00:00:00
hey what's up guys and welcome back to
00:00:02
igcse
00:00:03
success now today's video is for all of
00:00:06
my second
00:00:07
language learners out there and it's
00:00:09
going to be looking at
00:00:10
how to write a successful informal
00:00:14
email so if that sounds interesting to
00:00:16
you be sure to watch
00:00:18
all of the video until the very end and
00:00:20
don't forget to
00:00:21
leave your feedback below and without
00:00:23
further ado let's get on with today's
00:00:25
video
00:00:26
hi guys so igcsc second language english
00:00:29
my
00:00:30
first video i'm so excited and this
00:00:32
video
00:00:33
is for paper to the reading and writing
00:00:36
paper
00:00:36
and it's primarily geared towards those
00:00:38
sitting the extended paper
00:00:40
and if you are sitting the extended
00:00:42
paper that means that of course you can
00:00:44
access those higher grades up to an a
00:00:47
star
00:00:47
and the focus of today's lesson is going
00:00:50
to be how
00:00:51
to write a successful informal
00:00:55
email but first let's just scrutinize
00:00:58
the
00:00:58
mark scheme first where do you get your
00:01:01
marks
00:01:02
from so for exercise five and six they
00:01:06
are both
00:01:07
uh worth 16 marks so it's really
00:01:09
important that you get them right
00:01:11
you are marked on two different strands
00:01:14
content and
00:01:15
language and both are worth eight marks
00:01:18
each
00:01:19
let's just look at the content and the
00:01:21
bullet points so
00:01:23
the first strand underline there is
00:01:25
relevance
00:01:26
is your task fulfilled are you able to
00:01:29
consistently
00:01:30
use an appropriate style and register
00:01:32
for the text type
00:01:34
and can you demonstrate that your
00:01:36
writing
00:01:38
has an excellent sense of purpose and
00:01:40
audience
00:01:41
put simply have you followed
00:01:44
the question have you written something
00:01:47
that resembles
00:01:48
an informal email have you used uh
00:01:52
suitable stylistic choices um
00:01:55
is your style the style that you have
00:01:58
adopted is it suitable for an informal
00:02:01
email so is it chatty
00:02:02
is it informal is it friendly etc
00:02:06
and is that consistent from beginning to
00:02:08
end
00:02:09
excellent sense of purpose and audience
00:02:12
so have you understood why you are
00:02:15
writing
00:02:17
the email are you writing to advise
00:02:20
are you writing to describe are you
00:02:22
writing to
00:02:23
inform etc and of course it's really
00:02:26
important to pay attention to the
00:02:28
audience as well because
00:02:29
writing an email to say your mother
00:02:32
compared to a best friend
00:02:35
your stylistic choices your language etc
00:02:38
they're going to be slightly different
00:02:40
and of course to access those top marks
00:02:43
to get seven or eight out of eight for
00:02:45
content
00:02:46
you have to develop your content you
00:02:48
have to develop your ideas you need to
00:02:50
address
00:02:51
all three bullet points and you need to
00:02:54
communicate your ideas
00:02:56
skillfully and effectively and i guess
00:02:59
much of that is done through your
00:03:01
language let's quickly look at the
00:03:03
second strand which is language
00:03:07
range and accuracy so uses a wide range
00:03:11
of common and
00:03:12
less common vocabulary effectively uses
00:03:15
a
00:03:16
wide range of structures both simple
00:03:18
complex
00:03:19
effectively high level of accuracy of
00:03:22
language throughout
00:03:23
occasional errors may be present but
00:03:26
these do not impede
00:03:28
communication errors are related to less
00:03:31
common vocabulary or more complex
00:03:33
structures
00:03:34
okay so it's really important if you
00:03:36
want to access those higher marks in
00:03:38
terms of language
00:03:40
you need to use a variety of sentence
00:03:42
structure
00:03:43
structures you need to use a right
