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For an essay to be good it has to
be:
a. Relevant
b. Free of
errors
c. Well expressed
d. Well
organized
Relevance
A relevant essay addresses the subject matter of
the question. It does not digress from the purpose of the essay. If, for
example, you are asked to describe how you spent your Easter, there is no
good reason for you to abandon that topic and write about how you
celebrated your birthday in August. A student, who was asked to debate
Capital Punishment, spent a lot of time giving good reasons why teachers
should stop flogging pupils. That would have earned him good marks if the
question was about CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Since Capital punishment is the
practice of sentencing people to death for some serious crimes, the
content of that student's essay is largely
irrelevant.
Errors
Too many errors in an essay can cause
irreparable damage to that essay, especially spelling, grammar, and
punctuation errors. Some students concentrate so much on the message they
have, that they forget exam authorities are more interested in the quality
of the language used to write the message. It is important for you to
improve your spelling standard. When you are in the exam hall, avoid
writing words you cannot spell. Grammar and punctuation topics should be
well covered before taking the exam.
Expression
A good essay
should be well expressed. This means the right words and phrases should be
used to discuss the topic in the essay. Some topics have registers, and
they should not be misused. A student's ability to used complex
punctuations (without errors) is also a strong sign that he can express
himself well in writing.
Organisation
It must be remembered that
some form of planning is needed before an essay is written.
This
ensures that the essay remains well organized. Some general organization
can apply to most of the essay types. This includes having a short
introductory paragraph, at least three full paragraphs and one short
concluding paragraph. The introductory and concluding paragraphs may be
between 40 and 60 words, but the three or four full paragraphs, may be
about 120 words each.
1 Introduction
2 Full paragraph
3 Full
paragraph
4 Full paragraph
5 Conclusion
This is just a rough
outline, which will allow some deviation. It is largely to ensure that you
fulfil the minimum requirement of 450 words.
Each essay has a different
way of handling the short introductory and concluding paragraphs. The full
paragraphs, however, should discuss the main purpose of the essay without
digressing. For more information on how this full paragraphs are handled,
read the topic:
A Good Paragraph, on page on page 13.
INFORMAL
LETTER
This type of letter is personal, and it has nothing to do with
the official job of the receiver. If it has anything to do with his
official work, then write a formal letter instead.
1. Address
a)
Names in the address are supposed to be proper nouns and, therefore, every
item in these names should start with a capital letter.
b) The major
items in the address should not be partially punctuated. If you are using
commas to separate the items, add a full stop to the last item. Or you may
decide not to use these punctuations at all.
1 Goderich Street, 1
Goderich Street
Freetown, Freetown Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leone
2. Date
There are many ways you
can write the date. Many are acceptable, but some are prone to errors and
should be avoided in external exams. Abbreviated forms, especially, should
be avoided. Remember to capitalize the month in the date.
Acceptable
forms:
17th November
2003
November 17,
2003
Risky forms:
November 17 2003 17th Nov. 2003
17 - 11 - 03
17/11/02
3. Salutation
You may use the person's first name, or
you may address him by his family title, if he is related to you.
Examples:
Dear Sullay, Dear Mother, My dear Mum,
Dear Aunty
Margaret, Dear Sister Binty
4.Body of the Letter
a) Introduction
(one short paragraph)
Use this first paragraph to foster a good
relationship with the recipient. You may acknowledge receipt of his letter
and then make some interesting comments on it.
You may also:
- say
why you didn't reply earlier to his last letter.
- ask why he has not
replied even though you have written several letter.
- sympathise with
him for some misfortune or illness he has suffered recently.
- rejoice
with him for some luck or great fortune that has come his way
recently.
- express surprise over something strange that has happened
to him, the family or the community.
- express thanks for something he
has done for you recently.
- create fun(humour)
b) Purpose (at
least 3 full paragraphs)
This is where you start discussing the purpose
for which you have written. Outline in detail your reasons for writing,
making sure you divide your thoughts into logical paragraphs. If you are
narrating an incident , each major episode(event) within your story should
occupy a paragraph.
c) Conclusion (one short paragraph)
This last
paragraph is not a place to continue discussing your purpose or reasons
for writing. You may however emphasize a point already discussed in the
previous paragraphs, especially if you want that to make a last minute
impression on him.
You may also:
- express your greetings and best
wishes.
- express the hope of receiving a reply.
- make enquiries on
things of interest to you.
