Functional Writing: Letters, Notices, Emails and Reports
What this domain tests
Functional writing asks for a short real-world text: a formal or semi-formal letter, an email, a notice, an announcement or a short report. Marks come from three places: task achievement (all the bullet points covered), format and register, and language accuracy.
Format rules
- Letters: date; Dear Sir or Madam when the name is unknown, closing Yours faithfully; Dear Mr Perera when the name is known, closing Yours sincerely. State the purpose in the first sentence.
- Emails: a subject line that names the purpose, a salutation, one short paragraph per point, a clear action request, and a closing.
- Notices: a heading, then what, when, where and who within the first two lines; impersonal and brief; no salutation and no signature.
- Reports: title, introduction stating the purpose, findings under headings, then conclusion and recommendation; past tense and passive voice where the doer is unimportant.
Worked example
Task: email the librarian to renew a borrowed book. Subject: Renewal request - An Introduction to Statistics (borrower 4471) Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to request a renewal of the book named above, which is due on 12 March. I have not yet finished the final chapter and would be grateful if the loan could be extended by two weeks. Could you please confirm whether this is possible? Yours faithfully, ... Reasoning: the subject line carries the purpose; the name is unknown, so Sir or Madam and Yours faithfully; the request is hedged politely with would be grateful and could you please.
Traps that cost marks
- Contractions and slang in formal writing (I'm, gonna, guys).
- Missing subject line, date or closing.
- Yours sincerely paired with Dear Sir or Madam.
- Writing a narrative when the task is a notice.
- Forgetting one bullet point, which is a fixed mark loss.