English Writing Formats

1.Letter (Business letter etc.)

不知道收信人姓名： 知道收信人姓名：
上款: Dear Sir/Madam 上款: Dear e.g. Mr. Chan

下款: Yours faithfully 下款: Yours sincerely

如果到時考試緊張，可以用Best regards, 兩個情況都比較合適

Greetings
Formal: Informal:
Good morning/afternoon Hi
To whom it may concern Hello

Formal Closing
e.g. Thank you again for your attention to the matter. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if
you have any questions / if I can provide further assistance.

Informal Closing
e.g. I am looking forward to see you again
e.g. I can’t wait to hear from you
e.g. I hope…
語境意識:

每次考書信都有目的 (writing purpose)，要根據題目作出改變；一定要以

簡單及直接去表達該文章的寫作目的﹕

1. I am writing + to + v. + 詳細資料

e.g.
Dear Sir/Madam,

On behalf of the Hong KongTourist Board, I am writing to express my concerns regarding

the Star Ferry current situation. The Star Ferry has been one of the historic modes of
transportation in Hong Kong, which is still operating till this day. With its architectural design
during the colonial era, the iconic symbol of the ferry shows the riches of Hong Kong culture.
But out of the blue, Covid-19 strikes down the whole tourism industry, with that said, we would
like to give some suggestions with the hopes to survive this pandemic war.

2. I/We would like + to + v. + 詳細資料

e.g.
Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to express my concerns regrading the Hong Kong Youth Arts Festival…

(if the writing purpose is 感謝)

3. I am writing to express my gratitude to you + for + v. + ing + 詳細資
料
or

I am writing to express my gratitude to you + for + n. + 詳細資料

e.g.

I am writing to express my gratitude to you for agreeing to come and give a talk to us in
the activity.
(if the writing purpose is 邀請)
4. I am writing to invite you to come to + 活動 +日期
or
I am writing to invite you to participate in + 活動 +日期
or
I am writing to invite you to help organize + a / an+ 活動

e.g.

I am writing to invite you to participate in our 85th Anniversary of the Hong Kong
Historical Art Museum on 25 June
Ex.1
(2013 Q4)
Learning English through Social Issues
Due to the pandemic, the Star Ferry operator has been suffering huge loss.
Many fear that the Star Ferry may run out of business and Hong Kong will
lose a famous and historic mode of transportation.
● Write a letter to the operator to express your concerns
● Give three recommendations for how the Star Ferry can survive in this
period of time.

Mindmap:
2. Letter to the editor
3. Report

標題: Report on XXX

小標題:
1.Introduction

2.Problems

3.Suggestions

4.Conclusion

以上的小標題亦代表了同學在寫報告時需要包括的部份，緊記要寫以
上四個部份，缺一不可！
5. Speech & Debate

Introduction (引言) :

Step 1: Good morning / afternoon, everyone.

Step 2: Welcome to the assembly today. I am Chris Wong, the President of

Student Union.

Step 3: Thank you very much for coming to + the +活動

Step 4: Today I would like to share with you

語境意識:

其實除了基本格式，最重要的是要知道每種文體背後的語境意識。因為
Speech 本身需要互動一點，所以你可以運用以下技巧作文。

在引言部份，你可以嘗試以下幾種方式去開始你的文章﹕

1. Personal touch

I believe / I hold strong belief / I bet many if you experienced something

similar to what happened to me, so it is normal for us to assume
that________________________.
It is likely that we all share similar experience. No wonder we share
unanimous views / we are on the same page that
________________________

2. 年輕的我…. 以前的我是多麼幼稚…
When I was younger, I would think that ___________________
As a secondary student who did not have much life experience, I used to
believe that ____________________.
3. 誤會了

In the past, I also held the misconceived notion that ________________

Echoed with many people, I was mistaken about ____________________,
thinking that __________________________.

而在Speech的正文部份，大家可以多用短句:

因為是互動性較高，可以加強同觀眾交流，而很多考生都忽略了這點，在
Speech 都只是用一些深字，一埋inversion (倒裝句)，所以無論你英文考試是
想求合格，定5**，你都一定要注意!

Act now!
Just go for it!
Stay tuned!
Stay in touch!
Don’t waver.
Trust me. It works well.

同時，你可以用 Mission 使命來輔助自己闡述內容﹕

Why should I share with you here summoning up my courage? I want to

change the community.

In pursuit of a sense of purpose, I choose to stand on the stage to make a

change in the community.
最後在結尾部份，你可以這樣完結你的文章﹕

1. 更了解
I sincerely hope you will gain more inspiration by gaining deeper insights
into _____________

2. 學會多角度

One of the purposes of this speech is to provide you with different

perspective in understanding this issue. If most of you, if not all, can be
inspired and ponder, then I have succeeded.

e.g. Debate speech

Having a close friend at work is a bad idea

Good morning, chairman, adjudicator, my honourable opponents,
teachers and fellow students! As today’s motion is “Having a close friend at
work is a bad idea.” We would like to make things clear with the definition of
friends. We must clarify the misconception of “close friends” at work and
then I believe most of you will just realize this motion should stand.

