Writing to Advise

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Writing to Advise
The purpose of writing to advise is to give
guidance to someone telling someone the best,
easiest or quickest way to do something.
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The techniques you should be thinking about using
can be summed up in the following way
A Advice must be clear D Do keep in roleyou are
writing as the expert V Vocabulary should
include modal verbs I Informal but polite
tone C Choices must be given E Encourage and
motivate make it sound easy
Learn and remember this mnemonic.
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Modal verbs help other verbs they can not be
used by themselves. They suggest possible
options. Make sure you are using them in your
writing. Examples include
can will must shall may could would should might
ought
You also need to link your paragraphs using
connectives. You could use
first second final next alternatively but as well
as moreover meanwhile above all otherwise for
instance similarly likewise whereas instead of
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A worked example
Imagine that the question on the exam paper
was Write the text for a leaflet for home-owners
advising them on how to save energy and conserve
resources in the home. There are four steps to
answering this question.
STEP 1 Understand the key words in the question
so you know what you are doing.
Write the text for a leaflet for home-owners
advising them on how to save energy and conserve
resources in the home.
Audience homeowners, therefore adults
Purpose to give advice
Form a leaflet but only the writing. No
pictures.
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STEP 2 plan you answer. Be big and bold. Make
it a full page plan.

• Insulation
• lofts
• Doors
• windows

• Problems
• resources
• global warming

1
3

• Recycling
• paper
• bottles
• tins
• plastic
• clothing
• garden waste

5
Saving energy/resources

• Energy saving
• light bulbs
• unwanted lights
• standby
• turn down heating

2

• Water
• shower
• washing up
• toilet cistern

4
The numbers show the order you are going to write
your advice in.
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STEP 3 write your answer, using your plan to
help you structure it. Dont forget to use the
techniques of writing to advise.
Be world friendly The world as we know it is
under threat. We are rapidly using up our
natural resources coal, gas, oil and metal
ores. Global warming, caused by excessive use of
fossil fuels, is destroying the ozone layer which
is the worlds protection from the harmful rays
of the sun. Already climates are changing and
sea levels are rising as the polar ice caps melt.
Scientists and industrialists are working hard
to solve the problem but, by taking some simple
steps. you too can help. Be energy friendly Each
day you probably use a lot more energy in your
home than you need to. Doing all, or even just
some, of the following will not only help the
planet but it could also save you money on your
energy bills and surely thats worth it!
Problem outlined. First sentence straight to the
point and hard hitting
Positive headings and subheadings
Simple sentence
Compound sentence
Second person used to involve the reader
Making advice sound easy
Complex sentence
Variety of punctuation
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modal verbs
A simple step could be turning off unwanted
lights you dont need your home looking like
Blackpool illuminations after all. Replacing
your light bulbs with lower wattage ones would
instantly save electricity, but better still
would be replacing them with energy saving bulbs.
These are easy to buy, every supermarket now
sells them, so put them on your next shopping
list. The initial cost will soon be paid for by
your reduced bills. Another source of wasted
energy is leaving things like televisions on
stand by. Most people think that having the
telly on red-light means very little energy is
used, but in reality youre still using
two-thirds of the electricity you would do if you
were actually watching it. Its easy turn it
off when youre not using it.
makes advice sound easy
alternatives
the expert
connective links paragraph
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• STEP 4 check what you have written.
• check you have written effective, detailed
  paragraphs.
• check you have used a variety of sentence
  types simple, compound and complex
• check you have used a variety of sentence
  styles dont start them all the same way
• check what you have written makes sense and
  that you havent missed any words out
• check your spelling

Find the mistakes before the examiner does!