The continuous writing on WASSCE English Paper 2 names a form. The form decides the voice, the opening and the ending. A strong story does not answer a question that asked for a speech. This page shows the shape of six forms students are asked to write, with a shortened example of each. A full answer is longer and develops every point. The page does not promise that one of these will be your question.
Name the form before you write
Underline the form and the audience. An article for a national newspaper, a speech at a parents' meeting, a report to a headteacher and a story about a journey do not open the same way. Plan three or four points, in order, before you write the fair copy. Leave time to read the work again.
Letters have a layout as well as a tone. The other forms have a shape and no letter close. Yours faithfully at the end of an article tells the marker you wrote a letter by habit.
WASSCE English essay writing practiceWASSCE English letter writing practice
Formal letter
Use a formal letter for an office or a person you address by title: a director, an editor, a headteacher you do not know by name. Your address at the top on the right, the date, the recipient's address on the left, the salutation, a heading, paragraphs, a matching close, and your full name.
Dear Sir or Dear Madam takes Yours faithfully. Dear Mr Owusu takes Yours sincerely. The first paragraph states why you are writing. The last paragraph says what you want done, once.
Formal letter
Shortened so the shape is easy to see. On the paper, each paragraph has to develop. The layout rules are the same ones you used at JHS, and the tone is the tone of someone writing to an office.
House 14, Independence Avenue, Accra 12 March The District Director of Education District Education Office Accra Dear Sir, THE BROKEN BRIDGE ON THE SCHOOL ROAD
Address, date, recipient, salutation, heading. Dear Sir takes Yours faithfully. A named director, Dear Mr Owusu, would take Yours sincerely.
I am writing to report that the bridge on the road to our school is broken, and to ask that it be repaired before the rains.
The first paragraph states the purpose. It does not ask how the director is feeling.
Pupils cross the gap on a plank. Last week two of them fell, and their books were lost in the water. The plank is narrower after every rain.
The facts, in the order a busy reader needs. One point, then the next, each in its own paragraph on a full answer.
I hope the office will inspect the bridge and repair it. Our school can show you the place any morning. Yours faithfully, Ama Mensah
One polite request, then the close and your full name. No slang, and no Lots of love.
Informal letter
An informal letter keeps your address and the date, drops the recipient's address and the heading, and speaks to a friend. A warm opening is right. The points still sit in paragraphs. Close with Your friend, or Yours ever, and your first name.
Informal letter
A letter to a friend still has your address, the date, paragraphs and a close. It drops the office block and the heading. Contractions are acceptable. Slang that a marker cannot follow is not.
House 14, Independence Avenue, Accra 12 March Dear Efua,
Your address and the date stay. There is no recipient address. The salutation is the friend's name.
I have been meaning to tell you about the debate, and I wish you had been in the hall.
A personal opening. The purpose is still clear: this letter is about the debate, not about everything that happened this term.
We argued that the library should stay open after classes. I was shaking, and then the prefect smiled, and the words came. We did not win, but the headteacher has asked for a plan.
The story of it, in order. A full letter spends longer here. Keep the tense steady.
Write and tell me whether your school locks the library at the bell. I miss your notes in the margin. Your friend, Ama
A close that expects a reply, then a warm ending and your first name. Not Yours faithfully.
Article
An article is written for the readers of a publication the question names. Give it a title and a byline. The opening should make that reader care. Develop two or three points, each with an example. The close lands the point. Do not salute the editor and do not sign Yours faithfully, unless the question actually asked for a letter to the editor. A letter to the editor is a formal letter, not an article.
Article
An article is for the readers of a named publication, such as a national newspaper or a school magazine. It is not a letter. There is no Dear Sir and no Yours faithfully.
Keep the library open after classes By Ama Serwaa
A title a reader could see at the top of the page, then a byline. The title is not a heading inside a letter.
A library that closes when the bell rings locks the answer away from the students who need it most.
The opening tells that audience why the piece matters. It does not say I am writing to inform you.
Many students go home to rooms with no quiet and no reference book. One extra hour, with a teacher or a prefect on duty, is enough for the people who will actually read.
One reason, then a practical note. On a full article each of these is its own paragraph, with an example rather than a repeated slogan.
Publish the hour on the notice board. The students who use it will arrive at the paper having read.
The close lands the point. It does not start a new topic, and it does not sign off like a letter.
Speech
A speech addresses people who are in the room. Greet them by the roles the question gives you. Prefer sentences you could say aloud. Use you and we. End by thanking the audience or by asking them to do something. A debate speech takes a side and answers the other side. It is still a speech: it greets the room, and it does not look like a letter.
Speech
A speech is written to be heard. Name the people in the room, keep the sentences short enough to say aloud, and end by thanking them or by asking them to act.
Speech at the parents' meeting on the school library
A heading that records the occasion. It is for you and the marker. You do not read it as Dear Parents.
Chair, the headteacher, parents and fellow students.
The greeting names who is listening. A speech that never addresses the room can be marked as an essay that missed its form.
I am here to ask you to keep the library open for one hour after classes. Many of us go home to a room where nobody can read.
