FORMAL WRITING

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WRITING A FORMAL LETTER

• FORMAT OF FORMAL LETTER
• CONTENT: opdracht
• FORMAL LANGUAGE
• LEESTEKENS
• HOOFDLETTERS
• GRAMMAR
• LINKING WORDS 

FORMAT FORMAL LETTER

• Make sure you know both formats > 1. When you know the name of the addressee 2. When you don't know the name of the addressee
• Also, study the minor details of both formats> They are important! > p. 4/5 of the reader

True or False?
In a formal letter, I skip a line between every part of my letter and between paragraphs.

True

False

I can start counting the words from....

1. My own address
2. The date
3. The greeting: Dear.....,
4. The first paragraph

You address your letter to Mr Fred Warwick. How do you start your letter?

1. Dear Fred,
2. Dear Mr Warwick,
3. Dear Mr. Fred Warwick,
4. Hello Mr Warwick,

Is this a good way to write the date?

30 November 2021

1. YES
2. NO

You have to write to a company called 'Veganworld'. How do you start your letter?

1. Dear Veganworld,
2. Dear Sir,Madame,
3. Dear Sirs,
4. Dear Sir/Madam,

You've started your letter with Dear Sir/Madam, now what is the correct final salutation (=eindgroet)?

1. Kind regards,
2. Best wishes,
3. Yours faithfully,
4. Yours sincerely,

Write down a good closing sentence.

Is this address complete?

Starbucks
49 Abbey Road
Leeds TC7 8KL

1. NO
2. YES

What was missing in the address in the slide before?

Look at the ending of this letter. What's missing here?

Yours faithfully,

Henk

1. surname and signature
2. surname
3. signature

Why is this not a good start of a PEEL proof paragraph?

In this letter, I am going to tell you that I do not agree with the statement.

Formal language

• You have to write a FORMAL letter: Make sure your language fits that purpose?
• Try not to make your language too simple.
• However, do not make your sentences too complex: Your reader will not understand you.
• Use linking words!
• Be polite and kind.
• Do not use contractions of verbs but write them in full>>> not I'm not, but I am not > not You can't but You cannot etc.

What's wrong in this sentence?

It is gonna be difficult to solve this problem of climate change.

Which is a correct sentence?

1. I would like to be part of your organization in the Sales department.
2. I want to tell you that I want to work for your organization.
3. I hope you guys give me a job in the Sales department.
4. I think I would be very suitable to work for your company.

Punctuation: leestekens

• Make sure you put your commas, full stops, question marks in all the right places. 
• Check this before you hand in your work!
• Always put a comma after the linking word, if you start a sentence with a linking word > However, / First of all, / In conclusion, 
• Put commas where there is a natural pause in the sentence.

Fix this text, putting the punctuation in the right places.

First of all I would like to let you know that I am really good at languages helping customers and working with colleagues I think I could really contribute to your company

Capital letters

• I=ik > always capital letter
• Countries, languages, nationalities
• Names of people, holidays, geographical places ( and also of organizations, such as BBC/Instagram/Snapchat/Starbucks/Greenpeace
• months, days of the week, seasons

Fix this text, putting capital letters in the correct places.

i would like to say that often dutch people who live in cities like amsterdam, do not celebrate christmas at home anymore. Instead, they spend their time in fastfood restaurants, such as burger king. in december, fast food chains make a lot of profit.

Spelling

• Check your spelling critically before handing in your work.
• If you are not sure, use a dictionary! 
• Beware of often made spelling mistakes: there/their/they're -eachother -alot- happend -then/than- accept/except-which/wich/witch-to/too/two-where/were -definitely -immediately

Which sentence is correct?

1. It is often said that preventing illness is better then curing illness.
2. Alot of people say there to busy to cook a decent meal at night.
3. The situation has definitley changed a lot.
4. I immediately understood which of these sentences had too many mistakes in them.

Which sentence is incorrect?

1. It is rather suprising too see that you have sertainly not understood the issue of spelling.
2. The impact of the meat industry is much bigger than that of the gas and oil industries.
3. Their share in the problem is not to be underestimated.
4. Doing your homework is always a good thing, except when you are too tired to focus anymore.

Grammar general

• Lots of mistakes are made with grammatical verb tenses (grammaticale tijden). Always remember the rules!
• Lots of mistakes are made with word order.
• Lots of mistakes are made with prepositions.  

Which of these sentences is correct?

1. I am very interested to work for your organization.
2. I have been working for Starbucks for years.
3. I have worked for Greenpeace in 2019.
4. Perhaps would it be a good idea to tell you about myself in an interview.

www.englishpage.com

www.ego4u.com

www.englishpage.com