LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Letter to the newspaper editor are formal letters which are written on different subjects. For example complains about something like poor sewage system, poor services offered by certain company. In that scenario one may wish to write a letter to the editor to express his/her point of view. Try to keep them short under 150 words because the longer one may be cropped by the editor.
Guideline on how to write letters to the editor
1. State the argument you are responding to
2. Deal with one issue per letter.
3. Do not be abusive.
4. It should be logically organized
– a brief explanation of the arqument you are opposing
– followed by a statement of your own position
– present your evidence
– close with a pithy comment.
5. Use facts, figures and expert testimony whenever possible
6. Respect the opinion of people with special knowledge or experience.
7. Proof read your letter carefully for errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
8. A letter should not be mailed the same day it is written.
9. Try to view the letter from the reader’s perspective.
10. Always include your names, address, day-time, phone number and signature.
Format on how to write the letter to the editor.
1. Receiver’s address
2. Salutation
3. Title
4. Main body
5. Ending of the letter
6. Sender’s address
For instance,
The Editor,
Uhuru Communication,
P. O. Box 34
Dar Es Salaam.
Dear Editor ,
RE: DIRTINESS IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
Your main body should have at least 4 points each in an independent paragraph (so the main body should be of 4 paragraphs)
Yours in building the nation.
Good Citizen(your name)
P. O. Box………
Ubungo Kibangu
DAR ES SALAAM
Date
CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)
-It is the document that gives ones use account in terms as education, date of birth, work experience employment status, citizenship etc.
There are 2 ways/style of writing a CV
- British style
- American style
- BRITISH STYLE CV
edu.uptymez.com
I. PARTICULARS/PERSONAL PARTICULARS
Name – (John Mario Woolworth)
Marital status- single/married/widow
Address……………………..
Telephone…………………
Nationality………………..
Date of birth…………….
Place of birth…………..
II. EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS
2013-2017 University of Mzumbe
B.A of Public Administration
2010-2012 Shaaban Robert Secondary School.
A – level education, Division I
2006-2009 Tusime Secondary School
O-level education, Division II
III EMPLOYMENT TO DATE
2012 to-date Human Resource Manager
Kwanza Bottlers Ltd
2016-2018 Personnel officers
TANAPA
IV. SKILL
Driving, computer literacy in Ms.word, Mc.excel
V. INTERESTS/HOBBIES
– Football
– praying
– Basketball
VI REFEREES/REFERENCES
Name
Title
Address
Tel. number
Should be someone who knows you well
SAMPLE OF A BRITISH STYLE CV
- PARTICULARS/PERSONAL PARTICULARS
edu.uptymez.com
Name Caroline Senga
Marital Status Single
Address P.O. BOX 123 DSM
Telephone 0719528392
Nationality Tanzania
Date of Birth 21st March, 1994
Place of Birth Mwanza
2. EDUCATION/ QUALIFICATIONS
2014-2017 University of Dar es Salaam
B.A of Sociology
2012-2014 Shaaban Robert Secondary School
A-level education, division I
2008-2011 Cornelius Girls Secondary
O-level education division III
2001-2007 St. Mary Junior School
Primary level
3. SKILLS
Information technology
Fluent in French
4. INTEREST/HOBBIES
Reading novels
Watching movies
Singing
5. REFEREES/REFERENCES
Name Nicholas Raphael Mbena
Title Lawyer
Address P.O. BOX 678 Iringa
Tel no. 0784-188840
2.AMERICAN STYLE CV
I. ADDRESS
Name
Email
Tel. No
II. OBJECTIVE
To obtain a post of human Resource Manager
III. EDUCATION/QUALIFICATIONS
IV. WORK EXPERIENCE
V. SKILLS
VI. PERSONAL INTERESTS
In includes: – football, Jogging, Reading novels
VII. REFERENCES/REFEREES
NB:-
(i) The major differences between American style and British style are that the American style has an objective for which the CV is written while British style has no
objective.
(ii) British style contains many details in the personal particulars while in American style there is only address of the writer
(iii) British CV can be attached to different letters while American CV is attached to particular letter
Question: – Write your own CV using British style and another using American style
MEMORANDUM
A memo is defined as a short note that is written by the superiors to their subordinates whom they lead or work within an organization or institution.