3.The Subscription
Many forms are
acceptable. However, don't try to be too extraordinary. The most common
for is "Yours sincerely" followed by your first name only. Note that the
Yours starts with a capital letter but an apostrophe is not used with the
s. The "sincerely" starts with a small s.
Example:
Yours sincerely,
Alpha
Past Questions
2.Your younger brother has so offended your
father that they do not talk to each other. Write a letter to your brother
suggesting three ways in which he can be reconciled to your father.
SC/GCE Nov. 1998
3.Your elder brother who looks after you in
school has accused you of wasting money. Write a letter to him giving at
least three reasons why you rather need more money.
SC/GCE June
1997
1 .Write a letter to your brother at another school in your
country telling him how your relationship with your best friend has turned
sour. SC/GCE June 1987
4. Your brother is about to enter secondary
school. Write a letter to him, stating at least three problems he is
likely to face in school and suggesting ways of solving them.
WASSCE
June 2003
FORMAL LETTER
Formal letters are official in nature.
They are not addressed personally to the receiver but to the position
he/she occupies.
1. Addresses and Date
Two addresses are required.
The first (that of the writer) goes with a date, and the second starts
with the official title (designation) of the receiver.
1Sani Abacha
Street
Freetown
9 October 2003
The Personnel Manager
Sierra
Leone Commercial Bank
Siaka Stevens Street
Freetown
2.Title
or Heading
This comes immediately after the salutation and should be
capitalized appropriately. It should give an idea what the letter is
about.
3.Body of the Letter
a. Introduction (one short
paragraph)
Start by stating the main purpose the letter. Don't beat
about the bush. State the purpose clearly.
I write to know the
procedures needed to
install a telephone in my home.
Please
permit me to use your medium to
expression my opinion on the
performance
of the police in recent times.
I wish to apply for
the post of junior clerk as advertise in the New Storm newspaper.
If it is a rejoinder you may start like this:
With reference to
several articles that have
appeared criticizing the performance of
the
police, I wish to contribute to this discussion.
b. The
Detail (at least 3 full paragraphs)
Discuss the purpose of your letter
in as much detail as possible, devoting a full paragraph to each main
point. Your language should be serious and respectful. Avoid slang and
inappropriate language.
The following do not sound polite or
appropriate:
Please reply immediately.
I thank you in advance for
your full cooperation
I hope you will understand clearly that
�.
I'll do what I can if I'm given this job.
Instead you may use
some of these expressions:
I would be very glad if you could reply to
my letter as soon as it is convenient for you.
I should be grateful
if you would �
We would be very delighted if you could come to our
�
I regret that �
You will need a short concluding paragraph
to sum up your letter.
c. Subscription
Example Yours
faithfully,
Olive Savage
ARTICLE
Type of
Articles
1. School Magazine
2.
Local Newspaper
3. National
Newspaper
4. International Newspaper/
Magazine
5. Essay Competition
Writing an
Article
1.Title
The title should be short, relevant, well
capitalized and underlined.
Which of these three titles is the
best?
a. The Role that women in general Play in the Development of our
Community .
b. The Role of Women in our Community
c. Women: Their
Role in Community Development
2.Body of the Article
a)Introduction:
(one short paragraph)
This is where you attract the attention of your
reader. You may start with an attention catching statement, a significant
statistics, a quotation or wise saying. In this paragraph your reader must
be able to know what your article is about.
b) Detail: (at least three
full paragraphs)
Present the full detail of your article in as many
paragraphs as you can, each paragraph addressing a major issue in the
topic you are discussing. Two paragraphs may not be enough. Remember that
you should develop the topic fully, and you must do this in about 450
words. So three or four paragraphs are needed to develop your article
fully. If you write five or six paragraphs there may not be enough time to
develop each paragraph fully.
The type of language may vary with the
type of article. An article for a foreign magazine requires a much more
formal language style. An article for a school magazine requires an
informal language style.
c) Conclusion: (one short paragraph)
The
conclusion of the article will depend on the type of essay in the article
(narrative, argument, descriptive, etc). If the essay is an argument, you
will need to sum up your argument and give your evaluation. For a
narrative, the conclusion may include the last episode or a climatic end
of the story.
3. Name and Identification
You will need to write your
full name at the bottom of your article. Beneath your name write a word or
two that briefly identifies you. It may be your form in school or your
town or country. Example:
School Magazine: Brima Turay,
SSS Arts
1A
National Newspaper: John
Lamboi,
Rotifunk
International Newspaper: Joseph
Williams,
Sierra Leone
Past Questions
1.Write an article for a
foreign newspaper on the topic, The Changing Role of women in my
Country.
