Writing - Exercise 5 (Letter Writing) - IGCSE AID

2/1/2021 Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing) – IGCSE AID

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Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing)
Exercise 5 is a le er writing task. This is almost always an informal le er. (We’ll detail formal le ers here
as well, just in case!)
INFORMAL LETTERS
These are usually to your friends or family, usually asking you to detail a recent event you took part in
and they didn’t.
w17_qp22. An email and le er will be the same, it’s just that your method of transmission is different!
You must be familiar with the format of an informal le er: salutation (Dear/Dearest..), introduction,
body (maybe two paragraphs), conclusion, signature (With Love/Yours Truly..)
https://igcseaid.com/notes/english-as-a-second-language-0511/writing-exercise-6-letter-writing/ 1/10
The salutation and signature are simple. What about the others? Let’s take a look.
Introduction:
Start with a warm, friendly opening. Ditch the boring ‘How are you doing?‘. Go for these:
It was good to hear from you.
Sorry for not replying sooner. I have been very busy.
I’m so sorry for taking so long to reply. I have been revising for my
exams.
Congratulations on your award! It’s been an hectic week over here. So sorry I couldn’t write to you
earlier. (This is a good opening, because it tells the examiner that you know this person well).
Tell them why you’re writing the le er. This will be specified in the question paper itself. Keep it
very short. In the example above, you could say: I’ve been dying to tell you about this circus that came
to town last Friday!!
Body: This is the actual content of your le er. Provide more details about the topic. Use lots of
adjectives and verbs and really relay your thoughts and emotions. Use the prompts and pictures in
the question. You can write it in two paragraphs to organise your ideas.In the example above, you
could write:
Nobody knew about the circus arriving. But the moment they opened the entrance, all the villagers started
flocking in. Steve and I begged for mom and dad to take us there! It was magnificent, in every sense of the
word! There were talking parrots, tigers jumping through fire hoops (Steve ran away scared when he saw the
Tiger!), an elephant that could predict your weight, a fortune teller and all sorts of things you see in the
circuses in movies!
Mom was fascinated by the ‘Guess the Price’ tent and spent a lot of money on it but didn’t guess a single one
right. Dad and I went to every single tent. My favourite was this magic show! The magician literally turned a
rat into a rabbit! I have no idea how. It was truly magical! We stayed there till dusk and then very reluctantly
went back. The circus clearly had won the hearts of all villagers!
Conclusion: The conclusion has to wrap up the le er. For example, I really wish you were there! You
would have loved it! Give my regards to Margret and Aunt Marie! Reply soon!
TIPS
Take care of spelling, punctuation and grammar. It’s a writing task after all.
Don’t use abbreviations and slang such as ‘u’ and ‘OMG’! This is an international exam, not an
actual email to your friend!
Keep the tone very light and warm. An informal le er should be informal.
Writing a paragraph for each bullet point (given in the question) can be a good method of keeping
the le er organised.
Give personal anecdotes. Add details that tell the examiner you really know each other. In my
sample answer above, I used the names Steve, Margaret and Aunt Marie without giving any
explanation for who they exactly are, because my friend knows who they are!
Try using time phrases. Eg: shortly after that/later/that afternoon/after dinner etc.
Keep to the word limit. It should be at least 150 words and shouldn’t exceed 200 words. However, I
remember my teacher telling me it was alright if I wrote 10-15 words in excess. Any more than that,
they would deduct marks.
FORMAL LETTERS
These will be wri en to somebody in a position of authority, usually to your school principal, the
manager of a company etc. I’ll give a very brief idea of how to write one.
Salutations and Signatures: use either of this format

