030409 Feedback On Formal Letters From Group Activity

INFORMING ●Your younger brother has been down with a lingering fever. He has been absent from school for 5 days. He has a valid Medical Certificate excusing him from school for the first 3 days. He did not go to school for the 2 days following because your father deemed him to be too weak to attend classes. ●Write a letter to the school, addressed to the form teacher of your brother’s class, detailing the reasons for your brother’s absence from class. ●Extra help: Give a recount of your brother’s state of health over the 5 days. Provide the contact number of your father towards the end of the letter, so that the form teacher can contact him about the matter if he/she wishes to. Group members: Wei Shan, Aisyah, Kai Lin, Da Jing, Fatin, Asyiqin Tampines Street 82 Block 842F, #09-108 Singapore 526842 31 March 2009 Miss Ong Sin Yee Form Teacher of Class 3e1 Damai Secondary School Damai Lane Dear Miss Ong Absence from school I am Au Wei Shan, Zhi Wei’s older sister. My purpose in writing this letter is to inform you on the absence of my brother from school. He had been down with a lingering fever for the past five days. On the first day, we brought him to the doctor and was given a medical certificate for three days. His fever continued for the next two days and his temperature fluctuated for those two days. He felt slightly better towards the end of the day and his fever subsided the next day. Although his fever had gone, he still felt weak and was unable to come to school for the next two days. If you have any more matters pertaining to my brother’s absence, you can contact my father at 91234667. Yours sincerely Wei Shan

PERSONAL COMPLAINT + REQUEST ●Your next-door neighbour, a 67-year-old man, has been carting junk back home everyday. At first, it did not bother you as he kept his junk in his own home. However, the junk has now overflowed to the common corridor, and the passage to your own home is cluttered with used furniture and electronics. You have tried to talk to him but he has refused to do anything about the clutter, retorting that what he is doing does not concern you. ●Write a letter to the Estate Management Officer of the Housing Development Board (HDB), describing the situation that you are facing and what you hope to see done. ●Extra help: In the introduction, do talk about how you have been resident at the estate for a number of years and have generally been satisfied with living there. Group members: Zi Hui, Yi Jun, Mohana, Hwee Hiang Blk 246 Pasir Ris Street 6 #08-123 Singapore 626262 31 March 2009 Estate Management Officer Housing Development Board Tampines Street 7 #01-237 Singapore 202020 Dear Sir/Madam Lodge a Complaint about my neighbour I am Tan Ah Kao, a 22-year-old man living in Pasir Ris block 246. I have been living in this block for 10 years. I have a 67-year-old neighbour who has been carting junk back home everyday. It did not bother me at first as he kept his junk in his own home. However, the junk has now overflowed to the common corridor. The passage to my own home has now been cluttered with used furniture and electronics. I have always enjoyed living in this estate in this years as it was always kept clean and green. However, the junk has been accumulating along the corridor that made the corridor very congested and brought much inconvenience for the residents. The housing development board has been doing a great job in maintaining the estate. The furnitures and electronics clustered along the corridor has made it even more dangerous for the residents, especially the children and elderly, as the junk are hazardous. It might also attract pests such as rats, encouraging the spread diseases to the residents. This matter is currently bring much inconvenience for all the residents and very serious. Hopefully, it will be resolved as soon as possible. Yours faithfully Tan Ah Kao