2.Write an article for publication in one of your local
newspapers on The effect of Superstition on the People in your
Locality.
ARGUMENT (Causes and Solution)
1. Start by defining
the problem. Say how wide spread and acute the problem is. Who are mostly
at risk by this problem? What signs exists that the problem is serious? Is
it getting better, or is it getting worse. What impact is this problem
making on the community in general?
2. Explain the causes of the
problem. Many reasons may exist but some have more weight than others.
Priority should be given to the most important causes which tend to carry
the heavier weight. Doubtful and irrelevant causes should be
ignored.
Remember that this is an argument. Avoid speculations and
present sound reasoning.
3. Suggest your solutions. If there are
many solutions give priority to the most important ones. You may look at
the causes you have already outlined and suggest solutions for each of
them. Your suggestions should be convincing and sensible. It is
unreasonable, for example, to suggest a solution without saying how it can
be financed, organised, sustained.
Past Questions
1. There has been
an outcry in the country against people's desire for quick wealth. Write
and article suitable for publication in any local newspaper, stating the
causes of this tendency and suggesting possible solutions.
WASSCE June
2001
2.The level of educational attainment in secondary schools in
your country is low. Write a letter to the editor of a national newspaper
giving reasons for this and suggesting ways for improving it.. WASSCE June
1998
3.The high rate of unemployment among school leavers poses a
serious problem in your country. Write an article for publication in one
of your national newspapers suggesting ways of remedying the
situation.
4.Write an article for publication in one of your
national newspapers discussing the problems faced by parents in educating
their children.
NARRATIVE
Questions dealing with narratives come
in many forms:
1. Plain
Describe to your classmates how you spent
the last Eid-ul-Fitr or Easter. SC/GCE June 1996
2.
Continuation
Write a story ending with: '�but I alone was punish.'
SC/GCE June 1995
3. Title
Write a story with the title "He was
caught in his own trap". SC/GCE 1997
4. Proverb
Tell a story to
illustrate the saying: "Birds
of a feather flock together." WASSCE
November 2002
Writing a Story
It is important to start the story
immediately in the first paragraph, instead of beating about the bush.
Allow the events to move chronologically, so that the reader can follow
the thread of the story. Keep the number of characters low, and weed out
any irrelevant episode. Some paragraphs may be shorter than usual
depending on how long some episodes in the story last.
You may choose
to make your story very dramatic by introducing:
a.
tense moments,
b. a sudden deepening of a
crisis,
c. a surprise attack
,
d. an intensive struggle to get out of a
problem,
e. or a narrow escape from danger.
You
may, on the other hand, decide to tell a straight story with no surprises
or suspense.
Tense
Writing the correct tense for a story is a
big problem for many students. To write a story, you must know how to use
the past tense correctly. They are:
a. past simple
tense
b. past continuous
tense
c. past perfect tense
d.
past perct continuous tense
Whenever you unfold a past event, you must
know which of these four tenses to use. ["Tenses" is discussed in Page
7]
Try to avoid errors associated with:
a. wrong
tense form
b. wrong tense
sequence
c. Inconsistency in tenses
Past
Questions
1. Write a story ending with: "He reaped what he sowed". The
story should be suitable for publication in your school magazine. June
2003
2. Write a story, real or imagined, which illustrates the saying:
"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones. WASSCE Nov
2001
(To see more past questions on narratives turn to J1 on page
16)
Correct the verb errors in these passages
My purpose of
writing you this letter is to tell you how our relationship with my best
friend, Joseph, turn sour. It all start on Christmas morning when we are
preparing to go to the beach. After we took breakfast, Joseph ask me to go
to the market and bought five tins of sardines. I was tired at that moment
and tell him to sent someone else. He become angry and said, if I am not
going, he will go and bought them. I told him I cannot go, so �
I
returned late at night and find all the others sleeping. I creep slowly,
trying not to woke anyone up. I don't know where the money was hidden and
I cannot found the key to the safe. I decide to look under the mattress.
As I approach, I step on Alpha's foot, and he cried out in pain. I had
forgot that he is nearest to me. He suddenly open his eyes and see me. I
decide to ran out quickly, but it is too late. He shouted and everyone
wake up. I stood there speechless as they descend on
me.
