Advanced Writing with English in Use

Unit 8 • Reports

116 • Task types

1.2 Writing

Part 1 writing task

You have justcompleteda three-yearacademiccourseata college in Britain. A

friendof yours,John Kino , hasnowappliedfor thesamecourse, andhe has

asked you to writea characterreferencefor him. Youare willing tow rite the

referencebecauseyou think the coursewould be a wonderfulopportunityfor

himandyou feel that,despitehis faults, he has a reasonab le chance of

successfullycompletingit.

Read theextracts from three letters:the first fromJohn ,the second from

someonewhotookthecourse withyou, and the third fromthecollege , then

write:

(a)your reply to DrFlod e, aletterin whichyou writea (sufficiently positive)

characterreference for John(about 175words).

(b) ashortletterin reply to John(about 75 words).

'#;'i"'"'jTj1

Do you think you could write a reference for me? I'm not

sure exactly what they'll want to know, s o I suggest you

just tell them the whole truth about my magne t i c

personality, intellectual genius, impeccabl e manne r s,

magnificent physique, endearing modesty, etc.!

Ac t ually I'm counting on you , becau s e I've a l ready given

them your n ame as a referee. Th e thing is, there was a

deadline f o r the applications, and y ou r s wa s t h e first name I

thought of, since y o u've just finished the course an d you've

always b e en such a good friend to me. I would've asked you

first b u t I 'd lost your phone number.

From aclassmate

Have youheardthatJohnis hoping to get onto thecoursenextyear ?He must be

mad_ I mean. it was much toohard for me.and even you found itdifficuI~.He

askedme ifI'dwrite hima reference, buthowcould I? Frankly. I t hinkhe d be a

disa ster in Britain. His Engli shisn'tverygoodsohe'dhave problems WIt h the

course. And for all his intelligence,I' msurehe'dbe too lazyto get thr?u gh all the

work. I mean. we'retalkingabout aguywho gets out of bed around midday, but

doesn' t wakeup until the discosopen...

Anywa y. Isuggested he ask you towrite the referen ceinstead, firstlybeca use

you'rea betterliar thanme, andsecondly becau seyour opinionofJohn has always

been alothish erthan min e. Iknowthere area lot of things toad mireabout him :

hisvolun tarywork in Rwanda,his physicalcourage, the wayhe alwayswants to be

the best, his brains, the wayhe can talkhimself outofany difficult~ltuatlOn.hIS

ability to ' alwayslook on the bright side' , his smile,his guitar-play mg.. and most of

all his dazzlingdisplays on the dance floor! But for all thi s,I Just seehimasa

waster:arroga nt, lazy, s poiltandvain!