What does “friend” mean to you? There's a lot of definitions of

“friends” but would you regard a person who always smiles and says hi to
you in the workplace as a close friend? I doubt it. A true and close
friendship is about trust, willingness to share and help each other in any
situation. It is also about complete tolerance of all the demerits. But in a
workplace, does true friendship exist and is this going to help you or harm
you?

Let’s imagine you are working on a big project with your colleagues.
Without doubt, there’s lots of competitions around you, as your
performance can directly relate to your career path., What if you got in
trouble with the project, do you think your friend would help you? Don’t
forget he also has to compete for the promotion, not to mention that he may
not have the ability to back you up when it comes to big troubles. Honestly,
vice versa when your friend is in a risky position, will you be able to
sacrifice everything for him? If you can’t, he might feel betrayed and start to
lose your trust and the relationship becomes worse sooner after. This
becomes a vicious cycle in the workplace, but this is reality as people are
fighting for survival, it is like a battlefield. It is a commonly accepted fact
that there are no real friends in the workplace that you can fully rely on but
more likely they are your frenemies because it can be very risky if you trust
them whole-heartedly without questioning. Betrayal can happen, which
hurts you not only mentally, but also affects your career. If you don’t realize
this truth, you will probably regret it in the future. So it drew me to a
question, what will you do when you are in the same position?

To conclude, having close friends at work is a bad idea because the

friendship can be exploited and leads to betrayal, this is not a true close
friend. Therefore, this motion should stand without doubt. Thank you!
 6. Article

有Article，就一定要寫Title 。
通常title 不用太花巧

(2013 Q6)
Learning English through Workplace Communication
You are a human resources assistant. Your boss has observed that many people do not start
working until the deadline approaches. He has asked you to write an article for the company
newsletter.
● Describe the situation
● Discuss the negative effects
● Give two suggestions to improve the situation
● Provide a suitable title for your article.

Mindmap
e.g.
Deadline Fighter?

Recently, a new trend came out around the office ~ The Deadline Fighter. The majority of
workers tend to delay their work once they have received it until the deadline approaches. With
this “fighter” spirit spreading around the office, more and more workers follow it, resulting in a
disaster in productivity. You might say " The intense moment of a near deadline can immediately
boost a worker's productivity to the maximum!" But is this always true?

Deadline fighters indeed create the fastest and most efficient way to get things done, but
accuracy over efficiency. For every project, work must be done in perfection, especially in jobs.
Yet lots of time our colleagues tend to reduce their production to save time, such as in
programming, some colleagues may skip some of the small detail steps in a program, and cover
them up. It’s like school writing, putting non-useful information to look like long good writing.
Ironically even in a workplace, these careless mistakes or laziness can still be found. This can
lead to a bad impression on our supervisors, we may also be frustrated by the incomplete works
or even the late submission. This will deteriorate the relationship between supervisors and
subordinates.

We may also have a hard time if we work until the last minute as well. During the last
moment, we will encounter enormous pressure to meet the deadline, making us unsatisfied with
their working environment and soon lose motivation to continue working harder. Deadline
fighters couldn't manage to balance both efficiency and effectiveness. Despite being negative
about the effect spreading around the office, is there a way to alleviate the effect?

How about creating multiple deadlines? Works sometimes bring down people’s mood
and motivation, causing them to rather delay their work till they are forced to do it. By setting up
different deadlines for different tasks, such as the first group being the groundwork, the second
then third groups are to finalise it. This will make it lesser errors and miss fewer deadlines. Help
them to gain their purpose for working harder and earlier, allowing them to enjoy early freedom.
Superiors can plan more projects, even events for their subordinates as a reward, strengthening
their relationship. Both sides would become a win-win, workers can prove their talents and skills
to work their best, being committed to their jobs.

Why not share goals and progress with others? In 2015, the Hong Kong Mental Health
Research Institution published a study about how people can work more productive when they
work together. The study revealed that people working together increase 65% chance of hitting
the goal than one person doing it. This is consistent as people who had deadlines assigned to
them made fewer errors and were less likely to turn the assignment in late than people who
chose their own deadlines, creating a much more relaxing atmosphere while working together
with colleagues.
 In light of the above, deadline fighters must be taken down, before they nullify the
productivity of this department. One thing is for sure, whether you are a deadline fighter or not,
working is not about what you achieve, but what you overcome. That is what defines a career.

7. Connectives

USAGE CONNECTIVE WORDS

addition of and, also, besides, further, furthermore, too, moreover, in
ideas addition, then, of equal importance, equally important,
another,
time next, afterward, in the process, finally, later, lastly, at last,
now, subsequently, then, when, soon, thereafter, after a
short time, the next week(month, day etc.), a minute
later, in the meanwhile