The purpose, said to those people. You and we belong in a speech. They show that someone is being spoken to.
A prefect on a rota can mind the room. The cost of the light is smaller than the cost of sending us into an examination with nowhere to revise.
The points, in an order a listener can follow. A full speech develops each one. Do not hide them in one long sentence.
Please support the hour when the headteacher asks. Thank you.
A close that asks for something, then thanks the room. Yours faithfully is a letter close. Leave it out.
Report
A report is for someone who needs the facts in order to act. Title it. Say who asked for it and what it covers. Give the findings in an order the reader can use. Add recommendations when the question asks for them. Keep a formal tone. Write prose, not a stack of single words, unless the question allows notes.
Report
A report tells someone in authority what happened, or what you found, so they can act. The tone is formal. Write continuous prose unless the question allows notes.
Report on the broken bridge on the school road
A title that says what the report covers. The reader should know the subject before the first sentence.
This report was written at the request of the headteacher. It describes the state of the bridge pupils use each morning, and what should be done before the rains.
The opening says who asked and what the report will cover. It is not Dear Sir, and it is not a story about your feelings.
The plank across the gap is narrow. Two pupils fell last week. Their books were lost. The plank is worse after rain.
Findings, in the order they matter. A full report gives each finding a paragraph. Opinions wait until the recommendations.
I recommend that the school write to the assembly this week, and that pupils be told to use the long road until the bridge is repaired.
Recommendations, only if the task asks for them. Number them in sentences if the question says to recommend. Do not end with Your friend.
Story
A story needs people, a place and a change. Open in the middle of a situation the reader can see. Let the middle make that situation worse or different. End by resolving the problem the opening named. Keep one tense unless the time in the story shifts. Do not stop to write a speech about the moral unless the question asked you to.
Story
A story follows people through events. It needs a beginning, a change, and an ending. It is not a letter, and it does not open with I am writing to.
The last lorry
A title is useful. The marker can see the form at once. The title is not a speech greeting.
Kwesi reached the lorry park as the tail lights turned the corner. His bag was heavy and his fare was still in his pocket.
The beginning puts the reader in a place, with a person, and with a problem. The tense is the past. Stay there unless the time in the story really shifts.
He asked the woman selling bread when the next lorry would leave. She pointed at the dark and said the road was closed. Kwesi sat on the bag.
The middle changes the situation. Dialogue, if you use it, is part of the action. It does not replace the action.
When the lights came back they belonged to a smaller lorry, and the mate called his town. He climbed in. He did not count the fare twice. He knew it was enough.
The ending resolves the problem the opening named. It does not start a speech to the reader about the moral, unless the question asked for a lesson.
Common mistakes
Check the form, the audience and the paragraphs before you look for a missing comma.
The form is the wrong one
A speech that never greets the room, an article that ends Yours faithfully, and a story that opens I am writing to have missed the form. Read the question until you can name the form in one word, then write that form.
The audience is ignored
A national newspaper, a school magazine, a parents' meeting and a friend are not the same reader. The opening, the vocabulary and the close change with the audience. A true piece for the wrong reader loses content.
The letter layout is half remembered
Formal letters still need your address, the date, the recipient, a matching close and your full name. Informal letters keep your address and the date, and drop the office block. Dear Sir with Yours sincerely is still wrong.
One paragraph does every job
Organisation is the shape. Give the opening, each point and the close their own paragraphs. A full answer develops the points. A single block can be interesting and still lose the organisation credit.
Expression and accuracy are left for the end that never comes
Leave time to read the work again. Agreement, tense and the spellings you know you miss are mechanical accuracy. They are credited apart from good ideas. A comma does not fix a sentence that has no verb.
How the marks are usually split
Markers usually look at four kinds of credit, and they are not the same kind. Content is what you say, and whether it does the task for the audience you were given. Organisation is the order of the paragraphs, and whether a reader can see where one point ends. Expression is the English itself: the words, the sentences, and a tone that fits the form. Mechanical accuracy is spelling, punctuation and grammar.
A lively piece written as one block can still lose organisation. A neat piece that ignores the question can still lose content. A formal letter that sounds like a chat with a friend can lose expression even when the facts are right. Read the work again for the errors you know you make, after the shape is in place.
WAEC sets the exact split for a paper in the marking scheme for that paper. This page does not copy those numbers. A copied table goes stale, and a number this page invented would teach the wrong target. When you need the official split, read the scheme WAEC issues. Start from the WAEC Ghana site. If a figure you were taught and the scheme disagree, follow the scheme. GLearn does not publish WAEC's mark table.
Practise one form at a time
This week, write the opening paragraph of each form on the same topic, such as a library that closes too early. The six openings should not be interchangeable. If they are, the form is not in the writing yet.
Then write one full piece in the form you find hardest, and have it marked. The essay writing page and the letter writing page carry short marked questions. The WASSCE revision plan is the order for the final weeks. Anna is the coach on WASSCE practice. Kevin is the coach on BECE practice. Both explain the answer. The first questions need no account.
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Keep these open while you revise
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Practise with Kevin and Anna