English Descriptive Writing: Essay, Letter, Report and Précis
English Descriptive Writing is Phase II Paper 1, a 100-mark, 90-minute online typed paper. Tasks typically include an essay, a formal letter, a report and a précis, with topics drawn from rural development, agriculture, banking, financial inclusion and current economic affairs. Marks come from structure, relevance and correctness, not ornamentation.
Core rules
- Essay: an introduction that defines the issue and states a position, two or three body paragraphs each built around one argument with a concrete Indian example or figure, and a conclusion offering a balanced way forward. Keep within any stated word limit; aim for clarity over length.
- Formal letter: sender's address, date, receiver's designation and address, a one-line subject, salutation, body in short paragraphs, complimentary close and name. No contractions, no slang, one purpose per letter.
- Report: title, byline, introductory terms of reference, findings, conclusion and recommendations.
- Précis: reduce to about one-third of the original, use the third person and your own words, retain every key idea, and give it a title.
Worked example
Passage of about 150 words on self-help groups improving rural credit access. Step one: extract the core claim - SHG-Bank linkage converts informal saving into formal credit and improves repayment. Step two: drop examples, quotations and repetition. Step three: rewrite in the third person without borrowing phrases. A précis of about 50 words with a title such as "SHGs as a Credit Bridge" earns more than a 90-word summary that copies sentences.
Traps
- Lifting phrases verbatim into the précis, which is penalised directly.
- Exceeding the word limit and losing marks for what was otherwise good writing.
- Omitting the subject line or the designation in a formal letter.
- Writing a general essay with no Indian policy example, which reads as filler.