SSC English Board Exam Preparation 2020: Writing Skills Decoded

The academic year for Std. 9th flew past you in the blink of an eye almost as if it was a coin trick performed by a clever magician. Now you find yourself standing on the threshold of the first of many milestones in your life. Std. 10th, the year of the SSC Board Exam is quite a tricky year that brings in a slew of firsts into your academic life. This is the first time when you will sit for an examination designed for your entire state instead of just your school.

Without any further ado, let's begin our journey to decode Writing Skills. We assume that you are well versed with the paper pattern and the syllabus furnished in your SSC English book. According to the Paper Pattern, your SSC English paper will be divided into six sections. Out of these, Section V and Section VI will deal with all the Writing Skills sections. While the fifth section comprises of questions that will test your linguistic skills, the sixth section will test your creative flow of thought. Before we begin to deep dive into this topic, there are two things that you must be aware of in writing skills.

• You will be given a choice between every single sub-question under both the sections
• Each writing skills question accounts for 5 Marks in both section

Here is a list of Writing Skills which will be a part of your SSC English book and curriculum that you must practice upon for the SSC Board exam:

Let's discuss the above writing skills in detail following the manner in which they will be asked in the SSC English Examination. 

1. Letter Writing:

Letter writing basically comprises of two types of Letters, Informal and Formal. Informal letters are generally written to your parents, friends, relatives etc. whereas formal letters are generally written to people who hold some sort of authority (eg: Principal, Municipal Commissioner etc.) The basic characteristics of a letter are the address of the sender, date, salutation, body and subscription. When it comes to Formal letters, the only additions are the receiver's address as well as the subject or reference. In the SSC Exam, you will be given a choice between an Informal Letter and a Formal Letter.

2. Dialogue Writing and Interview Questions:

The reason why these two topics are clubbed together is because you will be expected to choose one of them to answer in the examination. Dialogue writing would basically involve the creation of a meaningful conversation with at least six exchanges on any given topic. The topics for dialogue writing will be of quite a generic nature and would be related to your immediate surroundings. In Interview Questions, you will be expected to prepare 8-10 questions to ask a celebrity, a sports player, a business person or someone who has won an award in your school or locality. You will find many more examples of these questions in your SSC English book.

3. Information Transfer

The basic premise of Information Transfer is to either convert a paragraph into a tabular or graphical format or to convert a table/flowchart into a paragraph. In the SSC examination, you will be able to choose between Non-Verbal to Verbal and Verbal to Non-Verbal questions.

4. Speech Writing and View-Counterview

Speech writing questions will generally give you the topic as well the pointers which you will be expected to expand upon. These topics can be anything ranging from your Farwell to Independence Day. You may be asked to prepare either your views or your counterviews upon a given topic or statement. In addition to the statement, you will be given a few pointers on the opposite of which you must base your answer.

5. Expansion of Theme and News Report

Expansion of an idea basically refers to discussing the meaning of a proverb or an age-old saying. While on the other hand, a News Report is a formal description of an event that has taken place in the past and conveys information about the same to readers. You will have a choice between either of these two in the SSC English examination. A topic will be given which you must expand upon and a headline will be provided to you in case of a News Report.

6. Developing a Story and Narrating an Experience

Developing a story generally involves the creation of a story on the basis of the pointers furnished in the question. Many of the SSC English books will cover this topic by way of a number of questions that will basically be divided into beginning with certain words or ending with certain words. A question that involves the narration of an experience will basically test your ability to creatively describe a certain experience. The same rule of choice between these two questions applies herein.

The year of Std. 10th is the first time you have to study the entire syllabus instead of dividing it into two semesters. It will also be the first time when you will attempt an examination at a venue which will not be your school. In addition to all of the firsts, this year brings to you the splendid opportunity to take your first step towards your dream goal. This first step should be absolutely sure-footed and bold rather than anxious and dreadful, don't you agree? This is the reason why when you opt for an SSC English book, you need to ensure that it is able to fully serve you.

As a student who is poised to appear for the SSC Board Exams, the first thing you must be thoroughly aware of is your syllabus. While your class teacher would have already equipped you with the same, you can also visit the official SSC Maharashtra Board website and go through your curriculum. Once you've figured this out, the next step is putting all your eggs into one basket. Simply translated it means taking note of all the subjects you must study. For the same students begin to frantically opt for excellently compiled SSC Maharashtra Board books. As a rule, students tend to lean more towards Mathematics, Science and the Social Sciences and try their best to ignore languages. We hope that this blog post was able to decode the whole section of Writing Skills and help you study them in a more effective manner.

SSC students generally begin to scramble for SSC Maharashtra board books apart from their textbooks at the beginning of the year. If you've been an active follower of our previous blogs about SSC preparation, you must be well aware of our mantra. Never leave a subject out, in this case, especially the English language. Unfortunately, the SSC English Paper is given the infamous moniker of being a 'difficult' subject. We have taken it upon ourselves to divulge a few smart tips to help you score amazingly well in this examination. Once you've read this blog, we'd recommend you to read our previous blogs wherein we've decoded the SSC English book's Figures of Speech and Grammar and Punctuation Rules.

We offer a few of the most sought-after SSC English books to help you prepare yourself in terms of Grammar, Writing Skills as well as textual questions. Our English books for SSC students are:

• English Kumarbharati Notes
• English Kumarbharati Important Question Bank
• SSC Maharashtra Board Question Paper Set (English Medium)

Opt for all of these English books for SSC to ensure a smooth sailing experience to achieve the first milestone of your academic life. All the very best to you!