VS 2A 2009 English Language Blog

hi all,

Some comments and some other information about formal letters for you.

Format

Generally your format is fine. Some of you mixed up some of the items though. It should be as follows:

Your Address
Your Contact Information
Date
Addressee's name and address
Salutation
Subject Line

Having decided with the other teachers, we have decided to standardise the practice for the subject line to be the same as the one used for upper sec to minimise confusion. The RE: is to be removed and the subject line should look like this:

Complaint against Crazy Man Bar

It should be underlined and the first word should start with a capital letter and all proper nouns (i.e. names, places, objects) should start with capital letters.

You should only start a letter with 'Dear Sir' if you do not have the name of the subject who is receiving this letter. Hence, if the name is given as Mr Daryl Tan, you should start the letter to 'Dear Mr Tan'.

There should also be NO IDENTATIONS to denote your paragraphs. Hence everything should be justified to the left. For example:

I am writing this letter to lodge a complaint.......... [CORRECT]


Also, a lot of you did not write a paragraph to indicate the purpose of your letter. Make very sure you write a paragraph that tells the reader why you wrote this letter to them.

For your tone and register, please ensure that you understand the context of your letter and apply the correct tone and register. For some formal letters like a complaint letter, whilst you should convey that your are annoyed, you shouldn't be trying to start the 3rd World War with the Crazy Man Bar either! For others, you might need to sound cordial. So please bear in mind the purpose of your letter and think about how you want your recipient to react upon reading your letter!

Finally, use paragraphs! There is nothing more annoying to any reader to see a mass of text without any break between the text. So if you have a new point to make, use a new paragraph! It helps to better understand what you are trying to talk about.

Hope this helps.

Best Wishes,
Mr Tan

Guys,

Some changes to the timetable, so here's the amended copy.

Please use this instead.

hi all,

Here is the answer scheme for the summary from practice paper 1.

hi all,

Here are more summary tips for you.

Dear all,

You should know by now you need 15 points.

When doing summaries please bear the following in mind for the language element worth 10 marks.

1)Meet or be as close to the summary word limit as possible, the less words you have the lower the base mark. This means that if you have 126 words to 145 words, you will only have a base mark of 9 as opposed to 10 and it gets lower and lower with fewer words used.
2)Rephrase the text for every point that you have identified - As far as possible DO NOT LIFT! To meet the top band descriptor, you need to have paraphrased 12 or more points.
3)The only time you are allowed to lift is if the text is very complex or technical.
4)Ensure that your language is accurate
5) Vary your sentence structure - Do not just use simple sentences all the time. Remember the lesson on complex and compound sentences, it will help you shorten the word count!
6) Watch your punctuation and spelling!
7) Utilise appropriate and wide range of vocabulary.
8) Ensure your writing is legible.

Dear all,

Here are the answers:

1) Six tourists in minibus
2) Remote Road
3) Ambushed by a branch that looked like a snake
4) Two gunmen forced them to stop
5) Two more gunmen appeared
6) One got in beside driver
7) Ordered him off road into jungle
8) Bumpy road, other men following
9) Tourists hands in air- had to stay seated
10) After five kilometres - stopped by fifth man
11) Forced to lie on ground
12) Faces pressed into leaves
13) Men demanded money
14) Two tourists permitted back on bus to fetch cash
15) Tourists searched - the minibus
16) Two Americans roughly treated
17) Held hostage for over one hour
18) Men drove off in minibus
19) Warned tourists not to move.

hi all,

Here are the answers for Worksheet 2

Passage A
The author visited some of the places best known for longevity. In Vilcabamba, one of the distant and mountainous areas, the baptismal records testified to the claim of 9 centenarians living there. Furthermore, a 1971 census also confirmed their ages.

Passage B
A geophysicist who had studied earthquakes finally experienced one himself. It was caused by the pressure building up in the underground rocks for years. The pressure which became too great to contain, broke loose. Its force was equivalent to 100 atomic bombs of Hiroshima. The geophysicist felt as though the world was a carpet which was given a double shake and dropped – and the people on it, mere dust.