You have had to shift to a new house recently. Write a letter to your grandmother telling her what you miss about your old house. Tell her also what you like about your new house and what you plan to do to make it comfortable for yourself.

MODEL ANSWER

224, Raja Garden New Delhi 110015

18 February 2023

Dear Thamma,

We finished unpacking on Sunday, which means I can finally write to you from a desk instead of a carton.

I miss the old house more than I expected to, and not the things I thought I would. I do not particularly miss my room. What I miss is the mango tree outside the kitchen and the noise it made against the window in June; the pencil marks on the door frame where Baba measured me every birthday, which we have left behind for somebody else’s children; and the fact that I could hear the seven o’clock train from my bed. It is very quiet here and I have not slept properly.

But there is a great deal to like. The new house is a corner plot, so we have windows on three sides and light all day, which the old house never had. My room is nearly twice the size. There is a small balcony off the drawing room where Ma has already put eleven pots, and the market is a four-minute walk instead of a bus ride.

My plans for the room are modest. I am going to put the study table under the window rather than against the wall, so that I can look out when I am stuck. I want a proper bookshelf instead of the two shelves I had. And I am going to get a cutting from that mango tree, if the new owners allow it, and grow it in a pot on the balcony — which I know will take fifteen years to be anything at all, and I intend to do it anyway.

Do come and see it once your knee is better. There is a room for you here, properly, for the first time.

With much love, Ria

WHAT THIS QUESTION SPECIFICALLY REQUIRES

THREE tasks, and the content marks are counted against all three:

1. what you MISS about the old house
2. what you LIKE about the new one
3. what you PLAN TO DO to make it comfortable

One paragraph each is the clearest structure, and the third is the one candidates rush or forget.

FORMAT: an INFORMAL letter — no receiver’s address, no subject line, close with "With much love" or "Yours affectionately".

SPECIFICITY is what earns the expression marks. "I miss my old house very much" is worth little; the mango tree against the window, the pencil marks on the door frame and the seven o’clock train are worth a great deal. Concrete detail also makes the letter sound like a real one to a real grandmother, which is what the tone mark rewards. 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.