Formal Writing - Language & Writing Style

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 4,5

Basic rules

• We do our work when we should
• We are silent during explanations and raise our hands for questions
• Our phone is in our "zakkie" in our bag
• We don't eat, drink, or chew gum in class

Learning goals

• I can use personality trait words in a formal context 

• spot the mistakes in a sentence and correct them

Formal Writing

Language and Writing Style

Check pre-existing knowledge

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your address

recipient's adress

The date

Introduce yourself + reason of writing

Explanation of the situation

Conclusion

Closing sentence

Your name

signature

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What is the correct opening greeting if you DO NOT know who will read your letter?

How do you end a formal letter?

1. Greetings,
2. Yours sincerely,
3. Sincerely,
4. Yours faithfully,

How do we start paragraph 1?

1. Hello!
2. I'm ...
3. My name is ...
4. Good day

How do you say 'ik zit op het Corderius'

1. I sit on Corderius
2. I am on Corderius
3. I am at Corderius
4. I go to Corderius

Which one is correct?

1. I am a fourteen-year-old boy/girl
2. I am a boy/girl and I am fourteen
3. I am a fourteen years old boy/girl
4. I am 14 and a boy/girl

Which one is correct

1. The reason I write you is...
2. The reason I am writing you is...
3. The reason i am writing you is
4. The reason i write you is...

How do translate 'havo' in British English

1. Pre-University Education
2. Higher General Secondary Education
3. Pre- College education
4. havo

Mind the following

In a formal letter all words MUST be written in full

So do not use:  isn’t, it’s of won’t, but:

is not, it is en will not. Gonna and wanna  are a definite NO GO!

For names of magazines or newspapers, use quotation marks. The ‘Telegraaf’.

DOs

1. Make it neat.
2. Use signal words and the appropriate tenses, wherever necessary
3. Use paragraphs ( and use blank lines to clearly separate them)
4. Use a difficult grammar item every now and then (passive, relative clauses)
5. At the end, check your work!
   

Don'ts

1.  DON'T forget about the lay-out
2.  DON'T use abbreviations / contractions (like I'll, didn't)
3.  DON'T use the first translation you find in a dictionary without checking. 
4. DON'T forget content elements 
5. DON'T use swear words or street language 
6. DON'T use dumb language (gonna, kinda, u, ur, w8, like ... you know, etc.) 

Frequent mistakes

Capital Letters:

When you talk about "ik", "i" is wrong, it is always “I” 

Days of the week, months : Monday, Tuesday, August, October

Frequent mistakes

Word Order

Wrong:  

In my opinion is it great to live in New York.

Right: 

In my opinion it is great to live in New York

FORMAL

INFORMAL

Long sentences

Short sentences

Active voice

Passive voice

Email

Application letter

No contractions

• Use adverbs and adjectives to make your writing come alive

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personality traits

https:

Most of those heroes have spend half there lifes trying to be ordinary people. (3)

Ones they where traveling threw South America whit some friends when too of them were kidnaped. (6)

Those lady’s were trying to get some potato's, tomato's and loafs of bread for free. (4)

Their are five books about wit here; this one is a lot funnyer then the other once, don’t you think so too? (4)

The End