Writing: Letters, Paragraph, Story and Process
What this section asks
Four longer writing tasks share one skill: holding a single purpose across a fixed number of words with the correct layout.
Formal and informal letters
- Formal: your address, date, receiver's address, a subject line, "Sir/Madam", three short paragraphs (purpose, details, action requested), and "Yours faithfully" with your full name.
- "Dear Sir/Madam" pairs with "Yours faithfully"; "Dear Mr Bose" pairs with "Yours sincerely".
- Informal: one address, date, "Dear Rakesh", conversational tone, contractions allowed, ending "Yours affectionately" or "Yours ever".
Paragraph
- One idea only, opened by a topic sentence, carried by four or five supporting sentences, closed with a comment. No bullet points, no headings, about 100 words.
Story and process
- Story: use the given opening or clue exactly as printed, narrate in simple past with past perfect for earlier events, put dialogue in inverted commas, end with a twist or an implied moral.
- Process: sequence with first, next, then, after that, finally, and write either in the present simple passive ("The leaves are boiled") or in the imperative, never mixing the two.
Worked example
Question: Describe in about 100 words how a cup of tea is made.
Model opening: "Tea is prepared in a few simple steps. First, water is boiled in a kettle. Meanwhile, a teaspoon of tea leaves is put into a pot…"
Reasoning: the passive is used because the doer is anyone in general, so "is boiled", "is put" keep the focus on the steps; the sequencers give order; "I" and "you" are avoided throughout.
Traps that cost marks
- An informal letter closed with "Yours faithfully".
- A formal letter using contractions like "don't".
- A story slipping into the present tense halfway through.
- A paragraph drifting into a second topic.
- A process description with no sequencers, or mixing active and passive.