Transcript Business Letters 4th Grade

Goal:You should produce writing that uses an appropriate
organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader,
maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying
closure.
You need to select a focus, an organizational structure, and a
point of view based on purpose, audience, length, and meet
format requirements.
Situation:You are a student who recently found out about a
problem in the community and you want to do something about
it, but you can’t do it all alone so you need to get your community
to support you. How will you do that?
One way is writing a business letter.You will
complete a graphic organizer during the
prewriting stage in order to draft a business
letter. But, FIRST!
Classroom Task: Discussion
1.
Identify audience and purpose for writing the business letter:
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Author’s Purpose:
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Is your business letter going to written to make a suggestion?
Is your business letter going to written to give an opinion?
Is your business letter going to written to make a complaint?
Is your business letter going to written to request permission or information?
Is your business letter going to written to order a product?
Audience:
1.
Who is the person you need to write the letter to in order to achieve your goal? This depends on your purpose.
Conclusion: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an
Entrepreneurship Day to raise money for a charity of your choice.
Classroom Task: Brainstorming
What is the purpose of writing a draft?
What kind of language and information do you need to use in order to convince your
audience to give you permission?
Ideas: You should include a clear opinion/stance statement and logical reasons support your
opinion.
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What charity do you want to support? Why? (Operation Smile or Red Crescent)
Why do you think an Entrepreneurship Day is a good way of promoting community awareness and
involving the whole community?
Being an entrepreneur means creating unique opportunities, services, and/or products. What will you
do? How will you do it? Where and when will it happen? How will doing this affect the community? How
will it help you develop as an individual? Why should Ms. Dehombreux agree to your request? (See
School Vision and Mission Statements)
Organization: The way you organize your ideas are logical and move smoothly from
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beginning to end.The opening contains the opinion/stance statement.The middle provide
clear support.The transitions build strong connections.
Word Choice: No slang (Yo Wassup!!), No contractions (don’t) and No conversation: Be
straight to the point. Strong, engaging, positive words contribute to the main message.
Conventions: Language mistakes are rarely forgiven in the business setting.
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Voice: You need to be confident, positive, and completely convincing.
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Aim: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an Entrepreneurship Day to raise money
for a charity of your choice.
Classroom Task: Brainstorming
What is the purpose of writing a draft?
How do you present text and
ideas effectively through
organization and formatting?
Aim: Convince the school principal to allow you to host an
Entrepreneurship Day to raise money for a charity of your choice.
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Heading: Includes your address and date
Inside Address: Includes the name, title and address of
the person/organization you are writing to
Salutation: Formal greeting of person addressed –
punctuate with a colon (Dear Ms. Valerie Dehombreux:)
Body: Main part of the letter. Do not indent paragraphs;
skip a line between paragraphs.
Closing: End with “Yours truly,” or “Sincerely,”
Signature: Leave four spaces after the closing and type
your full name. Write you signature between your typed
name and the closing.
Getting Organized
Header: What is your address? What is the date you will send the letter to your Principal?
Inside Address: What is the complete address of your Principal? What is their full name?
Salutation: How will you address your Principal?
Body: Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself and your purpose for writing this letter.
Body: Paragraph 2: What are three reasons for hosting the Entrepreneurship Day? Give one example
and one fact for each reason.
Body: Paragraph 3: What are three reasons why your Principal should accept your request? Thank the
Principal for reading the letter and considering the idea.
Closing: How will you end?
Signature: How will you sign off?
Getting Organized
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Having fresh eyes on your work is really important. Quite often
someone else will notice errors you missed. Looking at
someone else's work will also make you look closer at yours.
Format:
Are all paragraphs justified with NO indentations?
Is there a return address & a business address?
Is there a greeting/salutation that is punctuated correctly & with a courtesy title and the person’s name.
Are there at least three paragraphs With FIVE sentences each?
Do you have the correct number of spaces between each part of the letter?
Yes/No
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Audience/Tone/Content:
Does the author use formal language?(No contractions, slang, conversation)
Do you know why he/she is writing to this person from the first paragraph? Highlight the reason.
Do you see three reasons to support their request in the second paragraph? Number them.
Do they tell you why the Principal should agree to the request connecting to the mission and vision of the school?
Grammar/Spelling:
Are there any words misspelled or misused? Mark them in the letter.
Are there any grammatical mistakes? Mark them in the letter.
Are there any punctuation mistakes? Mark them in the letter.
Are there any capitalization mistakes? Mark them in the letter.
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I followed the directions for writing a business letter and met the criteria given by the teacher,
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I included a heading, which is my address.
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I wrote the date below my address.
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I included the address of the person to whom I am writing.
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I have a greeting/salutation.
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I used a colon after my greeting/salutation.
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All the names and addresses are spelled correctly.
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In my first paragraph, or introduction, I describe who I am and explain the purpose of my letter.
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In the second paragraph, I give three reasons with supporting details to support my purpose.
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In the third paragraph, I express my viewpoint on this topic or explain my request connected to the
school’s mission and vision statement.
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I use facts, details or my experiences to support my viewpoint or request.
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I thanked the person or organization for reading my letter.
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I used a closing to end my letter.
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I signed my name at the end of my letter.
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The information in my letter is correct.
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My letter is polite and uses formal language.
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I checked my writing/typing for misspelled words.
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I checked my writing/typing for errors in punctuation, capitalization and grammar.
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My letter follows the typed format of a business letter.
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Directions for writing a business letter are followed. The six parts of the business
letter are present and correctly formatted
a. First paragraph includes a description of the student and an explanation of
the purpose of the letter.
b. Second paragraph includes three reasons with supporting details to
support the purpose.
c. Third paragraph includes the expression of your viewpoint on this topic
and/or an explanation of your request connected to the school’s mission
and vision statement.
d. You used transition words to make your ideas flow smoothly.
e. You thanked the person or organization for reading your letter.
f.
You used a closing to end your letter.
g. You signed your name at the end of your letter.
h. The information in your letter is correct.
Word Count: 400 - 450
Your letter is polite and uses formal language.
Work is free of language errors
Graded on Criteria B: Organization and Criteria C: Language
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Due: Monday, May 06, 2013
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"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr.
2013.
<http://www.timeforkids.com/tfk/media/hh/pdfs/checklists
/businessletter_checklist.pdf>.
"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr.
2013.
<http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/hh/pdfs/samplep
apers/businessletter_sample.pdf>.
"Time For Kids." Time For Kids. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr.
2013.
<http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/media/hh/pdfs/ideaorg
anizers/>.