Notice and Report for Annual Day: Two Jobs, Two Tenses
The students of Government Higher Secondary School, Salem, are preparing for the school's Annual Day on 28 September. The programme will begin at 4.00 p.m. in the school auditorium. Dr. K. Ravi, District Education Officer, will be the chief guest and will distribute prizes. There will be a Tamil play, a group song, and a Bharatanatyam performance by Class XI students. Parents and alumni are invited; they must confirm attendance by 25 September to the school office. The student secretary, S. Arun, must produce two pieces of writing for the school magazine and the notice board: a notice of not more than 50 words and a report of not more than 100 words, both based only on the details above. The magazine editor has asked that the report mention that 600 people attended and that the play received a standing ovation, but Arun did not witness the event and cannot verify these claims. The deadline for both pieces is 29 September.
1. Write the notice in not more than 50 words. Then justify three choices you made about audience, tense, or layout.
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Notice (48 words):
GOVT. HR. SEC. SCHOOL, SALEM NOTICE ANNUAL DAY
The Annual Day will be held on 28 September at 4.00 p.m. in the school auditorium. Dr. K. Ravi, District Education Officer, will be the chief guest. Parents and alumni are invited. Please confirm attendance at the school office by 25 September.
S. Arun Secretary
Choices justified:
- Audience. Parents and alumni need date, time, venue and the confirmation deadline; the chief guest's name adds formality and credibility.
- Tense. Future and present forms ('will be held', 'will be') because the event has not happened when the notice is read.
- Layout. Heading, body and signature block, with 'Please confirm' as an imperative. A notice is a functional document, so omitted niceties are a strength, not rudeness.
2. Write the report in not more than 100 words, and explain how you handled the editor's unverified claims.
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Report (92 words):
ANNUAL DAY CELEBRATED
The Annual Day of Government Higher Secondary School, Salem, was celebrated on 28 September in the school auditorium. Dr. K. Ravi, District Education Officer, was the chief guest and distributed prizes. The programme began at 4.00 p.m. with a group song, followed by a Tamil play and a Bharatanatyam performance by Class XI students. Parents and alumni attended in large numbers. The play was well received.
Handling the claims: I omitted '600 people' and 'standing ovation' because Arun did not witness the event and cannot verify them. A report should state facts the reporter can stand by. If the editor insists, the claims must be attributed: 'According to the organisers, about 600 people attended.' An unattributed precise number would be a fabrication.
3. Explain why the notice and the report differ in tense and person, using examples from your two pieces.
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The two texts do different jobs. A notice makes an event happen: it looks forward, so it uses future forms ('will be held', 'will be the chief guest') and addresses the reader directly with an imperative ('Please confirm attendance'). A report records that an event happened: it looks back, so it uses past forms ('was celebrated', 'was well received') and third person ('Dr. K. Ravi was the chief guest').
The person shift matters. The notice may end with the secretary's name as issuer, but its body speaks to 'parents and alumni'. The report speaks about the event and its guests; 'I' would appear only in a first-person eyewitness report, which this is not. Keeping the tenses and persons separate prevents the common exam error of writing a report in the future tense or a notice as a past-tense narrative.