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 Writing 3
Letter of Advice
Part 1: Pre-writing
A. Identify the problems teenagers always face below. Put the possible answers into the
boxes that follow.

a. e.

b. f.

c. g.

d. h.

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B. Here are some letter headings from a magazine problem page. Put each one into the
correct type of problem group in the table below. (some may belong to more than one
group).

Type of problem Heading

Family

Body / Health

Relationships / Love

School

Morals (right or wrong behaviour)

Money

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Part 2: Language features of a letter of advice
A. Letters of advice typically use:

1. modal verbs to express obligation, advice and possibility

e.g. You should also learn to praise your sister.

2. connectives to link related pieces of advice and give additional advice.

e.g. Moreover, I would suggest that you use your jealousy to motivate yourself.

3. questions to make suggestions.

e.g. Why not give it a try?

4. imperatives to give advice.

e.g. Don’t feel guilty about your jealousy.

5. sentences containing the first and second conditional.

e.g. If you work hard towards your target, you will forget about your jealousy.

Practice
Write the number (1), (2) or (3) next to the following sentences.
1. An imperative – e.g. Don’t do that!
2. A modal verb – e.g. You should/could/must/may
3. A question form – e.g. Why don’t you speak to your teacher?

a. You could try talking to her.

b. How about talking to your parents about it?

c. Do some sport.

d. You must stop smoking.

e. Talk to your doctor about it.

f. Perhaps you should speak to your teacher.

g. Have you tried going to after school tutorials?

h. You may find it helpful to speak to your friend about the

problem.

i. Why don’t you join a sports team?

j. I think you should do your homework.

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Sample Language
Elementary
1. (I think/I really think) you need to/must/should ...

2. How about ...?

3. It is usually a good idea to ...

4. My suggestion/advice is (to) ...

5. Why don't you ...?

6. You could (try) ...

7. You probably/definitely/really should ...

Pre-intermediate
1. Have you tried ...?

2. I (would) (strongly) suggest/advise that ...

3. If I was/were you, I'd ...

4. In my experience, ... works really well.

5. It's generally best/a good idea to...

6. One idea is to ...

7. One thing you could/should/have to do is ...

8. The best/most important thing (to do) is to ...

Intermediate
1. ... might work.

2. ... would probably work.

3. ... (always) works for me.

4. If I was/were in your place, I'd ...

5. If that happened to me/In that case/If I had that problem, I'd ...

6. My (main/personal) recommendation is/would be ...

7. You'd better ...

8. In this (kind of) situation, I (would) always recommend/advise ...

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B. Using conditional sentences:
(1) Unless 除非
★ ‘unless’ 亦可用於句子開首
E.g. Unless Clause (simple present tense), Clause (future tense).
1. Unless it rains tomorrow, we will go on a picnic at Central
Park.
2. Unless You hurry, you will miss the train.
3. Unless She eats fatty food, she won’t put on weight.
★ ‘unless’ 亦可用於句子中間
E.g. Clause (future tense) unless Clause (simple present tense).
4. I won’t go to Justin Bieber’s unless Lucy wants to go.
concert
5. Energy will be used up soon unless everyone conserves it.

(2) … Gerund … (對動名詞)

★ using gerunds is good way of varying style, especially in written style.

E.g Gerund
. 對動名詞
is important but breaking the Hong Kong records is what really
1. Winning (n.)
matters to me.
2. Playing war games (n.) is popular among young people nowadays.
3. Smoking in public places (n. phr) is anti-social.

(3)No matter (無論如何)

★ ‘No matter’ can be replaced by “It doesn’t matter…” which is more common in spoken English.

Subject + Verb
E.g. No matter wh- words SVO 句子
主語 + 動詞
1. you have to take good care of
where 哪裡 you go, 你往 yourself.
你要好好照顧自己。
2. you should trust me.
what 什麼 they said, 他們說
No matter 你應該相信我。
Sub. + V.
無論
adj.形容詞 主語 + 動 SVO 句子
詞
3. how 如何
he tried, he could not achieve his goal.
hard 努力
他不能達到目標。
他嘗試

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C. What Examiner says in 2018…
Content

Language

Organization

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 Part 4: Sample writing (Letter of Advice)
We usually write letters or emails of advice to give guidance to someone we know. Letters of
advice are often informal letters. They follow the same format, and have the same register
and language, as informal letters.

Informal salutation:
Common salutations include
Hello Philip,
Hello or Dear + the
recipient’s first name.

Unfortunately, brothers and sisters are often compared to each other,

Body paragraphs:
Each paragraph should and this can be challenging. Because your sister is very good at sports,
contain one main idea.
she gets praise from lots of people.
Group related suggestions
and advice into different
paragraphs. Feelings of jealousy about a more successful sibling are natural. When we
hear our sibling being praised, it is difficult not to compare ourselves to
them. We might question why we are not the ones being complimented.
As a result, our confidence can get knocked. Don’t feel guilty about your
jealousy.

Moreover, I would suggest that you use your jealousy to motivate

yourself. This can help you find your own things to be successful at. If
you examine your own life, or experiment with new things, you will find
your own niche---the thing that you can do better than your sister. Why
not give it a try?

You should also learn to praise your sister. If you can praise her, you will
feel better about yourself too---kind acts generally make us feel better
about ourselves!

Closing paragraph: Accept your jealousy. Use it to increase your drive and ambition to be
Summarize your
suggestions, and encourage successful at your own special talent. If you work hard towards your
the recipient to try them
out. target, you will forget about your jealousy. Take good care of yourself

Friendly closing: Best Regards,

Other friendly closings
include Cheers, Best Andrew
wishes and All the best.

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Part 5: Writing Task
You recently received the following email from your friend Andy, who plays for the school
volleyball team.

Hi Jenny,

You know that I’m in the volleyball team, and I really love it.

The thing is, right now, I’ve got so much work to do to get ready for my exams
that I have been missing some of my volleyball training. Recently, I had to ask
my coach to allow me not to come to an important game so I could study.
Unfortunately, my coach, Mr Yang, was really cross with me. He thought, for
some reason, that I wanted to drop volleyball! Now, he keeps piling pressure on
me to keep up with all of the training sessions and the matches. He told me
yesterday if I missed another game, he would drop me from the team.

I’m really confused and frustrated because I love playing volleyball and don’t
want to stop, but it is important that I pass my exams.

Can you give me any advice, Jenny? What do you think I should do?

Regards,
Andy

Write a reply to Andy giving him advice on how to deal with his problem in 200 words.

1. What is the text type?

2. Who is your target audience?

3. What is the tone?

4. Main Tense?

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Your writing

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Comments:
☺

Marking domains Scores

Content (C) /7
Language (L) /7
Organisation (O) /7
Total mark ________x 21 (x5)
Total score /105
Date of marking

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