In this lecture, we will discuss the actual writing process.
We'll get into the structure of the general letter.
I want to make sure that you know exactly what you're supposed to do in each part of the general letter.
So let's get started.
First of all, let's talk about style.
You know, we have the formal, semi formal and informal letter.
So I want to first touch on style.
We have a formal semi-formal writing style.
Again, semi-formal and formal are very, very similar.
The only real difference is that with a formal letter, you're addressing an organization, a school,
a company, a manufacturer with a semi-formal letter, you're addressing a person at that company,
manufacturer or school.
That's the real difference.
When you're addressing a company or business, you're going to be a lot more.
Very, very direct.
You're going to not have any type of flowery language or slang language.
No colloquial language with the semi-formal letter is the same way is just that in terms of.
What we're saying within the sentence is a little bit different because we're talking to a person as
opposed to talking to a corporation.
So the first point is in terms of style is more of a complex nature.
You're going to write longer sentences that involve the compound complex and compound complex sentence
structures.
Each point needs to be introduced and very well elaborated.
Your objective.
You're going to show you're not going to show really any emotion.
No emotive punctuation.
You must address all the points.
Giving support, using very specific detail, great subject matter vocabulary.
No contractions, no slang, no colloquial language.
Now you'll have collocations.
But collocations are different than colloquial type of language.
Collocations deal with word combinations and then with the formal semi-formal style, you're doing a
lot more third person writing with an informal letter.
It's always eye, but for a formal or semi formal letter, you know, you will most likely avoid that
I language although it is permitted it's not a it's not really an issue, to be honest with you, because
it depends on the the question that you're asked.
It can be a formal question that requires you to use I or we.
It really depends on the question, to be honest with you.
Then we have an informal style.
And this is when you're writing to a friend or family member or even a neighbor.
It also could be a colleague.
Again, depending on the letter type.
Now here we're going to use that colloquial language is very similar to spoken conversation.
You can show empathy and emotion.
Your sentence structures will tend to be more on the simple side with the informal letter.
But it doesn't mean that you're not going to show ability.
You still want to do a compound or complex sentence, but have you'll have a lot more simple sentences
with the informal writing style.
And of course, the first, second and third person are possible.
It all depends on the type of information that they want in the question.
Now let's get into the four parts.
The four parts.
Now, technically, we can say there are five parts because you do you do a conclusion, but there are
only four parts that you really need to know how to write correctly because the conclusion is really
just a summary sentence.
A summary statement is very, very straightforward, is not overly complex or complicated, but the
first four parts are what we really need to focus on in terms of structure and requirement.
So these are overall the five parts.
And then after I introduce this, we'll go ahead and move into the four essential parts that you are
required to really know how to write.
The introduction covers the purpose, and that's why the introduction is in is so important.
The introduction covers the purpose.
You must be able to state the correct purpose in your introduction.
If you don't, you hurt your task achievement score.
Then you have your discussion point one, your discussion point one, discussion point to and discussion
point three.
And normally there'll be a dash or something, some type of indicator that lets you know this is discussion
point one.
And then another indicator for discussion points two and three.
Now I'll say a little bit about the conclusion.
Right now, the conclusion, as I told you, is just a summary statement of one sentence.
Do not introduce new information in your conclusion.
That's the main advice I can give you.
Don't introduce new information in the conclusion.
So let's look at the general letter introduction in terms of what you have to do.
Your main job here is to make sure that you capture the stated purpose in the letter.
You cannot make just a general statement stay within the confines of the purpose.
Do not blend in any of the discussion points into your introduction.
The introduction must stand alone.
Now discussion point one.
You can see here, discussion point one on the letter here is in yellow.
It gets its own paragraph, write its own paragraph, don't blend it into the introduction.
That hurts your coherence and organization.
Don't do that.
You must do exactly.
You must talk about and discuss exactly what they mentioned in discussion point number one.
So, for example, in this question, it says, your manager has asked you to do a presentation at the
upcoming training session.
Write a letter to your manager and say, what is the topic of the presentation?
So in this first paragraph, in this first discussion point paragraph, you're only allowed to talk
about the topic of the presentation.
If you talk about the benefits or why you're doing the presentation, you're going to lose points.
You're only allowed to talk about the topic.
That's it.
You should have three sentences talking about the topic.
Now discussion point number two.
Again, the same as discussion point number one.
Read it very, very carefully because they're going to give you a very specific request.
You're limited to the confinements, the restrictions of this request.
You cannot bring outside information that is unrelated to this discussion point.
Stay focused.
So here is the second discussion point.
Explain why the center is important for the local community.
That's the only thing you can talk about.
You cannot talk about the effects on the community if you talk about the effects on the community.
When you're supposed to talk about why it's important to the community.
You're going to lose a lot of points.
Stay within the structure.
Stay within the confines.
Stay within the confines of the discussion point.
And then finally, discussion point number three.
This is the final discussion point.
After this.
You would put a one sentence conclusion, the third discussion point.
Requires you to only discuss the third idea or suggestion that they want you to make.
So here it says what help you need from your friend with the picnic.
That's all we can discuss.
Now, don't make the mistake of a lot of students, and they get to the third discussion point and they
just say, Well, I'll just write one sentence.
It gets the same attention as discussion point number one.
Each discussion point gets equal treatment.
All right.
So thank you so much for now.
Listening and finding out how to structure the task, number one, and also what information you need
to include for each part.
Next up, we're going to write some introductions and then we're going to move into writing the discussion
points or body paragraphs.
Thank you so much for joining me.
It's a pleasure talking to you.
If you have any questions, please be sure to ask.