Goethe B1 Writing: Emails and Opinion Texts

The Goethe B1 writing module lasts 60 minutes. Practise its different purposes: a personal message, an opinion contribution and a short formal message. A single memorized letter cannot meet all three.

The official adult model asks for about 80 words in task 1, about 80 in task 2 and about 40 in task 3, with suggested working times of 20, 25 and 15 minutes. The two examples below are short teaching excerpts, not complete exam-length answers. Use them to study structure, then practise a complete response to a fresh prompt.

Distribute time before you begin

Read all tasks first and note their requested length and content. Reserve a final check instead of spending most of the hour on the first text. Use the current official model for the exact instructions. During training, record how long each task takes and whether the final one suffers when you overwrite the first. Adjust your personal time budget accordingly.

Personal email: include a reason and an invitation

Liebe Sophie, ich habe letzte Woche einen Kochkurs besucht. Besonders gut hat mir gefallen, dass wir zu zweit gekocht haben. So konnte ich viel sprechen und neue Wörter lernen. Nächsten Monat beginnt ein weiterer Kurs. Hast du Lust mitzukommen? Ich kann dir die Informationen schicken. Liebe Grüße Anna

Original teaching excerpt, not an official task: the writer reports an event, explains a preference and invites the reader. A real response must cover the precise points in its own prompt. The example is deliberately short so you can see the structure; expand only where the task needs more detail.

Opinion: make your reason testable

Ich finde gemeinsame Lernräume sinnvoll, weil nicht jeder zu Hause Ruhe hat. In meiner Wohnung spielen abends oft die Kinder. In der Bibliothek kann ich mich besser konzentrieren. Allerdings sollten dort auch Räume für Gruppen vorhanden sein, damit Gespräche andere Lernende nicht stören.

The original opinion gives a position, a reason, an experience and a limitation. Add your own example rather than listing “advantages and disadvantages” without explanation. If the topic changes to online lessons, the reasoning must change too. Reusing the paragraph with only one noun replaced can lead to an irrelevant answer.

Formal message and revision

For a formal cancellation, state the appointment, apologize, give the requested reason and suggest the next step if asked. Keep Sie throughout. In the final check, locate every required point, check connectors and remove sentences that serve no purpose. Feedback is most useful when it identifies an omitted point or unclear sentence you can repair, rather than supplying a different text to memorize.