DEBATE
1.Address all those present, starting with the
Chairman and ending with ladies and gentlemen (or fellow students)
State the motion (topic or proposition ) you are there to discuss, and
whether you support it or not. Define some key expressions and add a few
pleasantries if you can.
2.Put forward your argument
systematically, starting with your most convincing argument. Present not
less than three major points fully explained in separate paragraphs. Each
paragraph should be well developed. This means you should avoid listing
you points; support them with facts, figures, examples, and
analogies.
b) Be consistence in you stance. If you support a motion,
for example, there is no reason for you to swing and begin to present
arguments that oppose your stance. By doing that you are actually helping
an opponent who wishes to kill your argument.
It makes good sense for
you to present some views, which you expect an opponent to put up and to
show that such views are unreasonable or untenable.
From time to time
draw the attention of the chairman or the audience. Make good use of
rhetorical questions.
A sound argument essay should be very persuasive.
The reasoning is sound, as well as the language used to outline your
argument. Discuss the issue at hand instead of attacking any personality.
Avoid making sweeping statements, which you cannot obviously defend
properly. Also avoid making hasty generalization.
3. Concluding
Paragraph
Address those present again, and sum up your argument. You
may end with an attention-catching statement, a quotation, or you may seek
the support of the panel of judges and the audience.
1. You are a
speaker in a debate on the topic: "Education should be free at all
levels." Write your contribution for OR against the proposition. WASSCE
Nov. 2001
2. 'Funeral celebrations are more expensive and more
time-consuming than weddings these days.' Write for or against this
proposition. SC/GCE June 1995
3.You are the main speaker at a
debate on the motion: Healing churches have become more popular than
hospitals in curing the sick. Write your speech for or against the motion.
SC/GCE June 1996
4. As one of the main speaker in a debate, write
your speech for or against the topic, "Scientific advancement is a curse
to mankind.
5. A debate is being organized by the youth club of
your area. Write your contribution either for or against the motion,
'Africans of nowadays should have fewer children'. GCE June 1988
6.
You are the main speaker in an inter-school debate. Write your speech for
or against the motion: "Corrupt Public Officers, too, Deserve Capital
Punishment.
FORMAL SPEECH
1. Title
The title should include
the name of the speaker, the occasion, the place and date of the speech.
It is, however, optional.
2. Introduction
Address those present,
starting with "Mr. Chairman" and ending with "ladies and gentlemen". Thank
the audience for the opportunity given to you to speak on that
occasion.Add some pleasantries or comments.
3. Detail
Begin to
expand on the detail of your speech. Develop a separate paragraph for each
important point of your speech. It would be reasonable to write between
three and five paragraphs.
Make your language formal. This entails
looking at the topic your are discussing as an official matter and
treating it with the seriousness and respect it deserves. Try, however to
make your speech interesting, and establish a cordial relationship between
you and the audience.
From time to time draw the attention of the
chairman and the audience.
Control the length of your sentences to make
your sentences as clear as possible.
4. Conclusion
Address the
people present again.
Your conclusion should not be a crude summary of
what you have already said. Some orators make it the climax of their
speech. You may conclude with a quotation or wise saying, or you may
emphasize a few points you have already mentioned. Add a few comments and
thank the audience.
Past Question
1. It is world health day.
Write a speech to be delivered to students in your district on the topic,
'Drug abuse among teenager: effects and remedies'. WASSCE June
1998
INFORMAL SPEECH (A Talk)
This type of speech does not
require a title or any formal opening. You do not need to address those
present in any hierarchical order. You may use one general expression
(e.g. "fellow classmates" ) to draw everybody's attention.
Since this
is an informal gathering, the language should be informal. An informal
language will have some of these qualities.
a. Relatively short
sentences
b. The use of question tags
c. The use of contracted
auxiliary verbs (e.g. don't, won't, isn't, couldn't).
d. conversational
format
e. The use of the active voice
In most cases the speech is
about an incident to narrate. It may have something to do with your
personal experience or the experience of others. Remember to use the
correct tenses appropriate for past events.
No formal conclusion is
required. The last episode in the story is, virtually, the end of the
story. You may, however, add your comments or evaluation, which may
suggest a lesson you learnt from the incidence.
Past
Questions
1. Describe to your classmates how you spent the last
Eid-ul-Fitr or Easter. SC/GCE June 1996
2. You ran out of your house to
the scene of a deafening gunshot. Tell your class what you saw. SC/GCE
1997
3. Describe to your friends a day in your life when everything
went wrong. SC/GCE June
1993
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