Cambridge IGCSE ESL Examinations

This article focuses on the new topic of formal writing in the revised pattern of
examinations starting from 2019 in Cambridge IGCSE English as a Second
Language which needs to be answered together with a few basic rules related
to formal register. It then describes various features you should include when
you use the formal register. It also focuses on specific phrases and expressions
used for reporting accurately, giving opinions and making recommendations,
and also to put forward your views and arguments too.

Apart from friendly letters or emails, you need to produce either a report, a
review or a school magazine article which you need to be completed in a
formal register. You should never forget that your readers or audiences will be
a group of students or your teachers so you have to present the facts and
recommendations in a formal or semi-formal tone depending on the topics.

Formal language structure is the most important part of your writing that you
need for making formal writing. An exam type question usually contains
function words, for example, write a report giving suggestions or
recommendations and opinion.

Language Tips
The best way to master the formal language is that learning to use phrases
associated with language functions, for example, it is high time that a
government increased the tax.

Some general tips for formal writing

1. When writing formally it is appropriate to include formal tone and register

2. You should not use the words and phrases that belong to the friendly
register.

3. No slang words or phrases.

4. No humour because topics are serious of nature or factual.

5. No personal style (should be impersonal)

6. You should always keep your audience in your mind.

 Basic tools for informal writing
Time fixer Phrases
I soon as we reached there…

We arrived at the site…

Once we all arrived

Phrases for introduction

The aim of this report is to highlight what we learned…

The report aims to highlight…

This report aims to investigate …

This report aims to recommend…

The purpose of this report to highlight…

This report aims to present what we learned from the trip…

Phrases for generalisation

A significant number of students…

I love the number of parents…

Almost all students…

A vast majority of students…

A large number of teachers…

Phrases for the positive side

Many students were captivated to see…

It was fascinating to see…

We all got insight into the importance…

We managed to study fascinating facts about…

The vast majority of students were stunned as they discovered …

Phrases for negative sides

It was appalling to see…

However, many people felt that it was

Notwithstanding the boons, it was totally saddening to see that…

A large number of students found that the trip was a bit haphazard…

Opinion phrases
I strongly believe that…

I vehemently believe that …

Phrases for recommendations

I would recommend that…

Perhaps we could also consider asking…

For the reasons, I have mentioned I highly recommend visiting…

I am convinced that they…

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/b2-writing/report
Let’s look at a sample question:

Follow these steps to answer the question:

1. Read the question carefully and ensure that you know what it is asking
for. It may be helpful to underline the important points in pencil.
2. Make a plan and spend not more than 5 minutes on it. It should give you
a rough idea of the details you want to include in your report, what you
want to write in your introduction, body and conclusion. Remember, the
purpose of a report is to reflect on and evaluate something, so make
sure you keep that in mind when drawing up your plan.
3. Come up with a title. It should be brief and relevant and will give you a
good start.
4. Write a strong, but concise, introduction. This paragraph should include
the most important details of the event that you are reporting on – the
‘who‘(your class), ‘what‘(a trip), ‘when‘(last week? last month?),
‘where‘(large recycling centre) , ‘why(learn about recycling)’ and
‘how‘(if applicable).
5. You need to then organise your body according to what the question is
asking for. For example, you are asked to write a report on what you did
 on the trip (write about three points. Example: spoke to employees,
visited sorting unit, watched a plastic recycling process etc.) and what
you learned from it as well (write about two points. Example: only 50%
of materials brought in are recycled, recycling helps the environment).
You could have one paragraph on the former and one on the latter. Be
clear.
6. The ending paragraph should briefly conclude the report. In the sample
question above, you are asked to write a suggestion for improvement,
so this could be your conclusion. Write a couple of sentences outlining
your views on how the trip went (example: very informative or too long)
and one or two suggestions (example: hands-on-experience, watch a
video etc.).
Other tips:

1. You can use the picture prompt as well as the written prompts, but you
can score higher marks for your own ideas.
2. Keep the language reasonably formal and direct, but there’s no need to
use jargon or big words.
3. Keep in mind that the exercise is to write a report. Be direct and
straightforward in your approach. Don’t overthink your points and add
unnecessary comments and opinions of your own.
4. Keep your points concise. There should be only 120-160 words, after all.