WASSCE SHS
Layout is a set of marks you can plan. Yours faithfully follows Dear Sir. Yours sincerely follows a name.
A formal letter carries your address, the date, the recipient's designation and address, a salutation, a body in paragraphs, a complimentary close and your name. If you do not name the person, salute "Dear Sir" or "Dear Madam" and close "Yours faithfully". If you name them, salute "Dear Dr Mensah" and close "Yours sincerely". The first body paragraph states why you are writing. Later paragraphs give the facts in the order a busy reader needs. The last paragraph says what you want done, once, politely.
An informal letter keeps your address and the date, drops the formal recipient block, and uses a personal salutation and close. Do not decorate a formal letter with "How is the family?". That sentence belongs to a friend. The body is still English: paragraphs, a point each, no slang. On the real paper the letter is long enough to show development. The questions here test the decisions that lose layout marks before a marker even reads the argument.
Short annotated examples of a formal letter, an informal letter, an article, a speech, a report and a story are on the formats guide. WASSCE essay and letter formats
Each layout item is separate. A missing date is one loss. The wrong close for the salutation is another. The body is marked for purpose, relevance, order and tone. A formal purpose written in chatty English loses tone even when the facts are right.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
4 marks
(a) Match the close to "Dear Madam". (1 mark)
(b) Match the close to "Dear Mr Owusu". (1 mark)
(c) Name two items that appear above the salutation in a formal letter, apart from your address. (2 marks)
(a) Yours faithfully.
(b) Yours sincerely.
(c) The date, and the recipient's address.
2 marks
You are writing to the district director of education about a broken bridge on the way to school. Write the first sentence of the body. (2 marks)
I am writing to report that the bridge on the road to our school is broken, and to ask that it be repaired.
2 marks
Why is "Hi sir, hope you are good" the wrong opening for that letter? (2 marks)
The register is informal, and the sentence does not state the purpose. A director is addressed formally, and the first paragraph should say why you wrote.
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise English Language freeWhen you opened with Dear Sir or Dear Madam and did not use the person's name. When the salutation uses the name, close with Yours sincerely. Mixing the pair is a layout error.
To state why you are writing, in one clear sentence or two. Details come next. A greeting about the reader's family belongs in an informal letter, not in a letter to an office. All WASSCE English Language past questions