Writing Skills - Letter, Report, Paragraph, Story
The writing section tests format control, register, organisation and accuracy. Marks are awarded for the prescribed layout, relevance to the given input, paragraphing, and correct grammar and spelling.
Core rules
- Formal letter: sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, subject line, salutation (Dear Sir/Madam), three short body paragraphs (purpose, details, action requested), and a formal closing (Yours faithfully / Yours sincerely, name). No contractions, no slang, no personal chat.
- Informal letter: address, date, Dear + first name, conversational but correct tone, closing with Yours affectionately / lovingly.
- Report: headline, byline, place and date, then past tense, third person and largely passive voice; no "I" or "we"; facts only.
- Paragraph: one controlling idea; topic sentence, two or three supporting sentences with an example or reason, concluding sentence.
- Story: use the given outline in order; past tense throughout; include setting, a complication, a climax and a resolution; use one or two lines of dialogue.
Worked example
Outline: a boy finds a wallet on the road - returns it - rewarded. Weak opening: One day Ravi is going to school and he find a wallet. Reasoning: the story needs past tense, correct concord and a hook. A brief scene-setting sentence plus dialogue creates immediate interest. Better opening: Ravi was late for school when something bulky on the pavement caught his eye. He picked it up and gasped - a brown wallet, fat with notes. "If I keep this, nobody will know," a voice inside him whispered. The rest of the story should then show his decision, the owner's response and a restrained closing line rather than a stated moral.
Traps that cost marks
- Omitting the subject line in a formal letter.
- Mixing registers - contractions or exclamation marks in a formal complaint.
- Writing the report in the first person.
- Story narrated in the present tense or with no complication and climax.
- Ignoring the word limit or writing a single undivided block.
- Adding factual details that contradict the given input.