8 May 2003

Dear Jessica,

Thank you for your interesting letter. I also enjoyed the four weeks we spent together in Australia . All my other friends are so jealous when I show them the pictures. I’ll never forget those days, especially our fascinating trip to Ayers Rock. I wish I could be there now.

Back at university, it seems as if again nothing has changed: because the rooms are too small, the lecturers only allow students who are at least in their fourth semester to attend the courses. So I (third semester) have been kicked out of six courses so far. I really hate not to get into a seminar which interests me. Am I supposed to attend only those seminars nobody gives a damn about? Or should I give in and study several terms longer? I don’t feel like doing either. Even if you stand in line for hours and finally make it into a course, the room usually is jam-packed. This circumstance eventually leads to a lower quality of the course. We won’t be as qualified as we should be!

There aren’t enough rooms either. No wonder, if you think of the fact that the university in Koblenz was constructed for about 1,600 students and there are actually as many as 4,800 students. The problems have been the same every semester since we moved to the new campus. I’m so fed up with this situation. It really sucks!

One reason for this disaster is money, as always. Why isn’t there enough money? What do they do with all the money? Isn’t education one of the most important things in life? If the people in charge don’t know how to spend the money correctly, they should ask us. For example, they had to have this stupid, ridiculous and unnecessary fountain. This silly thing even works when it’s raining. Instead they could have built another floor.

By the way, you’ve just started college. Do you have the same problems in Great Britain ? If you don’t, you’re especially lucky. I mean, I hope that you don’t have to experience all these bloody things but the situation can’t be so much better in Britain , can it? I’m truly sorry to bother you with all this stuff but I think that you can understand the way I’m feeling at the moment.

Maybe we could meet during our week off at Whitsun. It would be great to see you again and just get out of this. Please call or write back a.s.a.p.!

Love,

Five important reasons why this informal letter is good

1)     Format

We chose the right format for an informal letter e.g.

-        no return address but only the simple pattern of the date ( 8 May 2003 ) written in the upper right-hand corner

-        the most common salutation (Dear Jessica, …)

-        the indentation of paragraphs (lines 4, 7, 15, 19, 24, 29)

-        the more intimate complimentary close (Love,… )

2)     Punctuation

We used the commas correctly e.g.

-        after the salutation (line 2)

-        after introductory clauses (lines 8, 12, 21, 25)

-        to separate items in a series (line 22)

-        after the complimentary close (line 32)

-        before question tags (line 26)

-        after introductory words or phrases (lines 7, 15, 24)

3)     Capitalization

We capitalized all necessary words e.g.

-        the month of the date (May, line 1)

-        the salutation (Dear Jessica, …, line 2)

-        the first word of the informal letter  (Thank… , line 4)

-        names of nations ( Australia , Great Britain , Britain , lines 5, 24, 26)

-        holidays (Whitsun, line 29)

4)     Contractions

We used contractions, which are perfectly acceptable in informal letters.

E.g. I'll (line 5), don’t (e.g. line 11), won't (line 13), you've (line 24), a.s.a.p. (line 30)

5)     Informal Language

We used informal language in the whole letter. Therefore we avoided a shift in tone and style.

-        to kick out (line 9)

-        to give a damn about (line 11)

-        I don't feel like… (line 11)

-        jam-packed (line 13)

-        to be fed up with sth. (line 18)

-        stuff (line 27)

-        bloody (line 26)