INVITE GUEST-OF-HONOUR/ SPEAKER ●As part of its Speak Good English Week, your school would like to invite a prominent radio deejay to give a talk to the students about the importance of speaking good English. ●As the President of the Students’ Council, you have been tasked to write the invitation letter to the deejay, explaining the purpose of the speech. You should also let him/her know what kind of content the school would like him/her to cover in his speecg ●Extra help: Do tell the deejay why he has been chosen over other deejays i.e. flatter him/her. Be polite —make it known to the deejay that you understand that he /she has a busy schedule. Group members: Hong Yan, Sabrina, Zuhairan, Aqilah Tom Lee Damai Secondary School 31st March 2009 Mr Mangali Radio Deejay SM Entertainment 1112 Hy Road S’pore 403187 Dear Sir Invitation to Damai Secondary School I am Tom Lee from Class 4E1, President of Students’ Council. On behalf of the school, I would like to invite you to our school to give a talk to the students about the importance of speaking good English. It would be held during the Speak Good English week. We invited you to this talk because we are confident that you could promote speaking good English to the students. Although we have listened to many radio stations, we find that your radio program is exceptionally good. Your radio programs are mostly educational, which encourages the students to speak good and better English. Other than that, we also invited you here to our school because we think that you are most popular among the other radio deejays. Most teenagers these days, including myself, tune in to your radio station. In your speech, we would like you to cover the importance of speaking good english, why we need to speak good english and how. We understand that you have a busy schedule and would like to apologise for having taken your time. We hope that you would accept our invitation to give a speech. Lastly, we would like to thank you for taking the time to read our letter. Yours faithfully, Tom Lee President of Students’ Council

RESPONDING TO AN ARTICLE ●You were reading the Island Chronicles (a newspaper) on 25 March 2009 when you came across an article with the following headline: Today’s Teenagers Are Wasting their Youth. ● This article was written in response to a survey of teenagers, which showed an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies, the number of teenagers spending hours playing computer games, as well as the amount of money that teenagers are spending on buying branded goods, amongst other statistics. These three sets of numbers were highlighted in the article. ●You feel that the writer of the article is being extremely biased in his/her assessment of today’s youth. ●Write a letter to the Island Chronicles forum page, refuting the claim that today’s teenagers are wasting their youth. Your letter should be in clear, accurate English and should be written in a calmly persuasive tone. ●Extra help: Try to reason that the survey was only conducted on a limited number of youths. You may wish to highlight ways in which other teenagers are not wasting their youth. Group members: Sarah, Wen Li, Yan Xiu, Jasmine Blk 123 Bedok North Road #05-1234 Singapore 456123 31 March 2009 Forum Editor Island Chronicles 245 Island Road Singapore 12345 Dear Sir/ Madam Refuting Youth Claim I am a reader of “Island Chronicles” newspaper. I came across an article published on 25 March 2009 on the topic: Today’s Teenagers Are Wasting their Youth and I beg to differ. This article was written in response to a survey of teenagers, which showed an increase in the number of teenage pregnancies, the number of teenagers spending hours playing computer games, as well as the amount of money that teenagers are spending on buying branded goods, amongst other statistics. These three sets of numbers were highlighted in the article. I feel that the writer of this article is being extremely biased in his/her views of today’s teenagers. In my opinion, I think not all teenagers are wasting their youths as most teenagers are taking course to enhance their skills and some are actively involved in voluntary work. Some teenagers are also participating actively in competitions to gain experience for future use. Minority of the families are poor and some teenagers share their family’s financial burdners by using their extra time wisely and taking up part-time jobs. A number of teenagers spend their youth by trying their best to pursue their dreams and enrolling themselves in arts academy and sports school. However, some teenagers are wasting their time by going to arcades, playing computer games and buying branded goods. Some teenagers work instead of study in order to be able to afford the expensive branded goods, therefore wasting their time. The survey conducted is not very accurate as it only involves a small number of teenagers and does not represent the whole teenage population. Therefore, I conclude that not all teenagers are wasting their youth and that the writer is biased against teenagers. Hope to get a reply from you. Yours faithfully Jasmine See Rui Xia

