Everyday English 1

1.3 Drafting

In an ideal world, every time you write a longer text you would plan it and then draft it before writing the final version. This would give you the best chance of writing a text that was as good as it could possibly be.

However, in everyday life this does not happen. This is partly because computers allow you to read and edit your writing as you are doing it, so you write it once and then adapt it if you need to. Drafting also takes time and this is something that you often do not have.

Time is something you have to be aware of in any kind of writing assessment. In a Functional Skills English Level 1 writing assessment, you may not have time to write a draft. In the Essential Skills Wales Communication Level 1 controlled task, you must produce a draft or you will lose marks.

In general, drafting is a worthwhile activity and can only add quality to your writing.

Activity 5 Drafting a letter

Allow about 10 minutes

Elements of the letter that you planned in Activity 3 are given in the interactive below. Drag the points into a sensible order for a letter.

Discussion

Your points might be ordered something like this:

  1. Address of shop
  2. Name of manager
  3. What the product is
  4. When it was bought
  5. What has happened
  6. Will they replace it?
  7. Do they have one in stock?
  8. When you will come in
  9. Your details

Activity 6 Further drafting

Allow about 10 minutes

Now write a sentence or add the details for each of the numbered points. Here’s the list again:

  1. Address of shop
  2. Name of manager
  3. What the product is
  4. When it was bought
  5. What has happened
  6. Will they replace it?
  7. Do they have one in stock?
  8. When you will come in
  9. Your details

And here’s the original information you were given:

Case study

You bought a new vacuum cleaner on 25 September from Ultra-Cool Electrical Products but it has stopped working. It has lost all suction power.

The machine cost £75 and you want the shop to give you a replacement. You are going to write explaining what has happened and telling them that you will come in on Saturday to bring it back and collect a new one. You need them to let you know if they won’t have a replacement in stock because you don’t want a wasted journey.

The address of the shop is 54 West Street, Anytown, Allshire ABC 345 and the manager’s name is Steve Trent.

(A text entry box would appear here, but your browser does not support it.)

Discussion

Here are suggestions for each point:

  1. Ultra Cool Electrical Products, 54 West Street, Anytown, Allshire ABC 345
  2. Steve Trent
  3. The product is a vacuum cleaner.
  4. It was bought on 25 September 2018.
  5. After three weeks the cleaner stopped working. It turns on but does not have any suction power and will not pick anything up.
  6. Please confirm that as the product is under guarantee you will replace it.
  7. Before I make the journey to the shop please can you let me know if you have another cleaner in stock as I do not want to have a wasted journey.
  8. I will come into your shop on Saturday 2 October to collect the replacement.
  9. My telephone number is 01357 234789.

You now have a basic draft of the letter. Notice that for the draft you do not need to put in your address. When drafting you don’t need to use the full structure of a letter. Addresses can be added when you write the final version.

OpenLearn - Everyday English 1
ou logoCreative Commons non-commercial share alike icon Except for third party materials and otherwise, this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence, full copyright detail can be found in the acknowledgements section. Please see full copyright statement for details.