Friendly letter and email

Paper 3 marks purpose, format and control of language.

The essay

Length 250 to 300 words. Narrative tells one event in the past. Descriptive stays in one place and uses the senses. Reflective says what you understood. Discursive shows both sides, then a judgement. Argumentative takes one side and defends it. A picture essay must use the picture. Plan first, then cross the plan out so it is not marked as the essay.

Friendly letter or email

Friendly letter: your address, the date, Dear …, news in paragraphs, a warm close, and your first name. Email: a subject line, a greeting, a short body, and your name. No postal address on an email. “Yours faithfully” does not belong to a friend.

Formal letter

Your address, the recipient’s address, the date, Dear Sir or Madam or Dear Ms Surname, a subject line, a calm request, and a close that matches the greeting. Faithfully goes with “Sir”. Sincerely goes with a name.

Dialogue and other formats

A dialogue is a new line for each speaker, the name, a colon, and the words. No quotation marks. A speech, an invitation, a diary, an agenda and minutes each have their own layout. The format marks are lost before the ideas are read if the layout is the wrong one.

First Additional Language Paper 3 is 100 marks. The essay is 50: content 30, language 15, structure 5, at 250 to 300 words. The rest is a longer transactional text and a shorter one.

How we got there

Read this like a teacher at the board. We go slowly, name every number, and say why we take each step.

Explain in another language · 11

1. What is the question asking?

Read the question twice. Circle the unknown. Underline every number and unit. The paper is asking: Paper 3 transactional, Grade 10. Friendly letter to a cousin about a match. Length about 120 to 150 words, unless the paper says 80 to 100.

In other words — as if you have never seen this before

If you have never seen this before: The format marks are lost before the story starts if the address or the ending is missing. We will name a method in words, write the formula with no numbers, then substitute one line at a time.

2. What do we already know?

Friendly letter. Address, date, greeting, body, ending, name.

3. Which method — and why this one?

The format marks are lost before the story starts if the address or the ending is missing.

4. Step-by-step working

01 / 05
Point
Your address and the date on the right or as your teacher drilled. Greeting: Dear …,
address and date
Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
02 / 05
Apply the law
Two short paragraphs of news. Ending: Your cousin, then your first name. Not “Yours faithfully”.
friendly close
Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
03 / 05
Sense-check
The language can be relaxed, but the format stays. Do not write an essay with no address.
format marks
Why this step: We only do one job per line so a marker can follow the marks — and so you can find a slip without starting over.
04 / 05
Step F — Box the answer with its unit
Address, date, Dear …, two paragraphs, a friendly ending, and your name.
Why this step: A number without a unit is half a mark on a Physics paper, and a marker can miss a Maths answer that is buried in working.
05 / 05
Step H — What the marker is looking for
On an NSC memo you usually earn: (1) a method mark for naming the right formula or idea in words, (2) an accuracy mark for substituting the given numbers with units, (3) an accuracy mark for the boxed answer with its unit. Write those three lines even if you are unsure of the arithmetic — blank pages score zero.
Why this step: First-timers chase the final number and leave the method blank. The memo still pays out for the idea and the substitution even when the last line is wrong.

5. The answer

Address, date, Dear …, two paragraphs, a friendly ending, and your name.

6. Check it like a marker

“Yours faithfully” belongs to a formal letter. A friendly letter that uses it loses the register mark.

7. A trap first-timers fall into

First-timers often grab the first formula they remember, mix units (cm with m, minutes with seconds), or drop a minus sign. Write the formula in words first: “this equals that, because…”

Paper 3 marks purpose, format and control of language.

Skill steps