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 12. Friendly letter to a cousin about a match. Length about about 180 to 200 words, as the paper instructs.
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 dateWhy 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 closeWhy 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 marksWhy 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…”