3vwo letter writing

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 3

Lesson series on letter writing.

 Goals:

• You will learn the difference between formal and informal letters
• You will learn what the structure is of a formal letter
• You will learn what type of language to use in a letter
• You will learn what type of information you could include in a letter

What could be reasons for writing a letter/email to someone?

Letter writing

Watch the video on the next slide on basic letter writing, and answer the questions on the following slides.

Name an example of someone you would write an informal letter/email to

1. Your teacher
2. Your friend
3. The mayor
4. Someone you've never met

Who could you write a formal letter to?

1. Your grandmother
2. Your neighbour
3. Your boss
4. A close friend

Where should you include the date of writing?

1. In the bottom left corner
2. At the top and at the bottom on the right
3. It does not need to be included
4. In the top right corner

How should you start your letter, after you've filled in the date?

What do you think could be the difference between formal and informal language in a letter?

Formal language

Informal language

Hey dude, how's it going?

I am writing this email to file a complaint

Dear Mr Burnsley,

Dear James,

He's always doing so much stuff.

Your book sucks.

I do not think the novel is suitable for young adults.

Start lesson 2

So what about your letter?

The letter you're going to write for the 2-test during the second test week is going to be a letter to the author of your free choice book.

Now.......

Now watch the film clip and then answer the questions on the following slides.

You are writing a letter to the author. Do you think it is it formal or informal?

1. More formal
2. More informal

10 minutes quiet reading

Now that you know it's a formal letter to the author of your book, how do you think you should end?

What kind of structure do you think you should use in your letter?

Your opinion of the book + explanation of why you think this.

How could you start your introduction?

Grading criteria

1. The format of your letter (5 pt)

2. Content of your letter (10pt)

3. Your writing skills (10 pt)

1. The format of your letter
(5 pt)

Salutation

Structure of your letter

Paragraphs

Appropriate ending

Date/names

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Date

Dear Mr / Ms. .... ,

Intro

Body

Conclusion

Yours sincerely,

First + last name

Content of your letter (10pt)

You follow the assignment.

Make clear links to the book.

 Give examples and explanations. 

Meet the word count (about 200 words)

Follow the rules of correctly addressing your audience.

Present a clear personal opinion.

Your writing skills 10 

Grammar

Vocabulary / register

Sentence construction

Spelling

Test prep.

Write down and work out any opinions you have of your book in English.

Don't forget to find support for your opinions, give examples, explain them.

How prepared do you feel for the test now?

What test?

Not very prepared

A little prepared

Somewhat prepared

Very prepared

Final lesson on Letter writing

Quick Collocation Quiz

Which one word can be used to complete all of the following three sentences? The answer appears below.

1. We need a big ........ of colour on that wall to stop it looking so dull.

2. He was a real extrovert and made quite a ........ in the office on his first day.

3. Add a ......... of lemon juice to the salad and it's finished.

COLLOCATIONS: ANSWERS

The missing word is 'SPLASH'. Write your own definition or example sentence to help you remember these collocations:

SPLASH of colour

made quite a splash

add a splash of lemon juice 

10 minutes quiet reading

Have you  finished your book? 

Today's lesson

We will recap what we need to do in the test week

We will look at some useful vocabulary for our letter

We will look at essential layout

We will practice a letter.

Layout

Look at the template

Do you think you can use this for your letter? 

The introduction: 

Tell the author

Which book have you read?

why you chose to read their book,

 genre, setting and theme.

 what your expectations were of this book 

Useful language for your introduction:

I am writing to you because... 

I have read your book .......... and ..........

I have recently taken your book ............ out of our school library, .........

A friend at school has recently recommended your book ....... to me. 

I saw that your book ....... has recently won a prize for literature and .....

I heard a review of your new book on the radio (televison/podcast ) so I rushed out to buy it.

After I had read the great review of your new book in the newspaper, I ..........

Main paragraph (body)  

Your opinion of the book

Did you enjoy it? 

Did you hate it

use examples from the book to support your opinion

Why do you have this opinion

 what were your favourite parts of the book?

setting,

genre, theme,

main character

Useful language for the body paragraph:

a) I am writing to express my opinion about ….

b)I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed reading (name of the book). This was mainly because of .... (setting/genre/main character). 

c) For example ....... (find something to support your opinion)

d) My favourite part of the book was when ......, however, I was dissapointed when/in .......

Conclusion/Final paragraph 

how  could they  make this book        even better 

would you read other books written by them? 

maybe an idea for a sequel

 sumarise your opinion of the book

Give the author a tip

Useful language for the conclusion:

Finally, I think that if ...... (name of the character / setting) had been  ...... (your own idea) then this would have made the story ending more believable/realistic/exciting. 

I want to say how much I liked/disliked this book and that 

a) I will definitely read more of your books in the future.

b) I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

c) I will look out for more books written by you. 

How to prepare for the test!

Step 1. Finish reading the book, take notes whilst you read. 

Step 2. Look on the internet for reviews and take some notes on what other people think and why they are saying this. (Good Reads/ Amazon/ Reedsy). Do you agree with what they think?

Step 3. Write a practice letter - Make a plan using the template. 

Step 4. Peer feedback

Total word count for the whole letter is about 200 words

How prepared do you feel for the test now?

What test?

Not very prepared

A little prepared

Somewhat prepared

Very prepared