ASKING FOR SPONSORSHIP ●The Entrepreneurship Club in your school will be holding an Entrepreneurship fair in two months’ time. As a member of the Entrepreneurship Club and the Chairperson of the Organizing Committee, you are tasked with the gathering of funds that will allow the fair to be conducted. Write a letter to the Multinational Corporation (MNC) called Mona Bing and Co. to ask for sponsorship for this event. In your letter, state how much money you hope Mona Bing and Co. will contribute. Do also detail how the money donated will be spent. ●Make sure that you use a persuasive tone. ●What is the event’s name? Who Wants to be an Entrepreneur? Where will it be held? Within the school compound. How many stalls will there be? 30. What materials are required? Tables, chairs, decorative materials, publicity materials like banners, posters and flyers. What are the stalls selling? Food, beverages, handicrafts, second-hand books, second-hand clothes, services like facepainting. Where is the money that is raised from the sale of the items going to? All proceeds will go into the Needy Pupils Fund. ●Extra help: When you are persuading the company to give you money, you may wish to “flatter” the company by saying something about past sponsorships or other charitable work that is attributable to the company. At the end of the letter, do thank the reader for reading through the letter. Group members: Kar Yeo, Rachel, Sibing, Gifferd, Gerald Damai Entrepreneurship Club Bedok Reservoir Road Singapore 479229 64436848 64425629 [email protected] 31 March 2009 Chairperson of Mona Bing and Co Mona Bing and Co. Mona Bing Road 3 Singapore 876543 Dear Sir/Madam Request for Sponsorship I am a member of the Damai Entrepreneurship Club. Our club helps to promote entrepreneurial spirit among our schoolmates and we undertake commercial ventures. Our purpose in writing this letter is to request the sponsorship of a fair to raise money for the Needy Pupils Fund. The name of our event is ‘Who wants to be an Entrepreneur?’ This event will be held at our school compound. There will be thirty stalls and they would be used to sell food, beverages, handicrafts, second-hand books, second-hand clothes and it will also provide services like face-painting. The equipment needed for this event are tables, chairs, decorative materials, publicity materials like banners, posters and flyers. Our calculations have led us to the sum of five thousand dollars. The money sponsored by you will be used to buy the above-mentioned equipment and necessities. Your sponsorship will undoubtedly allow us to carry on with the event and will definitely help in making this event a success. We have also heard that you have sponsored other various events and charities to help the society, which is why we chose your company to sponsor this event. We hope that you will sponsor this event, and make it a success. Thank you for taking time off your work to read this letter. Yours faithfully Rachel Law Wei Bing Chairperson, Damai Entrepreneurship Club

PERSONAL COMPLAINT ●You were a passenger on board Aero Airlines flight AA112 from Amsterdam to Singapore a week ago. You chose to fly with Aero Airlines because you had always had a good opinion of its service standards. However, this flight changed your opinion. On this flight, the service staff did not give you what you wanted, and the attitude of the flight stewardess who served you was particularly bad. You are writing to the Customer Service manager of Aero Airlines to complain about the terrible service you experienced on this flight. ●Extra help: How was the service bad? Perhaps an unpleasant incident happened. E.g. you specifically requested for a vegetarian meal, but were given a non-vegetarian one. When you asked an air stewardess about this, she was extremely impolite. Group members: Abim, Ignatius, Tiffany, Allison, Edison 161 Lor Sarina Singapore 416719 31st March 2009 Customer Service Manager Aero Airlines 123 Changi Street 5 Singapore 666999 Dear Sir/Madam, Unpleasant flight I am Miss Tiffany Ling, a passenger of Aero Airlines flight no. AA112 from Amsterdam to Singapore a week ago. I was very unhappy with the service given to me by an air stewardess, Miss Angela Lim. During the flight, I requested for a meal with no beef but was ended up serving a meal with beef. So, I asked for a change of meal and it took her a very long time to replace what I had. When she came with my meal, she did not apologize for making me wait for such a long time. During the rest of the flight, whenever she walked pass me, she would give me a rude stare. Whenever I called for a flight attendant service, she would come with a ‘very-unwilling-to-serve-me-attitude’. She would always frown at me and never smile like she did to other passengers. Being a manager of a restaurant myself, I believe that such poor services will most likely to affect your bussness as people will prefer to buy tickets from other airlines. Such unsatisfactory behaviour must not be tolerated. As such, I hope you will action to prevent such unhappiness to happen to other passenger. Yours faithfully,