Dear Sir or Madam……. Yours faithfully
Dear Ms Weasley………….Yours sincerely
Introduction: Dive straight into the point. Why are you writing? To appreciate, complain, suggest,
request or disagree? What are you writing in regards with? A new project, a newspaper
advertisement, an article or an event? Mention it. That’s your introduction.
Body: This can be divided into two paragraphs
Details of situation: give previous history of event or your background or experience. Say what
happened exactly if you are making a complaint, or focus directly on the text you are arguing
with. This section should include specific data such as names, dates, facts and details.
Further development: Give further support to your claim or request. Summarise the current
situation and why you should be given consideration. Persuade the reader.
Conclusion: Say what you wish to happen next. Suggest, firmly but politely, what may happen if
you do not receive a response to a complaint. Wrap up by once again, stating your
request/complaint/suggestion and politely say something along the lines of ‘I hope you will consider
this and take action as soon as possible’.
TIPS
Use formal vocabulary only. Instead of ‘can’t wait for your reply’ say ‘I hope you will consider the above
suggestion and take prompt action‘.
Don’t use contractions like can’t, won’t, don’t, we’re etc. Use their full forms. Contractions are
informal.
Don’t use exclamation marks.
Your tone should be serious and respectful.
Keep to the word limit.
Time Management
For the core paper 1, take about 20 minutes to a empt this question.
For the extended paper 2, spend about 30 minutes.
Notes submi ed by Lintha
Click here (h ps://igcseaid.wordpress.com/notes/english-as-a-second-language-0511/writing-exercise-7-

writing-an-article/)to go to the next topic
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36 thoughts on “Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing)”
1.
Iqra says:
November 18, 2020 at 6:39 am
How we can use punctuation in closing and opening part of the formal le ers? Either It’s necessary
to punctuate these parts or not?
REPLY
1.
Sarah says:
November 18, 2020 at 9:01 pm
It is always important to use appropriate punctuation in English.
You would start a formal le er like this:
Dear ,
The first line, starting with ‘Dear’, is the salutation. You should start with a capital le er, write
who the le er is addressed to, including capital le ers for any names or proper nouns, and
ending the salutation with a comma.
The body of your le er should also follow all the normal grammar and punctuation rules.
At the end, you may sign off with ‘yours faithfully’ or ‘yours sincerely’ (yours faithfully if you
know the name of the person you are addressing this le er to, yours sincerely if you do not)
You would write it like this:
Yours faithfully,
Note the capital le er and the comma after yours faithfully.
I hope this answered your question!
REPLY
2.
Shoba says:

