Your sister has helped you to secure a good job in another city. Write a letter to her explaining why it will be impossible to take up the job offer.
This is an informal (friendly) letter written to a sister, so it follows the relaxed conventions of personal correspondence. It carries only the writer's address and the date in the top right corner. It does not carry the receiver's address, and it does not carry a title or heading, because those belong to formal and semi-formal letters. The tone is warm and affectionate, the salutation is personal ("Dear Bisi"), and the language may be friendly and expressive while still remaining clear and correct. The task requires three things: a genuine expression of gratitude to your sister for her effort, several convincing, well-developed reasons why the job cannot be taken up, and a warm, personal close.
The following is a full model answer.
15 Adekunle Street,
Yaba,
Lagos State.
16 July, 2026.
Dear Bisi,
How are you, and how is life treating you in Abuja? I hope this letter meets you in the very best of health and spirits. Not a day passes without the family speaking fondly of you, and Mother sends her warmest love. The good news of the job you secured for me at the bank reached me last week, and I have read your letter over and over again with a full heart. Only you would go to such lengths for a younger sister. Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart.
It is, however, with a very heavy heart that I sit down to write this, because I must tell you something I know will disappoint you. After much thought and many sleepless nights, I have come to see that it will simply be impossible for me to take up the offer at this time. Please do not be angry with me, dear sister; hear me out first, and I am sure you will understand.
In the first place, our mother's health has failed badly since you left. Her blood pressure has grown worse, and the doctor at the clinic has asked that she not be left alone for long. As you know, I am now the only child at home, and she leans on me entirely for her meals, her medicines and the little errands she can no longer manage herself. If I were to travel to Abuja, there would be no one to sit with her through the night or rush her to the hospital when the pains come. I cannot, in good conscience, leave her in such a state, no matter how fine the job may be.
Secondly, I have not yet finished writing my school certificate examinations. Three papers still remain, and the school has warned that any candidate who is absent for them will forfeit the entire result. You know how hard I have laboured over the past three years; to abandon my books now, so close to the finishing line, would be to throw all that effort away. And what use, after all, would a bank job be to me without the certificate to hold it down?
Thirdly, and just as importantly, the sudden move is far beyond my present means. Renting a room in Abuja, transporting my belongings across the country and feeding myself until the first salary arrives would all cost money that I simply do not have. You have already done so much for me, and it would trouble my conscience deeply to lean on you yet again for such a heavy burden. I would rather wait until I can stand on my own two feet.
I beg you, therefore, to forgive me and to understand my situation. Believe me, there is nothing I would have loved more than to work beside you in the city and to make you proud. I hold on to the hope that when Mother is stronger, my certificate is in my hand and my pocket is a little steadier, another door will open, and I will seize it with both hands. In the meantime, please pass on my sincere apologies and my deepest thanks to the kind people who offered me the post.
Do take very good care of yourself, and do not overwork. Write to me soon, for your letters are always the brightest part of my week. Everyone at home sends their love.
Your loving sister,
Ronke.
A brief note on how an informal letter of this kind is marked. WAEC examiners award marks under a small number of headings, and it helps to know what each one rewards.
- Content: the letter must actually do the task set. Here that means an opening that greets the sister warmly and thanks her for securing the job, a body that gives several distinct, convincing reasons (illness of the mother, unfinished examinations, and the cost of relocating are three strong, well-developed points), and a warm close. Thin or repeated reasons lose content marks.
- Organisation: the address and date sit correctly at the top right; there is a personal salutation, a clear paragraph for each reason, and an affectionate ending with a signature. Each idea gets its own paragraph, and the letter flows logically from greeting to reasons to farewell.
- Expression / Language: the register is friendly and personal, as a letter to a sister should be, yet the grammar, spelling and punctuation stay correct. Warm, natural expressions ("with a very heavy heart", "from the bottom of my heart") earn credit; slang and careless errors lose it.
- Mechanical accuracy: spelling, punctuation and sentence control are assessed throughout.
Two format points decide easy marks. First, an informal letter must never carry the receiver's address or a heading/title; including either shows the candidate has confused the letter type. Secondly, the salutation and subscription must match the friendly register: begin with a personal "Dear (name)," and end with something warm such as "Your loving sister," followed by your first name only, never a stiff formal close like "Yours faithfully".
