Formal Letter, Informal Friend
You must write two short Persian texts in one exam task. Text 1: a message to your school principal asking permission to hold a book fair, with a proposed date (15 Ordibehesht) and a request for a room. Text 2: a message to your friend inviting them to help run the stall. The marking criteria reward appropriate register, clear purpose, and correct use of polite forms. You have 25 minutes total and roughly 60 words per text. A classmate plans to write both in the same casual tone because 'Persian is Persian', using «سلام» and «چطوری» in both, and to spend most of the time on the letter to the principal.
1. How should the register differ between the two texts? Give concrete Persian choices.
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Text 1 (principal) needs formal, respectful register: «با سلام و احترام»، «خواهشمندم»، «اجازه فرمایید»، «با تشکر». Text 2 (friend) needs informal, warm register: «سلام»، «چطوری؟»، «می‌تونی کمک کنی؟»، «مرسی». Using «چطوری» with a principal would be inappropriate; using «خواهشمندم» with a close friend would sound distant or ironic. The exam rewards control of this contrast, so the two texts should be visibly different in vocabulary and address forms.
2. Draft Text 1 in about 60 words, including date, purpose, and one request.
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Model: «با سلام و احترام، به استحضار می‌رساند اینجانب قصد دارم نمایشگاه کتابی در تاریخ پانزدهم اردیبهشت در مدرسه برگزار کنم. خواهشمندم در صورت امکان اجازه برگزاری و یک اتاق برای غرفه‌ها اختصاص دهید. با تشکر فراوان.» This states the purpose (book fair), the date (15 Ordibehesht), and a specific request (permission plus a room), in formal register. It stays near the word limit and avoids casual vocabulary.
3. Your classmate spends 20 minutes on Text 1 and writes Text 2 in five minutes in formal tone. What is the likely mark impact, and how should time be split?
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The likely impact is lost marks on Text 2 for register mismatch and possibly underdeveloped content, even if Text 1 is excellent. Both texts carry weight, so an unbalanced effort is risky. A better split is roughly 12–13 minutes each, with a minute to check address forms. The lesson: in a two-text task, register control across both texts matters more than perfecting one, and the informal text is not 'easier' - it has its own conventions.