Why it’s so hard to start writing in the DELE
If you’re preparing for the DELE writing test, this has surely happened to you at some point: you read the task, you understand the topic, several ideas come to mind and, even so, you don’t know where to start.
Then one of two things usually happens. Either you spend too long thinking, or you start writing without having organized anything. And that’s when the problems arrive: you repeat ideas, you drift away from the task, you throw in examples that don’t fit, or you end up with a weak, rushed conclusion.
Very often it’s not that you don’t know how to write. It’s that you haven’t put in order what you want to say.
Organizing your ideas before writing really does save you time
Some students think that stopping before they start writing means losing precious exam minutes. But in reality, exactly the opposite happens.
When you organize your ideas before writing, you write more clearly, hesitate less and find it easier to move forward. You’re no longer making every decision on the fly. You already know what you want to say, in what order and with what intention.
That makes the text come out more coherent and also more balanced. You don’t spend too long on one part only to run out of time at the end.
In other words, organizing your ideas doesn’t delay the writing. It makes it easier.
The most common mistake in the DELE writing test
One of the most frequent mistakes is believing that making a draft means writing the whole text twice.
That’s not what it’s about.
What’s useful in the DELE is a brief plan. Something quick. A small outline that serves as a guide. It doesn’t have to be pretty or perfect. It has to help you.
Sometimes it’s enough to jot down the main idea, two or three secondary ideas and the order in which you’re going to develop them. That alone already reduces the block enormously.
What you need to be clear about before you start writing
Before writing the first sentence, it’s worth being clear about three things.
What exactly the task is asking of you
This seems obvious, but it’s not always done well. Sometimes the student thinks they only have to talk about the topic, when the task is actually asking them to give an opinion, make a recommendation, compare, recount an experience or address a specific recipient.
If you don’t properly understand the intention of the task, it’s very hard for the text to work.
What type of text you’re going to write
Writing a letter or an email is not the same as writing an article, a blog post or an opinion piece. The tone changes, the structure changes, and so does the way you organize the information.
Knowing what type of text you’re facing helps you make better decisions from the start.
What your main idea is going to be
Before writing, you need to know what you want to argue or convey. Even if the text includes several arguments or examples, there has to be one central line holding it all together.
If that main idea isn’t clear, the text scatters.
How to organize your ideas before writing in the DELE
The most useful way to do it is very simple.
First, decide what the main idea of your text is. Then think of two or three secondary ideas that help you develop it. And finally, place those ideas in a logical order.
That order usually follows a very basic structure:
Introduction
Here you present the topic and orient the reader. There’s no need to go on for long. The important thing is to open the text well and make the direction clear.
Development
Here you explain, argue, compare, narrate or justify, depending on what the task asks for. It’s the central part, which is why it helps to know in advance what you’re going to say in each paragraph.
Closing
This is not about finishing any old way. It’s about closing the text meaningfully. With a conclusion, an assessment, a recommendation or a final idea that connects with what came before.
Once you know what content goes in each part, writing becomes much easier.
What you can jot down in a quick outline
Your outline doesn’t have to be full of complete sentences. In fact, it’s better if it isn’t.
The most practical thing is to note down key words, short ideas and an example that might be useful. You can also note a couple of connectors to help you link the parts of the text together better.
For example, you can jot down:
idea principal
argumento 1
argumento 2
ejemplo
conclusión
That already gives you a clear base to start from.
The important thing is not to make a perfect outline. The important thing is that, when you look at it, you know where the text is going.
How to know if your ideas are well organized
There’s a very useful question you can ask yourself before you start writing: if someone read only my outline, would they understand what I want to say and in what order I’m going to say it?
If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track.
If the answer is no, you probably need to make some idea more concrete or change the order.
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you lack ideas. It’s that they’re out of order. And that shows a lot in the final text.
A practical example
Imagine a task where you have to write about whether it’s better to live in a big city or in a village.
If you start writing straight away, it’s easy to mix advantages, disadvantages and opinions without a clear direction. Instead, if you stop for a minute to organize, you could think of something like this:
Your main idea could be that living in a big city offers more opportunities, although it also has drawbacks.
From there, you can develop two blocks: on the one hand, work, transport and services; on the other, noise, stress and pace of life. And at the end, you can close by saying that it all depends on each person’s needs.
Notice that you haven’t written the text yet, but you already have a structure. And that structure prevents a lot of problems.
What to do if you go blank
Very often the block appears because you want to start writing perfectly from the very first sentence.
And you don’t need to.
First you need order. The writing will come afterwards.
If you go blank, go back to basics: topic, intention, main idea, two supporting ideas and a closing. When you do that, the task becomes much more manageable.
It’s also worth remembering something important: in the DELE, a simple idea developed well usually works better than a very ambitious idea explained poorly.
Mistakes worth avoiding
One of them is trying to squeeze in too many ideas. That usually makes the text spiral out of control and lack real development.
Another mistake is making an outline that’s too general. If you only write introduction, development and conclusion, but you don’t know what you’re going to say in each part, the outline isn’t really helping you.
It’s also best to avoid changing your opinion halfway through the text without explaining it properly, or repeating the same idea several times in different words.
Organizing your ideas before writing also helps you catch that in time.
How much time to spend on this prior organization
You don’t need to spend very long, but you shouldn’t skip this step either.
Even three or four well-used minutes can help you write better than launching into the text in a hurry and without direction.
Besides, the more you practise this phase at home, the more natural it will feel in the exam. There comes a point when organizing your ideas stops feeling like extra effort and becomes a normal part of how you write.
Organizing your ideas also improves your expression
This is very interesting, because people often think the problem lies only in grammar or vocabulary. But that’s not always the case.
When you know exactly what you want to say, it’s easier to choose words, use connectors meaningfully and build clearer sentences. On the other hand, when you write without having thought about the structure first, it’s much easier to repeat words, drift off topic or produce confusing sentences.
That’s why improving your writing doesn’t depend only on studying more language. It also depends on learning to plan better.
If you want to write better in the DELE, don’t start with the first sentence. Start with the order.
Organizing your ideas before writing helps you respond better to the task, make better use of your time and write clearer, more coherent and more complete texts. You don’t need a long draft or a complicated outline. You just need to be clear about what you want to say, in what order you’re going to say it and how you’re going to close the text.
That small step before writing can make an enormous difference to the final result.
If you’re preparing for the DELE writing test and want to work on this with commented examples, task-by-task strategies and models to practise with, you can do so in my courses: https://www.aporeldele.com/cursos
And if you still don’t know which level is right for you or where to start, you can also take the level test first to get your bearings: https://www.aporeldele.com/test
