4G A letter of protest

A Imagine that there are plans to open a 24-hour fast food outlet in your street. Think of some reasons why you would
protest against this. Then read the letter of protest below. Which of your ideas are mentioned?

Councillor Peter McDonald

Town Hall
Potsborough
PO6 9QV
Dear Pete,
I felt I just had to write to you about the proposed opening of a 24-hour fast food outlet on Harris Street. I’ve
been living in the street for absolutely ages and I think it’s a terrible idea. Here’s why …
What bothers me most is that there’s gonna be so much more traffic. Don’t you realise that this will lead to a rise
in pollution and noise? Harris Street is a chilled out, clean, residential area and I say let’s keep it that way!!
And another thing is, there will be loads more rubbish. People will be eating in their cars and then just chucking
their rubbish out of the windows. The street will look disgusting. And also, who’s gonna pay for the rubbish to be
cleared up? Us tax-payers, no doubt!
The last thing I want to say is that we’ll see more anti-social behaviour for sure. Teenagers will be hanging
around at all hours, shouting their heads off and getting into fights with each other. What a nightmare!
So, I reckon you’ve got to put a stop to this asap.
Get back to me soon.
Bye for now.
Lila Grant

B The letter of protest above is written in an inappropriate way and has several mistakes with layout and form.
Read it again and then discuss with a partner what the errors are and how the letter could be improved.

C Now rewrite the letter in a more suitable, formal style.

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press • Photocopiable

 4G A letter of protest

Aims  To review appropriate formal letter-writing features. To give

students practice in writing a formal letter of protest.
Time  15 minutes
Materials  1 handout for each student
• Give each student a handout. Tell them to work in pairs and
think of some ideas in response to task A. Elicit suggestions
from the class.
• Tell students to skim the letter and check their predictions.
suggested Answers
Increases in traffic, pollution, noise, rubbish, anti-social
behaviour. Tax-payers will have to pay for street cleaning.
• In pairs, students complete task B. Check answers as a class,
taking the opportunity to review the useful phrases from
lesson 4G.
Answer Key
Errors: Sender’s address is missing from top right, recipient’s
address should be on the left, date is missing, start should
be ‘Dear Mr McDonald’, language is far too colloquial, use of
contractions and exclamation marks, direct questions, ending
should be ‘Yours sincerely’ and followed by signature.
Improvements: Address the errors listed above. Make use of useful
phrases for a formal letter of protest from lesson 4G. Substitute
lexis and structure for more appropriate, formal language.
• Students rewrite the letter to include the improvements
discussed at the previous stage. If there is insufficient time in
class, this could be set as a homework task.

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press