Hi.. I am an IGCSE teacher guiding children to write the exams in Feb2020/21 batch. As this is the
first batch for me, I want to make sure that I give proper directions to them to ace the exam. I feel
they need more practice in writing part. Do you have any inputs for them .
Also , how is the speaking exam graded for 0510 ?
Thanks
Sobha
REPLY
1.
Sarah says:
Hi Sobha!
Thank you for reaching out.
If you haven’t already, I would strongly recommend investing in a Cambridge International
Examinations Endorsed Textbook, like the one in this link:
h ps://www.amazon.co.uk/Cambridge-English-Language-Teachers-
International/dp/1108566693/ref=pd_lpo_14_t_1/260-4689206-7885720?
_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1108566693&pd_rd_r=146baf84-c0b7-4efa-b225-
828a448da32e&pd_rd_w=dSWl4&pd_rd_wg=eTeIv&pf_rd_p=7b8e3b03-1439-4489-abd4-
4a138cf4eca6&pf_rd_r=2A3P0CAJRCBWJXEDV4CK&psc=1&refRID=2A3P0CAJRCBWJXEDV4CK
A proper textbook that is tailored to the syllabus is amazing, and it is the guidance that we
received from such a textbook that made such a big difference.
Our website is purely a compilation of revision notes, and should not be used as the first point of
learning.
One thing that really helped my friends and me when preparing for our ESL exam was being
given specific formats and useful keywords for each style of writing. Our teacher also had us
practise numerous past papers under timed conditions.
As a student, this is what we found most helpful.
We hope your first batch of students do really well, and we wish you the best of luck!
Thank you,
The IGCSE AID Team
REPLY
3.
S.Rumaisa Fatima says:
November 1, 2020 at 10:23 am
can u pls tell me how to write the introductory para for an informal le er to a foreign friend about
your culture?
4. REPLY
Zohair says:
October 3, 2020 at 3:36 pm
In a le er where do i write the date? or do i even write a date?
REPLY
1.
Lintha says:
October 19, 2020 at 6:42 am
There is no need to write a date! Just start with the greeting
2. REPLY
Aakash Prasad says:
no need of date if it is an informal le er
REPLY
5.
Hamsavardan says:
August 27, 2020 at 12:07 am
Veryyyy usefull !!!
6. REPLY
Shehran Salam says:
June 11, 2020 at 4:58 pm
Will 328 words be acceptable?
REPLY
1.
Sarah says:
June 13, 2020 at 11:19 pm
No, I am afraid not.
Avoid going over 10 to 15 words above the mentioned word limit. Any words after that will
simply be struck from your answer and not considered. One of the challenges of this exercise is
learning to properly structure your work and write concisely enough that you do not exceed the
word limit.
7. REPLY
sauna saamiu says:
March 8, 2020 at 11:15 am
is it necessary to use idioms?
REPLY
1.
Lintha says:
May 3, 2020 at 8:11 am
Nope! It’s be er to steer clear of them if you’re not too confident of using them appropriately
REPLY
8.
Marcelo Fernandes says:
February 16, 2020 at 6:36 pm
Thank you soo much for this concise information.
Tomorrow’s the exam, I hope an informal le er will come.
Once again THANK YOU!!
REPLY
1.
gayatri2000 says:
May 3, 2020 at 9:21 am
Great to hear this!
2. REPLY
Adole Ogbole says:
August 17, 2020 at 8:46 pm
What do you recommend on the area of studying past questions do you think that questions are
repeated.Please do reply very soon
REPLY
1.
Lintha says:
August 18, 2020 at 3:09 pm
Yes! Practising past papers is the single most important thing you can do to ace the IGCSE
exams. As you’re solving them with the help of the marking scheme, you will realise that
many questions repeat over the years or at least follow a similar pa ern of questioning. Once
you have done a couple of papers, you’ll start answering much be er.
Practice past papers! I cannot stress this enough.
REPLY
9.
CA says:
January 15, 2020 at 12:58 pm
As a student who actually will take this exam next year, this is perfect article. thank u
REPLY
1.
gayatri2000 says:
May 3, 2020 at 7:01 pm
Great to hear!
10. REPLY
Tanishka says:
it is really very helpful and gives more than enough information on both of the topics of le er writing
11. REPLY
Samia Faiza says:
Thank you so much for the inspiring and helpful tips!
REPLY
12.
Time guy says:
extremely useful, thank you!
13. REPLY
sowmitha says:
this is really very useful and i loved it
:)!!!!!!
14. REPLY
ahmed says:
June 16, 2019 at 6:24 pm
a very good article that will help alot of students
REPLY
1.
Lintha says:
June 17, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Thank you!!
REPLY
1.
Megbz says:
This is actually really helpful to me as an igcse student. Thank you
2. REPLY
Yara says:
Thank you very much ,this really helped me
REPLY
15.
kubbeb says:
nic
REPLY
1.
PUBG says:
March 18, 2019 at 2:40 pm
I find it very usefull. I think these tips are very good to remind you how to write a le er.
REPLY
1.
Sarah says:
April 4, 2019 at 4:20 pm
Thank you so much for your kind words!!! This makes me (and the rest of the Team) super
happy
Good luck with your exams!
REPLY
1.
Turissa Sullivan says:
Thank you so much, it has been very helpful!
2. REPLY
M says:
March 29, 2020 at 3:58 am
So the format for email and le er are the same? Sorry , I’m quite confused about this…
REPLY
1.
Sarah says:
May 4, 2020 at 3:01 pm
Yup, that’s correct. An email is essentially just an electronic le er, so they follow the
same rules as a printed/ handwri en le er!
3. REPLY
Elvin delfina Esco says:
April 23, 2020 at 4:23 pm
Good!
2. REPLY
Noor Farid says:
Thank you it is do useful
3. REPLY
Noor Farid says:
Thank you it is do useful
REPLY
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2/1/2021 Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing) – IGCSE AID

Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing)

Salutations and Signatures: use either of this format

For the extended paper 2, spend about 30 minutes.

Notes submi ed by Lintha

Click here (h ps://igcseaid.wordpress.com/notes/english-as-a-second-language-0511/writing-exercise-7-

Click here (h ps://igcseaid.wordpress.com/notes/english-as-a-second-language-0511/reading-writing-

Click here (h ps://igcseaid.wordpress.com/notes/english-as-a-second-language-0511/)to go back to the

36 thoughts on “Writing: Exercise 5 (Letter writing)”

You would write it like this:

Note the capital le er and the comma after yours faithfully.

I hope this answered your question!

November 2, 2020 at 2:44 pm

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