Ms Tiffany Ling

COMPLAINT (ON BEHALF OF THE GENERAL PUBLIC) /REQUEST ●You were waiting for a MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) train when you witnessed an elderly man slipping and falling off the platform. He landed on the tracks but luckily, a few alert commuters managed to press the emergency button to stop the train and the man was rescued. You feel that MRT platforms are dangerous and you wish to see more safety features in place. Write a letter to the SMRT (Singapore Mass Rapid Transit) company, highlighting the potentials dangers on the platforms, and make suggestions of what can be done to make them safer for everyone. Extra help: Detail the incident you witnessed in the introduction. Do commend the fast reaction of the SMRT staff in responding to the incident in the body of the formal letter. Group members: Faizal, Chong Ren, Johann, Xue Wen, Jun Rong Blk 123 Baba Road #12-3456 Singapore 123456 31 March 2009 Public Relations Manager Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) Company SMRT Street Singapore 999999 Dear Sir/Madam, Potential Dangers on Platforms Last week, around 10am, I was at Tanah Merah MRT station, waiting for a MRT train. I witnessed an elderly man slipping and falling off the platform and landed on the tracks. Luckily, a few alert commuters managed to press the emergency button to stop the train and the man was rescued. I feel that the MRT platforms are unsafe and dangerous. I wish to highlight the potential dangers on the platforms and make some suggestions of what can be done to make them safer for everyone. One of the potential dangers is that during rainy days, the floor of the platforms will be wet and slippery. I suggest that the MRT station should be well-sheltered and kept dry at all times. This is to prevent such incidents from happening again. Another suggestion is to replace the smooth marble tiles with rough surface ones. This is to prevent commuters from slipping and injuring themselves, and to ensure that such incidents would not happen again. I wish to see more safety features in place on platforms of MRT stations. Last but not least, I would like to complement on the fast reaction of the SMRTstaff in responding to the incident, without staff which, the elderly man might not be rescued on time. I hope that improvements would be made to prevent any mishap in the future. Yours faithfully, Mr Ali Baba

HIGHLIGHT AN ISSUE ● When you were walking to school one morning, you noticed a dog leashed to a lamp post. When you walked home from school that evening, after a whole day of classes, as well as your co-curricular activity in the afternoon, the dog was still where it was. You realize that it has been abandoned and contact the SPCA to report the incident. You also decide to write a letter to the Singapore Times Newspaper forum to highlight the issue of irresponsible pet ownership in Singapore. In your letter, express your views regarding the issue and suggest ways to help the public realize that a pet is not a toy and should not be discarded. Extra help: In the introduction, detail your encounters with the dog and what you did to help it. In the body, you may also wish to highlight the good work SPCA has done in the prevention of irresponsible pet ownership. Group members: Eunice, Jin Rui, Jun Hao, Eunice, Xue Wei, Xiang Yue Blk 123 Bedok Reservoir Road #02-13 Singapore 123123 31 March 2009 Forum Editor Singapore Times Newspaper Shenton Way 2 Singapore 135793 Dear Sir/Madam Prevention of irresponsible pet ownership I am a student from Damai Secondary School. When I was walking to school one morning, I noticed a dog leashed to a lamp post. When I walked home from school that evening, the dog was still where it was. It came to me that it has been abandoned and I contacted the SPCA to report the incident. While waiting for the representatives of the SPCA< I went to the nearest supermarket to purchase some dog food. The SPCA officer came approximately one hour later. They took great care of the dog and did some follow up. UNfortunatel,y the dog was frail and fragile and needed to be put to sleep. I felt that cases of irresponsible pet ownership seems to be increasing rapidly lately. I would like to say that a pet is not a toy and should not be discarded as and when they like. They should be treated with utmost care, just like how a mother would treat their own child. Having a pet should be a lifetime commitment, therefore, owners should consider different factors first before making the decisions. One should look at their own financial status, to check if are able to provide for the pet’s basic needs and if they are really serious about taking great care of them. I therefore hope that you can assist me in spreading this message to the public so as to prevent further mistreatments of animals. Yours Faithfully,

Leong Jin Rui