00:03:46
wide range of vocabulary choices
00:03:50
precisely as well remember cambridge are
00:03:53
not looking for
00:03:54
perfection in terms of your piece being
00:03:57
completely error
00:03:59
but things such as tense agreement
00:04:03
sentence fragments basic spelling
00:04:06
punctuation
00:04:07
and grammar cambridge do expect
00:04:10
candidates certainly
00:04:11
aiming for a top mark for this question
00:04:13
to
00:04:14
not make too many of these errors and
00:04:17
lastly
00:04:18
for organization you know you need to
00:04:21
use paragraphs you know you need to use
00:04:23
connectives
00:04:24
and more on that a little bit later on
00:04:26
so let's look at
00:04:28
some typical features of informal email
00:04:31
writing
00:04:32
and if you've got a pen and some paper
00:04:34
to hand i would get these down
00:04:37
these are the kind of features that you
00:04:39
want to include
00:04:41
into any email task you are given
00:04:44
so let's look at the first one you will
00:04:47
need to
00:04:47
include an appropriate greeting and
00:04:50
friendly opening for example dear john
00:04:54
i know it's been a while number two
00:04:57
you need to adopt a chatty a
00:05:00
friendly and informal style for example
00:05:04
you wouldn't believe it number three
00:05:07
use of idioms and phrasal verbs idioms
00:05:11
such as
00:05:11
better late than never phrasal verbs
00:05:14
such as
00:05:14
i had to put up with something
00:05:19
four informal expressions such as
00:05:22
it seriously blew my mind number five
00:05:27
interrogatives a fancy term for
00:05:29
questions
00:05:30
what would you have done number six
00:05:34
contractions can't wouldn't
00:05:38
hadn't or certainly something i would
00:05:40
expect and cambridge would expect to see
00:05:43
in an informal email number seven
00:05:47
simple connectives and next beca
00:05:50
because so remember this is an informal
00:05:54
email so
00:05:55
using connectives such as furthermore
00:05:57
moreover
00:05:59
are probably not appropriate number
00:06:01
eight using a
00:06:02
range of vocabulary including some
00:06:05
ambitious
00:06:06
choices for example it was good that
00:06:10
adjective good
00:06:11
versus it was captivating number nine
00:06:15
using a variety of sentence structures
00:06:19
cambridge do not want to see just a
00:06:21
string
00:06:22
of simple sentences try and get in some
00:06:25
complex sentences
00:06:27
as well when i entered the shop
00:06:30
it was remember if we are using complex
00:06:33
sentences
00:06:35
there's a comma to separate the
00:06:37
dependent clause
00:06:38
from the independent clause and if you
00:06:41
are not okay with your
00:06:42
different sentence types it is something
00:06:45
i recommend you
00:06:46
going away and certainly revising
00:06:50
the three main sentence types number 10
00:06:53
an appropriate closing speak soon
00:06:57
catch you later let's meet soon now an
00:07:00
acronym i always use with my students it
00:07:03
doesn't matter if they're doing first
00:07:04
language or second language
00:07:06
is tap and i always say don't forget to
00:07:10
tap on the task t means
00:07:14
text type a means audience and p
00:07:17
means purpose obviously the text type
00:07:21
is given it's always going to be an
00:07:23
email for exercise five but you do
00:07:25
need to establish the audience and
00:07:27
purpose quite quickly
00:07:29
let's read exercise five and this is
00:07:32
your typical
00:07:33
question you would expect to see on a
00:07:36
paper too
00:07:37
you recently helped someone in trouble
00:07:40
write an email to a friend
00:07:41
explaining what happened in your email
00:07:44
you should
00:07:45
describe where you were and what
00:07:47
happened
00:07:48
explain what you did to help say what
00:07:51
you learned from this experience
00:07:53
the pictures may give you some some
00:07:55
ideas
00:07:56
and you can also use some ideas of your
