Text Types Guide

[ice_blockie]

This is a short guide for writing a personal letter. sorry kingmar for beating you to it. The personal letter is one of the most prevalent text types in VCE Chinese and therefore when it comes to exam time, the quality of your letter counts. Okay so here it is!

Structure:

Introduction:
A Chinese letter has a similar format to that of any other normal letter. As shown above, the introduction should have the following:

•   Salutation
•   Greeting
•   Introductory Sentence

Salutation:
In Chinese, a salutation is not required for a letter, i.e. writing a letter to your friend, classmate or relative is fine. You can just write their name at the beginning of the letter.

Example:

大卫：David,
小明：Xiaoming,
安娜：Anna,
小红：Xiaohong,

However, to more clearly show that you understand the structure of a letter you should include a salutation. For family members or close friends, you can write 亲(qin)爱的， meaning “dear”, followed by whoever you are writing to.

Example:

亲爱的妈妈：Dear Mum
亲爱的姐姐：Dear Older Sister
亲爱的大卫：Dear David


For more formal letters you should write 尊敬(zun jing)的, meaning “respected” followed by the person you are writing to.

尊敬的校长：

In personal letters, the greeting is normally consistent with every letter. The very first sentence of the introductory should normally be “你好or“你们好！ depending on how many people you are writing to.

The next sentence varies from letter to letter. Here are some typical introductory phrases you can use:

好久没给你写信       I haven’t written to you for a long time
很久没有通信了       It’s a long time since we have written to each other
很长时间没给你写信了    It’s been a long time since I have written to you
近来怎么样？忙吗？      How have you been? Busy?
你的学习忙吧？      Are your studies busy?
我很高兴收到了你的来信   I very excitedly received your (last) mail
我非常想念你         I extremely miss you
告诉你一个好消息      Tell you some good news!
假期过得好吗？      Were your holidays well?


You should then follow these phrases with one or two sentences about what you want to talk about in your letter. For example:

你来信希望我介绍一些澳大利亚人的业余生活…
You wrote to me asking me to introduce to you a little about Australians’ leisure time...

Most of the time, you can create these follow-up sentences by simply rephrasing or recycling the vocabulary used in the essay topic.

Body


Each paragraph should contain a topic sentence, followed by your supporting ideas. Normally the body should have around 3 paragraphs.

Conclusion

To end the letter, you can use one of the following phrases depending on what topic and writing style you are required to write in:

今天就写到这里，下次再谈 (That's it for today, talk later next time)
好了，不多写了，代问你家人好 (Okay, I won't write anymore, say hello to your family)
谢谢你！盼望着早日收到了你的来信 (Thanks, looking forward to receiving your letter)

Then have 祝 （wishing you) any of the below：

祝
好！ （wish you well)

祝
身体健康！ (wish you good health)

祝
学习进步！ (wish your studies improve)

(or any of your own)

Then have your name on the right hand side and the date underneath your name!

Okay, hope you all understood it all! Happy Chinese Studies!

EDIT: All Chinese has been translated

[cara.mel]

I don't understand a lot of it
Mine went name, ni hao ma, hen gao xing shou dao ni de lai xin
Then 2 paragraphs, each with 3 ideas in them as with all types of writing
Then 1 sentence to wrap it up (eg I hope you can come to australia to study - I have no idea what the first 3 examples say there )
Then qing xie xin
zhu
kuai le
name aligned to the right, then date below it

[sheepz]

this guide is quite good ^^ i hope you won't get offended or anything... but being a typical SLA-er i ALWAYS have to control my word limit and try not to go over. so here are some things that i want to suggest...

尊敬的校长：

don't forget that it is always : instead of ,(comma) after the person you address it to. and if it is a formal letter/to a 长辈 (elder..?) it is more polite to say 您好！ and at the end instead of saying
XX祝
好！
it is
XX此致
敬礼！

Here are some typical introductory phrases you can use:

好久没给你写信       I haven’t written to you for a long time
很久没有通信了       It’s a long time since we have written to each other
很长时间没给你写信了    It’s been a long time since I have written to you
近来怎么样？忙吗？      How have you been? Busy?
你的学习忙吧？      Are your studies busy?
我很高兴收到了你的来信   I very excitedly received your (last) mail
我非常想念你         I extremely miss you
告诉你一个好消息      Tell you some good news!
假期过得好吗？      Were your holidays well?

You should then follow these phrases with one or two sentences about what you want to talk about in your letter. For example:

你来信希望我介绍一些澳大利亚人的业余生活…
You wrote to me asking me to introduce to you a little about Australians’ leisure time...

I used to have introductory phrases but after a while found them REALLY annoying because they took up so many words! So after a while after 你好！I always only said 最近如何？and then what introduce the topic i want to talk about... that way it satisfies the structure criteria and I get to use more words =)

To end the letter, you can use one of the following phrases depending on what topic and writing style you are required to write in:

今天就写到这里，下次再谈 (That's it for today, talk later next time)
好了，不多写了，代问你家人好 (Okay, I won't write anymore, say hello to your family)
谢谢你！盼望着早日收到了你的来信 (Thanks, looking forward to receiving your letter)

For the conclusion I just conclude the essay according to the text type and then end it with 在此搁笔. Only 4 words XD

Then have 祝 （wishing you) any of the below：
祝
好！ （wish you well)

祝
身体健康！ (wish you good health)

祝
学习进步！ (wish your studies improve)

(or any of your own)

Then have your name on the right hand side and the date underneath your name!

Of course with my 'save words' mentality the first 祝 is the best >.< don't forget to leave two spaces before it and after 好 remember to put ! (exclamation mark)

I think before your name you have to say your status as a writer? Well, I always did.
So for informal letters:
友：明成　or　女：慧丽
And for formal letters (when you're applying something like a job)
申请人：光强

And yes, then the date. Remember not to mix arabic 123 with chinese 一二三　together in one line!

[cara.mel]

And yes, then the date. Remember not to mix arabic 123 with chinese 一二三　together in one line!

I wrote 二00七年 because that's how we learnt it since year 7 at my school =/

[sheepz]

And yes, then the date. Remember not to mix arabic 123 with chinese 一二三　together in one line!

I wrote 二00七年 because that's how we learnt it since year 7 at my school =/

oh yea, i should have pointed out... when you're writing the date in chinese u CAN use 0 for zero >.<

[ReganM]

Hey, are there any other guides for the other kinds of essays?

[daliu]

Just wondering, but is it better to have 祝 directly beneath the last sentence, or to have it spaced out like below?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

...

今天就写到这里，下次再谈

祝

身体健康！

大卫

01/02/11

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[i.e. with 祝 below and to the right of the final sentence, and with your name below and to the right of 祝...as opposed to just having 祝 underneath the last sentence like this:]

今天就写到这里，下次再谈
祝
身体健康！

大卫

01/02/11

[Andiio]

今天就写到这里，下次再谈

   祝
身体健康！
（身份）：大卫
Do not write 01/02/11 in the exam, either stick to 2011年1月2日 OR 二0一0年一月二日

[daliu]

Okay, thanks a lot

[noname]

Wow, this is really good! Thank you for posting this!