Memo is mainly meant to inform about issues such as meeting, problems
The following are the parts of the memo (format)
1. Title – usually written memo or memorandum
2. Name of the address (which comes after the word to)
3. Name of the writer (it comes after the word from)
4. The date of which the memo is written
5. The subject
6. The body of the memo (the main content)
7. The name of the secretary who typed the memo/Title
MEMORANDUM
TO: James Mason
FROM: Headmaster
DATE: 18th July 2013
SUBJECT: Meeting
Kindly inform other teachers above the meeting which will take place tomorrow in the staff room at 10 o’clock am. Class teachers should come with their monthly reports. I hope everyone will attend, making the meeting successfully take place.
Joyce Tibainyuki
J.t
NB: The name of the sender has to be followed by the sender signature or initials. In the main body of the memo you ought to show what the topic is about and what you expect from the addressee.
TASK
Imagine you are the head prefect at your school write a memo to other perfect telling them to attend the meeting that you have called to every prefect that he/she thinks is have worth discussing.
MEMORANDUM
TO: HASSAN KILOKO
FROM: HEAD PREFECT
DATE: 23/07/2013
SUBJECT: MEETING
Kindly inform all the prefects that early Monday morning 26th September, 2013 there will be a meeting at 10:00 am sharp. Attendance is compulsory. All prefects are respected to come with matters worth discussing at the meeting.
Isaka Mikui
I.M
WRITING MINUTES OF THE MEETING
Meetings are formal gatherings convened in order for people to discuss various issues known as AGENDA.
AGENDA is a Latin word meaning THINGS TO BE DONE.
Agenda refers to business items to be dealt within/ during the meeting.
WHY TAKE MINUTES?
Minutes give you a permanent record of what was said in the meeting, there are several reasons why you might find this record useful.
i To remind you of the actions that you and other people agreed to take.
ii To remind you of what was decided.
iii To tell those who couldn’t attend what was said
iv To form the basis of decision making at the next meeting.
v To take actions and make follow ups.
Minute taking may be annoying tedious and often and difficult as you have to write down accurately what was said without writing word to word.
The Following guide line is useful in writing minutes (formal minutes) should include the following.
I. Title of the minutes
This will include the name of the organization and the reason for the meeting. The title should include the date, time and location.
MBEZI BEACH HIGH SCHOOL
Minutes of the staff meeting to evaluate the form six 2013 results, held on 15th August 2013 3:00 PM in staff room NO. 2.
II.Those present
You should list the names of those who are attending the meeting. The Chairperson always reads the list, usually followed by the secretary or
recorder. You may put the secretary last. Ideally you should list the attendees in order of seniority.
III. Apologies for absentees
You should make a list of those who made apologies
IV. Body of minutes
You should write the minutes themselves. Use headings to highlight the main points. Use paragraph numbers so that each item is easily identifiable.
V. Approval
The Chairperson should sign and date the minutes
VI. Action points
You should highlight the person responsible for a particular action which was agreed at the meeting. It is then clear who is supposed to be doing
what
HOW SHOULD THE MINUTES BE?
Minutes should be brief, clear, accurate, and complete, in a suitable tone. In writing minutes you should always keep in mind that the reader of the minutes is always the most important person, if the readers cannot understand what you have written, the minutes are worthless.
BE BRIEF
You can be brief by doing the following:
a Separate the important parts of the conversation from the phatic and write the important parts only. Example The audit of stock took four weeks because
of the variation of stock levels and the poor state of the record
b Include only the information needed by the readers of your minutes. E.g. If the chairperson starts by saying “We welcome Michael to our meeting”, Do not
include this in the minutes.
c You should try to avoid saying or noting who said what unless it is essential, otherwise the minutes can become resistive and boring.
BE CLEAR
Although you should make your minutes as brief as possible, do not leave your reader to give what you mean.
E.g.
-If the same word is used again and again you can make the abbreviation in a bracket. The abbreviation can be used on its own in the test of the minutes for example Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA)
BE ACCURATE
Here what is meant is that the writer of the minutes should use the correct vocabulary and an appropriate tone when writing the minute.
As the minutes later you will be responsible for all the facts in the minutes. So you should understand what is going on in the meeting.
This will allow to summarize what is said accurate if you do not understand something ask for help, otherwise you risk problems arising later on if people
query what you have written.
Do not tempt to use words just because they sound impressive, they may have a slightly different meaning from the actual words used at the meeting.
BE COMPLETE
You should be careful not to leave out useful information when trying to be brief. For Example if your minutes say that a letter from the client was read
and discussed. This does not give any useful information we need to know what was in the letter and the outcome of the discussion.