00:07:58
own your email should
00:08:00
be between 150 and 200 words long
00:08:04
you will receive up to eight marks for
00:08:06
the content of your email and up to
00:08:07
eight marks for the language
00:08:09
you use have your highlighters poised as
00:08:12
always
00:08:12
and highlight the key bits of
00:08:14
information so
00:08:16
as mentioned the text type it's always
00:08:19
going to be an email
00:08:20
but let's have a look at the audience so
00:08:23
you are writing to
00:08:24
a friend so of course your language
00:08:27
needs to be quite relaxed
00:08:29
quite friendly and the purpose here is
00:08:32
you are explaining what happened so you
00:08:36
need to go
00:08:37
into detail about the situation
00:08:40
and really to be successful with this
00:08:43
question
00:08:44
you need to have about three paragraphs
00:08:46
you need to address
00:08:48
each bullet point equally and you must
00:08:51
develop
00:08:52
your ideas and feel free to use the
00:08:54
pictures
00:08:55
sometimes they can be helpful but the
00:08:58
most important thing
00:08:59
is that you read the bullet points
00:09:01
carefully
00:09:03
so let's take a look at what
00:09:07
success looks like let's look at a
00:09:10
model response to this question
00:09:15
dear jake how's things it's definitely
00:09:18
been a while
00:09:19
i'm sorry i've been a little on the
00:09:21
quiet side you know how hectic life gets
00:09:24
sometimes
00:09:25
i wish i was exaggerating but i
00:09:27
presently have a mountain of homework
00:09:29
staring at me from the corner of my room
00:09:32
anyway i thought i'd reach out to you as
00:09:34
something rather shocking happened today
00:09:36
in our favorite coffee place
00:09:38
you won't believe it early this morning
00:09:41
i miraculously found myself with five
00:09:44
minutes to spare
00:09:45
so i thought i would nip into coffee for
00:09:47
you as soon as i stepped foot into the
00:09:50
shop
00:09:50
there was some commotion happening a
00:09:52
woman was in floods of tears
00:09:55
i stood frozen for a few seconds she
00:09:58
started waving her purse in the air
00:10:00
and she suddenly locked eyes with me her
00:10:03
money
00:10:03
had been stolen at this point i was very
00:10:06
aware of the time
00:10:07
i was also very aware of being face to
00:10:11
face with someone who desperately needed
00:10:13
my help
00:10:14
i decided to put school to the back of
00:10:16
my mind and put my hand on the lady's
00:10:18
shoulder
00:10:19
and told her that i would try my best to
00:10:20
help i called the police immediately
00:10:23
and explained the situation to the busy
00:10:25
baristas
00:10:26
so obviously there i have addressed
00:10:30
both bullet points the first two bullet
00:10:32
points and i i have developed my ideas
00:10:35
appropriately
00:10:37
let's look at the third bullet point the
00:10:40
police swiftly arrived and the lady
00:10:41
thanked me
00:10:42
i felt a huge wave of happiness come
00:10:45
over me
00:10:46
i had finally done something right in my
00:10:48
life what would you have done
00:10:50
i didn't manage to get to school in time
00:10:52
but being late really didn't bother me
00:10:54
that much
00:10:55
sometimes we have to put others first
00:10:57
even if it means
00:10:58
getting another detention for being late
00:11:00
oops
00:11:01
anyway let's meet up soon it's been far
00:11:04
too long
00:11:05
stephen so why is this email
00:11:08
successful well let's take a look
00:11:13
number one there is an appropriate
00:11:15
greeting and friendly opening
00:11:17
so i've used dear jake how's things
00:11:21
number two i have adopted a chatty style
00:11:24
it's definitely been a while i've used
00:11:27
the phrasal verb
00:11:29
reach out number four i've used informal
00:11:33
expressions such as
00:11:34
you know how hectic life gets sometimes
00:11:38
number five i've used interrogatives for
00:11:41
example
00:11:42
