Writing Skills: Letters, Reports, Notices and Paragraphs
Writing Skills rewards format accuracy and economy. Marks are lost less for vocabulary than for a missing subject line, a wrong salutation or a notice without a date.
Formats at a glance
- Notice: boxed, third person, 40–50 words, answering who, what, when, where and whom to contact; dated and signed by the issuer (e.g. Secretary, Literary Club); no salutation.
- Report: headline, byline (reporter's name), place and date, past tense, third person, factual and impersonal.
- Informal letter: sender's address, date, salutation (Dear Ravi), body in short paragraphs, closing (Yours lovingly / With love) and name.
- Formal letter: sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, subject line, Dear Sir/Madam, body, Yours faithfully, signature and name.
- Paragraph: one controlling idea - topic sentence, three or four supporting sentences, a closing sentence.
Worked example
Notes: Inter-school quiz / 12 August / auditorium / teams of two / register with librarian by 9 August. Reasoning: notice prose must convert fragments into full sentences, in the third person, inside a box, with a heading and a signature block. Result: heading INTER-SCHOOL QUIZ, then "An inter-school quiz will be held in the auditorium on 12 August. Students may participate in teams of two and must register with the librarian by 9 August." No "I" or "you"; no invented details.
Traps that cost marks
- Pairing Dear Sir/Madam with Yours sincerely; use Yours faithfully when the name is unknown, Yours sincerely when it is known.
- Writing a report in the first person or in the present tense.
- Omitting the date, heading or issuer from a notice.
- Packing two topics into one paragraph, or padding past the word limit.