GERMAN COMPOSITION TIPS:

1.  DO NOT write a draft in English and then translate into German ñ this is the surest way to stifle your German skills and get a bad grade.  (DO NOT use an electronic translation program.  Not only is this considered cheating, translation programs make obvious mistakes on even the simplest of phrases.)

2.  Before writing, take some time to figure out roughly what you want to say and how you will do it.  What are the main things you want to say?  Make a rough outline of the main points of your essay. While doing this, try to think and write in German!

3.  After you have done this, brainstorm for a while and make a list (with gender and plural forms) of words that you will need for your essay.  Also, think about what grammatical forms you will need: are you writing about past tense events, opinions, future events, hypothetical events? Choose the grammatical  tense and mood  of your essay according to these questions.

4.  Match the words, phrases, and ideas that you have collected while brainstorming to the main points in your outline.

5.  Take a deep breath and start writing!  Write a rough draft first.  Donít worry about punctuation, grammar, spelling, and all that good stuff.  Just get your ideas down on paper.  Try to do this while ìthinkingî in German.

6.  Return to your finished rough draft and begin fleshing out your ideas and correcting the basic grammatical structures (but donít go looking up gender and such just yet.  For now, concentrate on verb forms and the basic structure and word order).

7.  Re-read your rough draft and make sure that the meaning is clear and that it follows the outline that you have planned.  Take a break.

8.  Now go back to your essay and make an intense search for grammar, meaning, style, spelling, word order, and punctuation errors.  Have your dictionary by your side!

9.  Take a hard-earned break!  Work on something else for at least an hour ñ better, yet, overnight.

10.  Return to your essay with fresh eyes.  Re-read and proofread it carefully.  Watch out for "checkable" grammatical errors: subject verb agreement; verb word order; verb tense consistency/logic; gender, case, and number or all nouns; adjective endings.

11.  Check your essay for formatting specifications (font size, line spacing), do a word count and type out the results, print your essay!

12.  Relax ñ youíve earned it!!

Composition Writing Guides at other Universities:
You will find a lot of useful tips at these sites.

University of North Carolina:  This link has writing tips, a useful section on dictionary usage, and a checklist
http://www.unc.edu/course s/germ004/written.html

University of Michigan:  This great link has a checklist and other writing strategies.
http://ww w.lsa.umich.edu/german/hmr/Aufsatzinfo/Strategien.html

University of Delaware:  This link has a helpful checklist.
http://www.udel.edu/f llt/faculty/lisat/writing.html