National and public university second-stage examinations and private university examinations include written-answer questions in English. You will learn strategies specific to written-answer questions.
Basic Rules
Typical Written-Answer Questions:
1. Japanese translation: Translate part of an English sentence into Japanese
2. English translation: Translate Japanese into English (covered in Lesson 10)
3. Explanation questions: “Explain the underlined section in Japanese” or “Summarize the writer’s idea in Japanese”
4. Free English composition: “Write approximately 100 words about ~”
5. Summary questions: “Summarize the English passage in approximately 100 Japanese characters”
Tips for Japanese Translation Questions:
- Understand the sentence structure accurately (subject, verb, and modifier relationships)
- Avoid translating too literally; use natural Japanese
- Make pronouns specific (it → that problem, they → the students)
- Accurately identify the position of negation and the objects of comparison
Tips for Explanation Questions:
- Understand the meaning of the underlined section from the context
- Clearly state “what it refers to” and “why it is so”
- Be concise within the character limit
- Explain in your own words rather than translating the original literally
Scoring Criteria:
- Japanese translation: accuracy of structure + natural Japanese
- English translation: grammatical accuracy + appropriate vocabulary + preservation of meaning
- Explanation: accuracy of content + clarity of Japanese
- Free English composition: clarity of claim + organization + grammar
English sentence: “What we need is not more information, but a way to think clearly about what we already have.”
Literal translation (unnatural): “What we need is not more information, but a way to think clearly about what we already have.”
Natural translation: “What we need is not additional information, but a way to think clearly about the information we already have.”
(What we need = “the thing we need,” using the relative pronoun what; not A but B structure)
Points to Note
① Follow the instructions in the question: Strictly follow directions such as “Write in Japanese,” “Answer in English,” and “Within ○ characters.”
② Aim for partial credit: Even if you cannot write a perfect answer, you can receive partial credit for each element. “Write something incomplete” is better than “give up and leave it blank.”
③ Visualize the structure: For complex English sentences, divide them with slashes on paper and make the subject, verb, and modifiers visible.
④ Follow the character limit: For “within 30 characters,” aim for 27–30 characters; for “about 50 characters,” aim for 45–55 characters.
⑤ Consider the grader’s perspective: Graders mark hundreds of answer sheets individually. Answers with legible handwriting, clear organization, and the correct number of characters tend to receive better evaluations.
- Written-answer questions: Japanese translation, English translation, explanation, free composition, and summary
- Use natural Japanese in Japanese translations
- Explain questions in your own words
- Aim for partial credit (leaving an answer blank is worst)
- Follow the character limit and write legibly
Practice
- Translate the following English sentence into natural Japanese: “What matters most is not how much you know, but how you use what you know.”
- Explain in one sentence what it means to “aim for partial credit” in a written-answer question.
- When the instruction says, “Answer within 30 characters,” approximately how many characters should you aim to write?