons later on. You may also note ide­as for the title, the intro­duc­tion and the conclusion.

Title: You can crea­te inte­res­t­ing titles with the help of alli­te­ra­ti­ons, puns and varia­ti­ons of / allu­si­ons to well-known pro­verbs / sayings and titles of famous books, songs or films. Make sure that your title fits your com­po­si­ti­on. At the end of your com­po­si­ti­on the mea­ning of a deli­bera­te­ly stran­ge / con­fu­sing title must be clear. Here are examp­les of good titles.

Struc­tu­re: Your com­po­si­ti­on must con­sist of three, cle­ar­ly distin­gu­is­ha­ble (unter­scheid­bar) parts: intro­duc­tion, main part (“body”) and final para­graph (“con­clu­si­on”).

Intro­duc­tion: Typi­cal ele­ments of good intro­ductions are refe­ren­ces to cur­rent events, quo­tes of famous peo­p­le, (alar­ming) sta­tis­tics and per­so­nal expe­ri­en­ces. The rea­der does not know the topic, that is why at the end of the intro­duc­tion a “the­sis state­ment” often pres­ents the topic.

Main part: The main part of a stan­dard com­po­si­ti­on con­sists of three sepa­ra­te para­graphs. Arran­ge your argu­ments in cli­ma­c­tic order, i.e. start with the wea­k­est one and end with the best and most con­vin­cing one. Use sui­ta­ble con­nec­tors / phra­ses to crea­te a coher­ent text.

Pros and Cons: If you weigh the pros and cons of an issue the main part con­sists of two para­graphs: one for the pros (“On the one hand …”), the other for the cons (“On the other hand …”). Each para­graph pres­ents only two argu­ments with examp­les. Again arran­ge your mate­ri­al so that the bet­ter argu­ments come last.

Para­graphs: The first sen­tence, the so-cal­led topic sen­tence, pres­ents a state­ment, cla­im (Be­haup­tung) or idea. The fol­lo­wing “sup­port­ing” sen­ten­ces must refer to and illus­tra­te the topic sen­tence with the help of con­cre­te examp­les. Each para­graph should con­sist of at least three sen­tences. Do not lea­ve blank lines bet­ween para­graphs. Do not sum­ma­ri­ze at the end of the paragraph.

Ind­ents: In hand­writ­ten com­po­si­ti­ons indent the first line of each para­graph (except the first one) by cir­ca 1.5 cm in order to visua­li­ze the begin­ning of a new paragraph.

Con­clu­si­on: Your final para­graph should not just repeat what you have alre­a­dy said / writ­ten. Do not pre­sent new / addi­tio­nal argu­ments and / or examp­les in your conclusion.

Num­ber of words: Do NOT count all your words in order to find out how many words you have alre­a­dy writ­ten. Choo­se a typi­cal line, count the words in this line and mul­ti­ply with the num­ber of lines you have alre­a­dy written.

Dic­tion­a­ry: Espe­ci­al­ly a mono­lin­gu­al dic­tion­a­ry offers valuable help for your com­po­si­ti­on. Check all words / collo­ca­tions / ex­pressions when you are not sure how to use them. Pay atten­ti­on to mean­ing, gram­ma­ti­cal usa­ge and labels such as for­mal, poe­tic, slang, spo­ken etc. When you still have time, pro­ofread (Kor­rek­tur lesen) careful­ly and revi­se your text with the help of your dictionary/ies.