PAST QUESTIONS ON FORMAL LETTERS FOR WAEC/NECO EXAMS (PART 2)

QUESTIONS ON FORMAL LETTERS

1.The sanitary condition of your community is appalling and there are fears of an outbreak of communicable diseases. Write a letter to the chairman of your local government area, drawing his attention to the problem and suggesting ways of dealing with it.
2. Activities such as debates,drama,and excursions are now rare in schools in your country. As the Senior Prefect,write a letter to to your principal suggesting the revival of these activities and pointing out what students stand to gain from taking part in them.
3.Your school has been performing poorly in public examinations for the past three years. Write a letter to your principal suggesting ways of making students more interested in academic work.
4.Activities such as debates, drama and excursions are now rare in schools in your country. As the Senior Prefect, write a letter to your principal suggesting the revival of these activities and pointing out what students stand to gain from taking part in them.
5.The poor and needy in your country have not been adequately provided for. Write a letter to the head of your Social Welfare Department describing their plight and suggesting ways of improving the situation
6.As a concerned student, write a letter to the Principal of your school informing him of recent acts of bullying by senior students and suggesting ways of arresting the situation.
7.Write a letter to the police officer in charge of your area thanking him for the prompt intervention of the police in a recent clash between two villages in your locality and suggesting further measures for preventing a future occurrence.
8.Write a letter to the Chairman of your school’s Board of Governors on the need for a library in the school, requesting him to build and equip one for the school.
9.Write a letter to the Postmaster of your area expressing your dissatisfaction with the operations of the Post Office, and suggesting three ways of improving the services.
10.Write a letter to the Minister of Works in your country complaining about the deplorable condition of the roads in your area and the effects this has on the lives of your people

ARE YOU ASKING YOURSELF WHAT TO DO?

The questions above have been provided by WAEC to assist you understand the required standards expected in English Language final examination.

If you ask examiners they will tell you that a very substantial portion of essays marked are letters.Formal or informal.The obvious reason is that students tend to regard letter-writing as a way out as opposed to the monumental task of crafting other brain-bursting essays inside the exam hall.Is this due to ill preparation or laziness? Or is it due to examination tension and the temporary paralysis of the brain leading to inability to think of relevant points to put together for an impressionable score?

With reference to letter-writing it is one thing looking for the easiest way out and it is another eventually finding your self in a maze or getting caught like mouse in a trap! Our honest opinion is that most letters are mouse traps for students and their tutors need to let them know this. Why do we say so?

a…letters are the most technical of all the essay forms!…there is a list of content that must be seen and included in certain ways without which students can lose substantial marks…

b…letters hardly give examiners room for discretion or sympathy to students as in other forms of essay…

c…students hardly feel compelled to study the finer details of what is required for letters…the usual attitude is that they have been writing letters for long and should be able to accumulate “enough” marks with lesser effort than would have been expended on other forms of essay.

d…the advent of e-mails and net writing (such as we are presently using for this write-up) have ensured that students commit more spelling and punctuation mistakes which they don’t even realize … especially when writing informal letters!

OUR SUGGESTION?

i. pick one of the questions…

ii. remember the notes below

FORMAL LETTERS

What are the essentials of letter-writing? Is there a check list for tutors and students to use for doing fairly well in letter-writing? Please find below our humble submissions under layout,language and style for formal letters

1. Date.

2. Address of writer.

3. Designation of the addressee.

4. Company’s or Organization’s address in full.

5. Salutation.

6. Heading/Title.

7 .Reason for writing stating any reference or advert seen with name of source and date of publication if possible.

8. Tone of letter should reflect the respect or deference to the addressee if a senior or a person you expect some favor from…even if it is a letter of complaints on something you are angry about your words need to be diplomatic and never uncouth!

9. Short sentences are preferable.

10. AVOID GRAMMATICAL,PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING ERRORS (more notes on these coming up).

11. Balance the length of sentences and link your paragraphs.

12. Balance the number of sentences in each paragraph.

13, Apart from your introduction and conclusion use only 3-5 paragraphs with each expressing different ideas.

14. For conclusion restate the reason for writing.

15. State yours “faithfully” with small letter “f”.

16. Don’t forget to sign and write the name of the writer or your name

…for both formal and informal letters the tone should agree with the purpose of the letter…if it is for sympathy or condolence it should give comfort…even if it is a complaint against certain behavior it should indicate disapproval of such behavior without betraying annoyance or anger of the writer.

iii. check past Q/A booklets for similar answers

iv. then write yours…that is, do your own work,learn from the mistakes you make along the way, and the world will be a better, brighter place for you,at least academically (WIKI)

Good luck.