Task 1, an annotated model answer

A task 1 message can answer the consigne (the instructions), stay within 60 to 120 words and still show very little. The text isn’t wrong, it is flat. This page shows the same message twice. The first version is plain and complete. The second keeps the same ideas and aims at B2, the level FEI’s table gives for writing marks of 10 to 13 out of 20.

The topic and both texts are ours. For the step-by-step method, see the task 1 guide.

The topic

Consigne. Vous habitez à Sherbrooke. Vous organisez un pique-nique pour les habitants de votre rue. Écrivez un message à vos voisins pour les inviter, leur donner les informations pratiques et leur demander d’apporter quelque chose. (60 mots minimum, 120 mots maximum)

In English, you live in Sherbrooke and are organising a picnic for the people on your street. Write to your neighbours to invite them, give the practical details and ask them to bring something.

The consigne has three verbs, so three points to cover. Invite, inform and ask. The readers are several neighbours you don’t all know, so vous is the right choice.

Version 1, plain and complete

Bonjour à tous,

Je m’appelle Lina, j’habite au 12 rue King. Je fais un pique-nique samedi dans le parc. C’est à midi. Vous pouvez venir avec votre famille. C’est gratuit. Il y a des jeux pour les enfants. Je vais apporter des sandwichs et des boissons. Vous pouvez apporter un dessert ou une salade. Si il pleut, on fait le pique-nique une autre fois. Merci de me répondre.

Lina

69 words, greeting and signature included.

This text covers the three points and stays in range. It is easy to understand. But it shows very little. The sentences are short and almost all built the same way (“C’est…”, “Vous pouvez…”). The place and date are vague, and “Si il pleut” is an elision mistake, left in on purpose.

Version 2, the same ideas at the target level

Chers voisins,

Je m’appelle Lina et j’habite au 12, rue King depuis le printemps. Pour que nous fassions enfin connaissance, j’organise un pique-nique le samedi 12 juin, de 11 h 30 à 15 h, au parc Jacques-Cartier, près des balançoires. Venez en famille, c’est gratuit et les enfants pourront participer à une chasse au trésor. De mon côté, j’apporterai des sandwichs et de la limonade. Pourriez-vous préparer un plat à partager, par exemple une salade ou un dessert ? S’il pleut, la fête sera reportée au dimanche. Pour vous inscrire, glissez un mot dans ma boîte aux lettres avant le 10 juin.

Au plaisir de vous rencontrer,

Lina

107 words, greeting and signature included.

What changes, line by line

FEI groups its criteria into three families. Linguistic (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, sentence building), pragmatic (coherence, cohesion and how the topic is developed) and sociolinguistic (fit to the situation). The table ties each change to one family. That link is our reading, since FEI publishes no annotated scripts.

Version 1	Version 2	Criteria family
samedi dans le parc, à midi	le samedi 12 juin, de 11 h 30 à 15 h, au parc Jacques-Cartier	Pragmatic, the requested information is complete
Je fais un pique-nique	Pour que nous fassions enfin connaissance, j’organise…	Linguistic, a clause in the subjunctive gives the reason
C’est à midi. Vous pouvez venir. C’est gratuit.	Venez en famille, c’est gratuit et les enfants pourront…	Pragmatic, ideas are linked instead of stacked
Vous pouvez apporter un dessert	Pourriez-vous préparer un plat à partager ?	Sociolinguistic, a polite request to neighbours you barely know
Si il pleut, on fait le pique-nique une autre fois	S’il pleut, la fête sera reportée au dimanche	Linguistic, elision, the future tense and a precise fallback
Merci de me répondre	glissez un mot dans ma boîte aux lettres avant le 10 juin	Pragmatic, the reader knows how and when to reply
Bonjour à tous / Lina	Chers voisins / Au plaisir de vous rencontrer	Sociolinguistic, the opening and closing fit the purpose

Version 2 adds no new idea. It makes vague things precise, links the sentences and varies the structures. That is work you can redo on every message of your own.

Why version 2 aims at NCLC 7

IRCC’s table puts NCLC 7 in writing at 10 or 11 out of 20. FEI’s table labels marks of 10 to 13 as B2. We don’t put a mark on either text, and nobody can do that seriously for a single task. Your mark out of 20 comes from all three tasks, each read by two markers.

What we can say is what version 2 shows. It gives complete information, explains a purpose, makes a polite request and offers a plan if something goes wrong. It also uses the subjunctive, the future, the polite conditional and the imperative without mistakes. Version 1 shows almost none of that.

Before you hand in task 1

1. Each verb in the consigne has at least one sentence.
2. Practical details are precise, such as the day, time, place or price.
3. Tu or vous stays the same from start to end.
4. The text has 80 to 110 words, to keep a margin under 120.
5. At least two structures go beyond the simple present, such as a future, a conditional or “pour que”.

Try it on a topic

Write a message in 10 minutes with the task 1 timer, then have it corrected. The corrector marks every error and estimates your NCLC. The typical slips in this task are on the task 1 mistakes page.