Q1.
I. As a socially responsible citizen, you strongly believe that students can contribute significantly in promoting adult literacy. Write a letter to the Editor of a local newspaper emphasising the importance of student participation in adult literacy camps conducted by various organisations. Discuss the benefits of such initiatives for both students and society. Suggest effective ways to spread awareness and encourage more students to volunteer for this noble cause.
(Format and language guidelines are given in the POINTS TO REMEMBER box on pages 19–20.)
Answer
What the examiner is checking, in order: the format (sender’s address, date, receiver, subject in 4–5 words, salutation, three paragraphs, complimentary close); a problem stated with evidence in paragraph 1; causes and consequences in paragraph 2; suggestions plus a request to publish in paragraph 3; and a formal register throughout — no contractions, no slang, short and specific sentences.
Sample answer:
Aarav Menon
Class IX-B, Head Boy
Government Higher Secondary School
Nehru Road, Mysuru – 570001
6 September 2026
The Editor
The Mysuru Chronicle
M.G. Road, Mysuru – 570004
Subject: Students for Adult Literacy Camps
Sir
This is with reference to your report of 30 August about the district’s adult literacy camps running short of volunteers. As a concerned student, I would like to draw your attention to a resource the organisers have not yet used — the senior students of our own schools. Our school surveyed the two streets behind its campus last month and found nineteen adults, most of them women over forty, who cannot read a bus board or a hospital form.
The issue at hand affects a large section of society. An adult who cannot read is dependent on somebody else for every document she signs, and that dependence is easily exploited — in loan papers, in land records and now in digital payments. The consequences reach the next generation as well, because a parent who cannot read cannot follow a child’s progress. Meanwhile, thousands of students in this city have two free hours every evening, the patience to teach an alphabet and the advantage of speaking the same mother tongue as the learner. Such initiatives nurture a sense of responsibility that no classroom lesson can teach; by engaging in these programmes students learn to explain clearly, to be patient with slow progress, and to see their own education as something owed to others.
A possible solution would be for each school to adopt one literacy camp and roster four students a week, with attendance credited under community service. One effective way to spread awareness might be a short film made by students themselves and screened at morning assemblies, followed by a sign-up desk. Authorities could also consider giving the Directorate of Adult Education a single helpline number that volunteers can call. I trust this matter will be considered seriously for the benefit of all, and I hope this letter gets published in the columns of your esteemed daily.
Yours truly
Aarav Menon
Aarav Menon
Class IX-B, Head Boy
Government Higher Secondary School
Nehru Road, Mysuru – 570001
6 September 2026
The Editor
The Mysuru Chronicle
M.G. Road, Mysuru – 570004
Subject: Students for Adult Literacy Camps
Sir
This is with reference to your report of 30 August about the district’s adult literacy camps running short of volunteers. As a concerned student, I would like to draw your attention to a resource the organisers have not yet used — the senior students of our own schools. Our school surveyed the two streets behind its campus last month and found nineteen adults, most of them women over forty, who cannot read a bus board or a hospital form.
The issue at hand affects a large section of society. An adult who cannot read is dependent on somebody else for every document she signs, and that dependence is easily exploited — in loan papers, in land records and now in digital payments. The consequences reach the next generation as well, because a parent who cannot read cannot follow a child’s progress. Meanwhile, thousands of students in this city have two free hours every evening, the patience to teach an alphabet and the advantage of speaking the same mother tongue as the learner. Such initiatives nurture a sense of responsibility that no classroom lesson can teach; by engaging in these programmes students learn to explain clearly, to be patient with slow progress, and to see their own education as something owed to others.
A possible solution would be for each school to adopt one literacy camp and roster four students a week, with attendance credited under community service. One effective way to spread awareness might be a short film made by students themselves and screened at morning assemblies, followed by a sign-up desk. Authorities could also consider giving the Directorate of Adult Education a single helpline number that volunteers can call. I trust this matter will be considered seriously for the benefit of all, and I hope this letter gets published in the columns of your esteemed daily.
Yours truly
Aarav Menon
Why the letter argues this way: it does not begin with an opinion, it begins with a fact — a report and a small survey. A letter to the editor is read by strangers, and the only thing that earns their attention in the first two lines is evidence. Notice also that every suggestion in the third paragraph is something a school could actually do next week; a vague “awareness should be spread” carries no weight.
Tip: Keep the subject line to four or five words in title case. “Subject: Students for Adult Literacy Camps” is right; “Subject: Regarding the very important issue of adult literacy in our city” is not.