telc B1 Schriftlicher Ausdruck: format and assessment

How does Schriftlicher Ausdruck work?

You respond to an everyday situation with a letter or email, usually semi-formal, and must cover the given guiding points. Examiners grade three criteria: Aufgabenbewältigung (task completion), kommunikative Gestaltung (structure and register) and formale Richtigkeit (grammar and spelling) — each rated A to D.

What exactly is the task?

You get an everyday situation, for example an ad, an invitation or a reason to complain, and respond with a letter or email, in most tasks semi-formal. Guiding points define what your text has to cover, usually four of them. You have 30 minutes.

Semi-formal means writing to people or institutions you barely know or do not know at all: with "Sie", a salutation like "Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren" and a closing like "Mit freundlichen Grüßen". There is no fixed minimum length; a well-structured 80 to 120 words is enough. Occasionally the task is a personal letter to a friend instead; then "du" and "Liebe Grüße" are the right choice. What the raters check is that the register matches the recipient and stays consistent.

How are the 45 points calculated?

Two trained raters judge your letter independently against three criteria: Aufgabenbewältigung (are all guiding points handled meaningfully?), kommunikative Gestaltung (structure, cohesion, fitting register) and formale Richtigkeit (grammar, word order, spelling). Each criterion receives a grade from A to D.

Point values sit behind the grades: A gives 5 points, B 3, C 1 and D 0. The sum across the three criteria, at most 15 points, is multiplied by three. That yields the 45 points of this exam part, 15 percent of the total score.

One rule you must know: if Aufgabenbewältigung is graded D, for instance because the text misses the topic or barely touches the guiding points, the entire part counts zero points, no matter how error-free the German is. Content first, elegance second.

A model letter, annotated

Suppose the task reads: you saw an online ad by the language school Lingua Aktiv for evening courses and want more information. The guiding points: state why you are writing, ask about course times, ask about the price and possible discounts, request written information. The answer could look like this:

Betreff: Anfrage zu Ihren Abendkursen Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, ich habe Ihre Anzeige im Internet gelesen und interessiere mich für einen Deutschkurs am Abend, weil ich tagsüber arbeite. Könnten Sie mir bitte mitteilen, an welchen Tagen und zu welchen Uhrzeiten die Kurse stattfinden? Außerdem möchte ich gern wissen, was ein Kurs kostet und ob es eine Ermäßigung für Studierende gibt. Ich würde mich freuen, wenn Sie mir Ihr Kursprogramm per E-Mail schicken könnten. Vielen Dank im Voraus. Mit freundlichen Grüßen Olena Kovalenko

Aufgabenbewältigung: all four guiding points are covered, each in one or two sentences and in a logical order. Nothing is copied from the task; the guiding points are turned into own sentences. That is the safest route to an A on this criterion.

Kommunikative Gestaltung: salutation, an opening that references the ad, polite questions with "Könnten Sie" and "ich möchte gern wissen", thanks and a closing formula. Paragraphs separate the concerns, connectors like "weil" and "außerdem" link the sentences. The register stays semi-formal throughout.

Formale Richtigkeit: short main clauses, controlled subclauses, no risky constructions. That is the strategy for 30 minutes: simple and correct beats ambitious and flawed. A single mistake does not cost the A here; the overall impression decides.

A timing plan for 30 minutes

Five minutes of planning: read the task closely, number the guiding points, jot one keyword for each. Twenty minutes of writing, in the order of your notes, with a memorized skeleton for salutation, opening and closing. Five minutes of proofreading: verb position, endings, capitalization.

Tick off every completed guiding point visibly as you write. The single most expensive mistake in this part is a forgotten guiding point, and it almost always happens under time pressure in the final minutes, not out of ignorance.

Typical mistakes in Schriftlicher Ausdruck

Besides forgotten guiding points, the wrong register costs most: "Hallo" and "Liebe Grüße" to an institution, or "du" instead of "Sie". Also common: guiding points copied verbatim from the task instead of reworked into own sentences. That drags down Aufgabenbewältigung and kommunikative Gestaltung alike.

On the language side: length is no substitute for quality. A 200-word text full of mistakes scores worse than 100 clean words with clear structure. And skipping the proofread throws away the cheapest points of the whole exam, because ending mistakes in your own text take two minutes to find.