Notice and Sponsorship Letter: Format Marks Are Won and Lost Before the First Sentence
You are the cultural secretary of a government inter college. The annual function, “Srijan”, is on 14 August, and 40 students from Classes 9 to 12 will take part in a group song, a skit and a dance. Rehearsals run daily from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m. in the assembly hall from 5 August, and the list of participants must reach the office by 3 August. The principal has also asked you to write to the branch manager of a local bank - whose name you do not know - requesting ₹25,000 for prizes and refreshments; the letter must go out by 5 August. A classmate drafts the notice like this: “I hope you are fine. All participants must compulsorily attend rehearsal or else face action. Those interested may give their names to me at my house, 14 Civil Lines. It is a matter of great pride that our function is on 14 August. - Rahul.”
1. Identify three faults in the notice draft by reference to the conventions of a notice, and explain why each would cost a mark.
Read the worked answer
Fault 1 - personal voice and pleasantry. “I hope you are fine” and “to me at my house” belong to a letter, not a notice. A notice is impersonal and public: it speaks to a whole school in the third person and is signed by designation, not by a private address. Cost: the format mark.
Fault 2 - no heading, no date, no designation. A notice must tell the reader at a glance what it is about, when it was issued and who issued it. Without a date, a reader cannot tell whether “from 5 August” is this year or last; without a designation, there is no responsible authority to report to. Cost: the format mark again.
Fault 3 - threatening register and shifted focus. “Or else face action” sounds like a punishment notice; the first sentence should carry the essential information (who, what, when, where), not the warning. The draft also spends words on the function date, which is not the notice’s business.
Missing content: the five Ws - who (40 participants, Classes 9–12), what (rehearsal), when (daily, 2:30–4:00 p.m., from 5 August), where (assembly hall), and the deadline for names (3 August).
2. Rewrite the notice in not more than 50 words, including a heading, date and signature.
Read the worked answer
Model notice
NOTICE
Srijan 2025 - Rehearsals
All 40 participants of the group song, skit and dance (Classes 9–12) must attend rehearsal daily, 2:30–4:00 p.m., in the assembly hall, from 5 August. Names must reach the undersigned by 3 August.
Rahul Verma Cultural Secretary 1 August 2025
Why this version scores. It opens with a heading that states the subject, packs the five Ws into two sentences, keeps the tone impersonal and neutral, drops the personal address and the threat, and closes with designation plus date - the three-line block an examiner looks for before reading the body. The word count is about 45, so there is room to add a venue for the name list if the paper demands it.
3. For the bank letter, decide the salutation and subscription, whether to include addresses, and how to open the body. Justify each choice.
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Salutation: “Dear Sir/Madam”, because the manager’s name is not known. Subscription: “Yours faithfully”. These two are a pair: an unnamed reader takes Sir/Madam with faithfully; a named reader (Dear Mr Sharma) takes sincerely. Mixing them is the single most common format error in this letter.
Addresses: yes to both. Sender’s address at the top left, then the date, then the receiver’s address (The Branch Manager, State Bank of India, Civil Lines branch, Kanpur), then a subject line: “Subject: Sponsorship for the annual function, Srijan 2025”.
Opening: state the purpose in the first sentence, not a pleasantry. “I am writing on behalf of Government Inter College, Kanpur, to request a sponsorship of ₹25,000 for prizes and refreshments at our annual function on 14 August.” Then say what the sponsor gets - mention on the banner, a receipt for the amount, an invitation to the function - and give the deadline (reply by 5 August).
On “I beg to state”: it is not wrong, but it delays the point and often drags grammar errors with it. Marks come from clarity, completeness and correct format; “I am writing to…” does the same job more safely.