This week’s blog continues with the mnemonic CROISSANT, a simple tool to remember what to include in your answers to the longer writing questions:

C: Connectives

R: Reasons

O: Opinions

I: Intensifiers

S S: Sophisticated structures/subordinate clauses

A: Adverbs

N: Negative phrases

T: Tenses

This post is going to concentrate on reasons, which are relevant for the 80-90 and 130-150 question (Edexcel and IGCSE) and the 90 and 150-word questions for the AQA specification. It is essential to include opinions in your speaking and writing, but you should also justify your opinions. Adding a reason to your opinion also meets the criteria of developing your answers too.

On a basic level, we can use the formula opinion verb – noun – because it’s – adjective. For example, ‘J’aime le fromage car c’est délicieux’. This can be a very good way of tackling the 40-word question or a bullet point in the 90-word question if you are not sure what a noun means. ‘I like x because it’s great’ can be a great repair strategy so that you don’t drop marks for not covering a bullet point.

There are also more interesting reasons that you can give for liking or disliking something which include more complex structures. Instead of an adjective, use a reason with a verb: parce que…     ça m’énerve (it annoys me), ça me fait rire (it makes me laugh), ça me plaît (it pleases me). Another phrase I don’t often see when marking GCSE writing or speaking is ‘Il me semble que c’est…’ (it seems to me that it’s…).

Conjunctions can be used to make your justifications more interesting and using a variety of these is also suggested on the list of complex language and structures in the markscheme. Instead of ‘parce que’ and ‘car’ try using ‘puisque (since), ainsi (therefore), ‘par conséquent’ (as a result) or ‘d’ailleurs’ (besides).

Do you have interesting phrases you use to justify your opinions? Or do you have a good conjunction to add to the list above? Please comment below 😊