what would you have done number six i've
00:11:44
used contractions
00:11:46
how's and didn't number seven i've used
00:11:49
simple connectives
00:11:51
and so anyway number eight i've used a
00:11:55
range of vocabulary including some
00:11:57
ambitious choices
00:11:59
shocking miraculously desperately
00:12:03
number nine i've varied my sentence
00:12:05
structures there's lots of simple and
00:12:07
complex sentence structures
00:12:09
for example as soon as i stepped foot
00:12:12
into the shop
00:12:13
and number 10 i've used an appropriate
00:12:16
closing
00:12:17
anyway let's meet up soon
00:12:20
so let's take a look at another task
00:12:24
last week you met someone who has
00:12:26
recently moved into the area where you
00:12:28
live
00:12:29
you get on well and you think your
00:12:31
friend would like this person
00:12:32
to write an email to your friend about
00:12:35
the person you met
00:12:36
in your email you should say how you met
00:12:39
this person
00:12:40
explain why you think your friend would
00:12:42
like this person
00:12:44
suggest something you could do together
00:12:47
and again you can use those pictures and
00:12:50
your email needs to be between 150
00:12:52
and 200 words long don't worry if you go
00:12:56
slightly over the word count you are not
00:12:58
going to be
00:12:59
penalized but let's take a look at a
00:13:02
model response to this question hi rob
00:13:05
hope all is well with you things have
00:13:08
been pretty quiet here
00:13:09
as usual but the good news is that a
00:13:12
family finally moved into the house next
00:13:14
door
00:13:15
i honestly thought that garish for sale
00:13:18
sign would never come down
00:13:20
they are absolutely lovely and the best
00:13:22
thing
00:13:23
they have a son the same age as us he's
00:13:25
really funny
00:13:27
his name is gaz i met him whilst doing
00:13:30
some morning exercise outside
00:13:32
he just so happened to be doing the same
00:13:34
thing in fact
00:13:36
i almost bumped into him he at least got
00:13:39
us talking
00:13:40
he is like you rob he can talk for
00:13:43
england
00:13:44
he's really into his fitness as well
00:13:46
although he's only just moved here he's
00:13:48
training for his fifth
00:13:49
half marathon you two would get on like
00:13:52
a house on fire
00:13:53
seriously anyway gaz is very eager to
00:13:57
meet some new people
00:13:58
i'm sure you can remember when you were
00:14:00
new to the neighborhood and felt
00:14:02
completely alone
00:14:03
it's not a nice feeling i thought that
00:14:05
maybe we could all grab a coffee
00:14:07
together
00:14:07
how does that sound gaz also mentioned
00:14:10
setting up a little running club
00:14:12
maybe i could point him in your
00:14:13
direction i'm sure you could help him
00:14:15
let me know what you think
00:14:17
jim now let's take a look at why
00:14:20
this model response is successful
00:14:22
there's an appropriate greeting and
00:14:24
friendly opening
00:14:25
hi rob hope all is well with you i've
00:14:28
adopted a chatty style
00:14:30
things have been pretty quiet here
00:14:33
i've used an uh an idiom you two would
00:14:36
get on like a house on fire
00:14:38
that means really well believe it or not
00:14:40
uh informal expressions i've used that
00:14:43
verb grab
00:14:45
maybe we could grab a coffee
00:14:47
interrogatives
00:14:48
how does that sound contractions
00:14:52
he's i'm they're simple connective such
00:14:55
as
00:14:55
and and in fact number eight i've used a
00:14:58
range of vocabulary choices
00:15:01
for example the adjective garish that
00:15:04
means very very bright
00:15:06
and not in a good way either number nine
00:15:09
a variety of sentence structures i've
00:15:12
used
00:15:12
some simple sentences for example
00:15:15
i'm sure you could help him number 10
00:15:18
i've used an appropriate closing let me
00:15:22
know
00:15:22
what you think now let's take a look at
00:15:25
the last
00:15:26
