Can you see this? A blank page!? A blank
page! I am so scared of blank pages, so white, empty and intimidating. How can we
turn this terrible blank page into a beautiful essay? With magic...? By planning of course! My
name is Toby, this is SMASH English, and here is everything you need to know
about planning your B2 First essay! Oh and of course before you plan your essay you
must know what the structure is of the essay you are planning for so please watch my video all
about essay structure for your B2 First essay! If you don't understand the structure
then this video won't make a lot of sense and that's a terrible thing... So why is
planning so important? Because every essay must include certain things and if you don't
include these things you will lose marks! An essay must inform the target reader and be relevant for
marks in CONTENT. It must hold the target reader's attention for marks in COMMUNICATIVE ACHIEVEMENT.
It must be well organized for marks in ORGANISATION and it must include complex and
less common vocabulary specific to the topic and complex grammatical structures for marks
in LANGUAGE. If you don't know what content, communicative achievement,
organization, and language are then please watch my video all about the Cambridge
assessment scale for your writing exam! Because if you don't know what the examiners want
then how can you give it to them? You can't and that's also a terrible thing. Because an
essay must include so many different things you must plan because if you don't plan you
could forget some of these things and if you forget some of these things you will score lower
marks and if you scored lower marks you would cry and if you cried I would cry and that's a lot
of tears... and a lot of conditionals... hey... Conditionals? Watch! All of them! Yes! Let's talk
about the first thing you must do when you start your essay... you walk into the exam room, you
open the paper, you see the question and then... What? Well every essay starts with an
introduction. Wow! An introduction! The introduction should present the topic and rephrase
the question. So the first thing we need to do is identify what the topic is. If we don't know
what the topic is we cannot begin our introduction and that's another terrible thing! Remember the
topic is not the same as the question. The topic is more general than the question. Let us look at
some examples. Here the topic is having siblings. The question is whether it is better to have
siblings or not but that is not the topic. The topic is more general than the question. In
this case: siblings in general. Here the topic is online friendship. Here the topic is school
or education. Here the topic is speaking english. Again notice that the topic is more general than
the question so once you have identified the topic write it down. Now we need to identify
the question. Let's look at some examples. Here the question is "is having a brother
or sister better than not having one?". "Is it possible to make real friends online?".
"Is school still necessary now that we have online learning?". "Is it possible to
survive in today's world without knowing english?". Now that we have identified the topic
and the question we need to search our brains for some specific vocabulary related to the
topic, so think of some and write them down. No more than three words or three expressions or
so, don't go crazy! Spend 30 seconds doing this. For example if our topic is DIET we could write
words and expressions like rich in vitamins, low in calories, healthy, sedentary lifestyle,
cut down on something, put on weight, lose weight. You get the idea! Now this next step is very
important! We must decide what our third prompt will be! Remember you are given two prompts
that you must include and there is another one: "your own idea"! So think about what your own
idea is. Once you have your third prompt we need to think about how to order our paragraphs.
Remember I want you to include one paragraph for each prompt. That gives us introduction,
prompt, prompt, prompt, and a conclusion. But, I want paragraphs two and three to agree with
each other and paragraph four to disagree with paragraphs two and three. This allows us to
connect paragraphs two and three together using a "not only...but also..." inversion and it allows
us to use a concessive clause at the beginning of paragraph four to create a contrast. Again watch
my video about essay structure because that is the structure we are planning for in this video and
it is the structure that will give you high marks and high marks are fantastic! I love high marks!
I really do! So for example our question is this. Let's think of the prompts like sub topics
related to the question. So work and travel are related to speaking english, let's add
international friendships. OK, of course I have no friends but for this I will pretend
that I have one friend and they are international and I will use that experience to answer
the question. So now we have our prompts: travel, work and international friendships.
Now we have to decide which prompts agree and which prompts disagree. I think speaking
English is very important for travel because everyone all over the world can speak
English thanks to SMASH English! So say thank you to SMASH English and press subscribe! Thanks!
For the same reason I think speaking English is very useful for international friendships because
everyone can speak English, everyone can connect using the language of English. However I
do not think speaking English is necessary for work. There are many jobs that do not require
speaking English such as being a zookeeper, a deodorant tester, or a pet food taster. This
means that our two prompts that agree are travel and international friendships so travel will
be our paragraph two, international friendships will be our paragraph three, and work will be
our paragraph four. We're done! So let's have a look at another example. First let's think of
another prompt. We need another topic related to school. Let's say social life. Now we have three
prompts: convenience, resources, and social life. I think online learning is more convenient
because you can learn anywhere. I also think the internet has more resources than a physical
classroom. However I do not think online learning can replace the social life of a school.
So paragraph two will be about convenience, paragraph three will be about resources, and
my fourth paragraph will be about social life. Paragraphs two and three agree and paragraph
four disagrees allowing us to use the essay structure I have given you in my video all about
essay structure so please watch it... yeah. Next i want you to spend a couple of minutes thinking
about specific vocabulary related to each prompt that way you can include it in your essay and get
higher marks for language. So we have the prompts travel, work, and international friendships. So
it could be: to set off on a holiday! We could use vocabulary like: to check in, to check out
of a hotel. We could use vocabulary like jobs, employment, unemployment, qualifications, get to
know people, form connections, true friendship. All of these would be fine for an essay like this.
For our essay about online learning and school we have the prompts resources, convenience and
social life. For resources we could use: wealth of material, limitless potential. For convenience
we could say: in the comfort of your own home, any place anytime. For social life we could have:
face-to-face interaction and atmosphere. All of these would be fine. And lastly the conclusion,
and the great thing about the conclusion is that it writes itself! All the conclusion does is
reference what you've said before in a logical way and then connects it to your opinion and this
is built into the structure so you don't need to worry about how to write the conclusion! All you
need to worry about is what your opinion is! Now, the examiner does not care if you are being honest
or not so just invent an opinion as long as it is related to the question and to the prompts that
you have discussed before! Understand what your opinion is, follow the structure I gave you in my
video all about essay structure and your opinion literally writes itself! How great is that!
That is great! So useful! Thank you, Toby! Remember the structure is carefully designed to
tick all the boxes of the Cambridge assessment scale for your writing exam so if you follow it,
if you plan, follow the structure, write the essay with all of this stuff in your mind then you will
get high marks! I promise! I promise! And that is how you plan your essay for the B2 First
Cambridge exam! Identify the topic, brainstorm vocabulary related to the topic, identify what
the question is, think of your third prompt, organize your prompt so that two agree and one
disagrees this gives you your paragraph order, then brainstorm vocabulary related to each prompt
and finally identify what your opinion is for your fantastic, wonderful, magical conclusion!
And then you're finished and you can write it yeah... If you liked the video don't forget
to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment down below!
My name is Toby and this was SMASH English...
