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Tips for Writing a Better German Composition
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| | An essay by Sammy R. Merrill
Mary Washington College
smerrill@s850.mwc.edu
The AP German Composition -- An Opportunity to Shine
Of all the sections of the AP German Language Exam, the written portion gives students the most time (40 minutes) and the greatest latitude (a rather open-ended writing assignment) with which to demonstrate their skills in German.
Understand What the Question Is Asking
To begin with, students have to comprehend the German in the topic description and then organize their composition by addressing certain required elements. Every year there are cases where students write entirely off-task compositions because they fail to understand the German used in the assigned topic. In 1990, for example, a number of students, conscious of new freedom in what had been the GDR, composed pieces on "Freiheit" and its importance to human dignity, whereas the assigned task called for an essay on the significance of "Freizeit" in modern society. This was more serious than a simple misreading of an "h" for a "z," for the assigned topic contained other references (Freizeitbeschäftigung, Verhältnis von Arbeit und Freizeit) that should have been comprehensible to students capable of even basic levels of German.
Follow the Suggested Organization
After reading the topic carefully and making sure they understand the assignment, students should set out to treat all the required points, e.g., "Behandeln Sie drei (vier) der folgenden Punkte." The AP German Development Committee makes every effort to word the topics and directions so that students can organize their compositions logically. The 1994 exam, for example, had students imagine that they were house pets and that they were writing about their lives from that perspective -- Schreiben Sie über drei der folgenden Punkte: (1) die Menschen, (2) das Alltagsleben, (3) andere Tiere, (4) Zukunftspläne, (5) Wünsche. The most successful papers followed the suggested logical organization, some treating each subtopic in a separate paragraph.
Show What You Have Learned
All AP Exam Readers are themselves teachers. They are kindly disposed toward students and impressed by those who seriously attempt to address all elements of the assignment. Readers try hard to understand students' compositions, and give them the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. The composition affords students the best opportunity to emphasize their strong points, to give full rein to their creative impulses, even to show off some. Readers are impressed by appropriate, rich, varied, and idiomatically correct vocabulary. They like to see correct use of advanced grammatical forms, such as relative pronouns, the subjunctive, modal auxiliaries, and the passive, as well as consistent tense usage with clear distinctions in levels of time in the past. Syntax is also important. Students should construct sentences with normal, inverted, and subordinate word order, thereby demonstrating facility with the various kinds of sentence structure and revealing a developing awareness of style.
Be Serious and Write What You Know -- Do Not Shortchange Yourself
A number of less tangible elements also affect a Reader's impression of student writing. These include adequate length, so that the Reader does not have to count words; the seriousness with which students take the assignment; flair; and a sense of humor.
Well-prepared students can approach the AP composition with the confidence that they have the flexibility to demonstrate the full range of their knowledge of German; it gives them the opportunity to shine.
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