Your class wants to visit a well-known historical monument in a nearby town. Write a letter to your Principal seeking permission and say why you would benefit from the visit.

MODEL ANSWER

Class X-A St. Xavier’s High School Kolkata 700029

29 February 2016

The Principal St. Xavier’s High School Kolkata 700029

Subject: Request for permission for a class visit to Murshidabad

Madam,

I write on behalf of the students of Class X-A to seek your permission for an educational visit to the Hazarduari Palace and the surrounding monuments at Murshidabad.

We propose to go on Saturday, 19 March 2016, travelling by train from Sealdah at 6:15 a.m. and returning by 8:30 p.m. Thirty-eight students wish to go. Mrs. Sen of the History department and Mr. Roy have both agreed to accompany us, and the cost per student, including travel, entry and lunch, would be about four hundred rupees, which we shall collect ourselves.

May I explain why we believe the visit would benefit us:

1. Murshidabad is the capital of the Nawabs of Bengal and is the setting of the chapters on the Battle of Plassey and the Dual Government that we are studying this term. Seeing the place makes the chronology real in a way a textbook cannot.
2. The Palace museum holds arms, documents and paintings of the period, including the mirror gallery and the collection of firearms, which directly illustrate what we have read.
3. A full day of observing, note-taking and photographing would teach us to gather information from objects and buildings rather than only from books — a skill our History project this year requires.

We undertake to obtain written consent from our parents and to abide by all instructions given by the accompanying teachers.

I shall be grateful for your permission and am happy to meet you with the details at any convenient time.

Thanking you,

Yours faithfully, Ria Sen (Class X-A)

WHAT THIS QUESTION SPECIFICALLY REQUIRES

TWO tasks, and the second carries most of the content marks:

1. SEEK PERMISSION — with the practical details a Principal would need: where, when, how many, which teachers, what cost
2. SAY WHY YOU WOULD BENEFIT from the visit

NAME A SPECIFIC MONUMENT. The question says "a well-known historical monument in a nearby town", which means you must choose one. A letter about "a historical place" gives you nothing concrete to argue from and reads as evasive.

THE BENEFIT MUST BE EDUCATIONAL, not recreational. "It would be enjoyable and refreshing" is worth almost nothing; linking the monument to a chapter you are actually studying is worth everything. Notice that the model ties Murshidabad to Plassey and the Dual Government, which are on the Class X syllabus.

The undertaking about parental consent and discipline is what makes a request letter from students credible. FORMAT AND MARKS DIVISION: see the Formal Letter and Informal Letter references in the Writing Formats & Marking (Reference) chapter.

USE THIS AS A MODEL, NOT AS AN ANSWER TO MEMORISE. The question asks for an ORIGINAL composition, and every year examiners identify scripts reproduced from guide books; a memorised answer can be penalised for plagiarism and will in any case read as borrowed. Study this piece for its STRUCTURE — how it opens, how the paragraphs are ordered, where the required tasks are answered, how it ends — and then write your own, about your own school, your own family, your own town. Your own specific detail is worth more marks than anyone else’s polished sentence.