Register drift in an informal Persian letter
The composition section asks for a 70–80 word informal Persian letter to a cousin, inviting him to a three-day book fair in Kolkata and asking him to bring two friends. Required points are greeting, purpose, date/place, request and closing. A candidate writes 96 words, uses “حضرتعالی” and “بنده حقیر”, includes four of the five points but omits the two friends. The grid is content 4, register 3, language 3, length 1, total 11. The Persian is accurate: no verb agreement errors, correct subjunctive after “میخواهم”, and good spelling. One teacher wants 9/11 because the language is accurate and the tone is polite. Another wants 6/11 because the letter is not informal and a content point is missing. The section is scored out of 11 and then scaled to 15.
1. Apply the grid and justify a mark out of 11. Address whether “polite” equals “appropriate register”.
Read the worked answer
Mark: 7/11.
- Content (3/4): greeting, purpose, date/place and closing are present; the request to bring two friends is missing, so one content point is lost.
- Register (1/3): حضرتعالی and بنده حقیر are polite, but politeness is not the same as appropriate register. A letter to a cousin requires informal second person and a warm close; the honorifics create social distance and make the letter read like a petition.
- Language (3/3): accurate verb agreement, correct subjunctive after میخواهم, and good spelling earn full language marks.
- Length (0/1): 96 words exceeds the 70–80 range; even a 10% tolerance ends at 88, so the length mark is not earned.
A 9/11 would reward accuracy and politeness but ignore the register and length criteria. Feedback should preserve the accurate sentences and show one informal replacement, so the candidate sees that the problem is relationship, not grammar.
2. Rewrite only the opening and closing in informal Persian, 25–35 words total, retaining the invitation and the missing request.
Read the worked answer
Opening: «سلام عزیزم، حالت چطور است؟» Closing: «میخواهم تو را به نمایشگاه کتاب کلکته دعوت کنم؛ سه روز است. دو تا از دوستانت را هم بیاور. منتظرت هستم.»
The rewrite uses informal تو, keeps the invitation, date/place and the missing request, and avoids حضرتعالی and بنده حقیر. It is 26 words in Persian, within the 25–35 word limit. It also models the required register shift without adding new content that the original prompt did not ask for.