task you recently watched an interesting
00:15:30
documentary which helped you do a
00:15:32
homework project
00:15:33
write an email to a friend about the
00:15:34
documentary in your email you should
00:15:37
describe the documentary that you
00:15:39
watched
00:15:40
tell your friend about the homework
00:15:41
project explain how the documentary
00:15:44
helped you with your homework project
00:15:46
the pictures may give you some ideas and
00:15:49
you can also use some of your own
00:15:51
so let's take a look at the model
00:15:54
response
00:15:56
hey sarah how's tricks you know our
00:15:59
seemingly impossible homework project
00:16:02
that is due in less than a week
00:16:03
well i'm about to answer your prayers ah
00:16:07
the joys of netflix please tell me you
00:16:10
haven't seen my octopus teacher
00:16:12
yet my head has seriously been spinning
00:16:15
from the amount of research i've been
00:16:17
carrying out on invertebrates
00:16:19
this documentary has everything we need
00:16:21
for our project
00:16:22
prayers answered the documentary was
00:16:26
seriously amazing
00:16:28
who would have thought that octopuses
00:16:30
were remarkably
00:16:31
were so remarkably smart you know me
00:16:35
i have the attention span of a goldfish
00:16:37
but this documentary really taught me so
00:16:39
much
00:16:40
i was hooked from beginning to end i
00:16:43
also had to grab my tissues towards the
00:16:45
end
00:16:46
i won't spoil it for you but it really
00:16:48
did move me
00:16:50
anyway back to our science project it is
00:16:53
on different invertebrates and their
00:16:55
behaviors
00:16:55
i think miss is expecting us to put
00:16:57
together a booklet of sorts with
00:16:59
different chapters
00:17:00
based on the animals we choose the
00:17:02
documentary got me thinking
00:17:04
maybe i could include a couple of
00:17:07
chapters about octopuses
00:17:09
and make reference to the documentary
00:17:11
itself i'm sure it would impress miss
00:17:14
the fact that i had not relied so
00:17:16
heavily on wikipedia for once
00:17:18
i could include chapters about the
00:17:20
habitat behavior and diet
00:17:22
what do you think anyway i thought i'd
00:17:24
tell you about this documentary in case
00:17:26
you
00:17:26
wanted to give it a watch trust me it
00:17:29
will help with your final project speak
00:17:32
to you soon
00:17:32
doug so let's take a look at why this
00:17:35
email is successful so number one of
00:17:37
course there's an appropriate greeting
00:17:39
and friendly opening
00:17:40
i've used hey sarah how's tricks i think
00:17:43
house tricks is already british way
00:17:46
of saying you know how are things what's
00:17:49
up
00:17:49
number two i've adopted a chatty style
00:17:52
ah
00:17:53
the joys of netflix number three i've
00:17:56
used that phrasal verb
00:17:57
to carry out number four informal
00:18:00
expressions
00:18:01
my head has seriously been spinning this
00:18:04
is a phrase that we would not use in
00:18:06
more formal text types or formal
00:18:08
text tasks number five
00:18:12
interrogatives who would have thought
00:18:14
that octopuses were so remarkably smart
00:18:17
contractions howls won't
00:18:21
number seven simple connectives and and
00:18:23
so
00:18:24
number eight i've used a range of
00:18:26
vocabulary choices i've used the adverb
00:18:28
remarkably
00:18:30
number nine i've used a variety of
00:18:32
sentence structures
00:18:33
the documentary got me thinking so
00:18:35
you've got a simple sentence there
00:18:38
and the appropriate closing i've used
00:18:40
this time
00:18:41
is speak to you soon and of course i've
00:18:44
signed it off
00:18:45
with a name there doug and there you
00:18:47
have it guys
00:18:48
three exam tasks three model responses
00:18:51
just make sure that you include a range
00:18:54
of the features
00:18:56
try and include all 10 and trust me you
00:18:58
can't go wrong
00:18:59
best of luck
