LETTER TO THE

EDITOR
Letter to the Editor
◦ A letter to the editor is a piece of writing that a reader
sends to a newspaper to express certain points of view.
Although the letter is written directly to the editor, the
letter is published in a public domain. The audience
becomes the readers of that particular article.
◦ It can be solicited (when a newspaper invites its readers
to respond to a question or an article) or unsolicited
(when a reader decides to write about a current issue
without being prompted).
◦ The issues are often of a local or national interest, but
global affairs do feature from time to time.
21st February, 2019
Dear Editor
I am writing in response to Stanley Ip’s letter “More foreign competition at local universities will raise the
quality of Hong Kong graduates” dated February 20th, 2019.
As a university student, I do not agree with Stanley Ip’s view. Local students work so hard to get the chance
to study at a university in Hong Kong. They put in long hours after the school day to improve their prospects
of winning a place and some go to tutorial classes as well. However, their prospects are further reduced
with more places being offered to students from outside Hong Kong. This will increase the competition for
the limited number of university places and this can only lead to more young Hongkongers facing even
more pressure than before.
For many of them, if a lot more students from outside Hong Kong are admitted to tertiary institutions here,
many local youngsters will have their dreams of a university education ruined by this government policy.
The Chief Executive announced an injection of HK$1 billion into a scholarship fund for students from
abroad. Local students cannot apply and since 2014, far less has been made available to them in the form
of subsidies. It is disappointing that at tertiary level the chief executive is allocating fewer resources to -
locals. This will raise the level of discontent felt by Hong Kong citizens, especially youngsters.
It comes down to what should be the priority for the government in education and the needs of local
students as opposed to those who are not from Hong Kong. Maybe it is true that allowing more foreign
students may improve the quality of the local graduates. But there must be better ways to make such
improvements, such as offering more scholarships for young people who do well academically. Also, more
exchange programmes could be organised with foreign universities. This would help broaden the horizons
of young people of the city.
The government should be trying to strike a balance so that the needs of foreign and local students are
satisfied and the two groups can help each other.
Yours faithfully,

Debby Wong
Debby Wong
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Structure (answer)
◦ Date and appropriate salutation: “Dear Editor”
(capitalized “E”)
◦ The introduction includes the details of the article
concerned, the purpose of the letter, any useful
background information
◦ The first body paragraph gives the writer’s identity
(optional), and an overview of his or her stance.
◦ The following body paragraph(s) discuss(es) the writer’s
arguments, backed up by references to original article
(if applicable) and extra evidence/examples/personal
experience.
◦ Conclusion that summarizes the major points of the
letter and suggests solutions
◦ Proper closing: “Yours faithfully,” and full name
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Language
◦ Uses persuasive / emotive language
◦ Uses first person singular / plural
◦ Uses formal, sophisticated language
◦ Avoids colloquial language & slang
◦ Has a serious tone
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Kahoot - recap
◦ https://create.kahoot.it/share/form-2-eng-letter-
to-the-editor/d1cb0007-1eda-486b-b3c1-
1f064b3efd9c
I am writing in to respond to “Hong Kong hospital patient dies after medical
tube wrongly inserted into his lung”. Hong Kong is a well-developed city, and
this sort of accident should not happen. Hongkongers should not die due to
careless medical mistakes.

There are no details as to how the blunder happened. The hospital is

investigating the incident. But the doctors and nurses in charge should have
been more careful.

The government should come up with solutions to prevent this sort of accident
from happening again. For example, they could increase the penalty for
doctors and nurses involved in medical accidents. They could also increase
the number of medical staff at a hospital so that doctors and nurses get
enough rest and don’t need to work overtime.

The Hospital Authority head office should be taking this situation very seriously,
and do everything in its power to prevent similar cases in the future.

If parties do not cooperate to improve the quality of Hong Kong’s medical

services, we risk facing serious accidents again and again.
(http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1908125/letters-editor-february-1-2016)
1. What is the purpose of this letter?
2. Can you spot any problems with this letter? How will you
improve it?
(Guiding questions:
◦ Does the letter start with a clear summary statement in the
beginning? What is that?
◦ Does the letter explain why the issue is important?
◦ Does the letter try to convince people with emotions, facts
or both? Any examples?
◦ Does the letter cite any evidence? Any examples?
◦ Does the letter suggest what can be done? What kind of
language does it use? )

-No “Dear Editor”

-No date
-No name of the writer
-Didn’t state the source of the news article that he read
-Didn’t point out the problems / make any elaborations
before jumping to the solution
Dear Editor,
I am glad to see that Chief Executive Carrie Lam has introduced several measures to further
expand social distancing.
However, among these initiatives, I am concerned about the cancellation of the Paper 4 or oral
exams in Chinese and English for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. That is because
these papers are usually the ones in which students of weaker ability perform better. Such students
usually use oral exam scores to raise their overall grades in the two subjects and increase their
chances of securing a place in university. I am worried that the cancellation of these two papers
will affect their prospects.
As a former HKDSE candidate who later taught English to senior form students, I understand how
important oral exams are to students who do not do well in the reading, writing and listening exams.
Although the weighting of the speaking paper is merely 10 per cent, it may make a slight but
crucial difference in the final grade, especially if students are struggling between Level 2 and Level
3 (Level 3 is the minimum grade for university admission).
For other students, the speaking exam gives them a chance to get one or two extra points in order
to help them join their chosen university programme.
If the speaking papers are to be cancelled, could the Education Bureau consider assigning more
weight to school-based assessment? For English language, school-based assessment covers oral
presentations. In lieu of oral exams, I think this is a good way to still assess students’ oral skills.
That said, problems arise for those who are not school candidates. May I suggest giving them a
chance to complete school-based assessment tasks and submit them in the form of video
recordings for grading? The number of these private candidates is not big, so it should not be a big
problem.
Regards,
Anson Chan
1. What is the purpose of this letter?
2. Can you spot any problems with this letter? How will
you improve it?
(Guiding questions:
◦ Does the letter start with a clear summary statement
in the beginning? What is that?
◦ Does the letter explain why the issue is important?
◦ Does the letter try to convince people with emotions,
facts or both? Any examples?
◦ Does the letter cite any evidence? Any examples?
◦ Does the letter suggest what can be done? What
kind of language does it use? )
Young Post – “Over to you”

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