Writing Skills
Writing Skills (Domain 2) carries the heaviest marks-per-word in the paper, and most losses come from format rather than language. Each task is marked across content, format/expression and accuracy, so a brilliant letter without a signature still drops marks.
Know the format of each short task
Notice: inside a box, with the word NOTICE centred, name of the issuing body, date, bold subject line, body of about 50 words, signature and designation. Poster: box, catch-phrase, minimal text, contact line permitted. Formal letter: sender’s address, date, receiver’s designation, subject, salutation (Dear Sir/Madam), three-paragraph body, Yours faithfully, name. Informal letter: Dear Rohan, Yours affectionately. Article: title and byline, three to four paragraphs. Report: heading, byline, past tense, third person. Speech: “Respected Principal, teachers and friends”, direct address, a rhetorical question to close.
Register and cohesion
Formal writing avoids contractions, slang and exclamation marks; informal writing permits them. Link paragraphs with signposts - “To begin with”, “More importantly”, “On balance” - not with a rote “Firstly, secondly, thirdly”.
Worked example
Task: a letter to the Editor about garbage dumping in your colony. Opening: “I wish to draw the attention of the municipal authorities, through your esteemed newspaper, to the unchecked dumping of garbage in Sector 14.” Reasoning: the Editor is not the authority, so the letter asks the Editor to publish, not to act. “Through your esteemed newspaper” names the channel. The body gives two concrete instances and one feasible remedy; the close requests publication.
Traps
Forgetting the box around notices and posters; writing to the Editor as though to a friend; omitting the subject line; leaving out name or designation; overrunning the word limit and losing format marks; using “Dear friend” in formal letters.