Your parents want you to study a particular course but you know you do not have a flair for it. Write a letter to them, giving at least three reasons why a course of your course will suit you better.
15 Nkwerre Close,
Independence Layout,
Enugu,
Enugu State.
17 July, 2026.
Dear Mum and Dad,
How are you both keeping? I trust that Papa's leg is healing well and that Mama's little garden is thriving as always. School is going smoothly, and my teachers keep encouraging me. Yet, even in the middle of all this good news, there is one matter weighing on my heart, and I have chosen to write rather than speak, so that you can weigh my words calmly, without either of us being carried away by feeling.
I know how dearly you both wish for me to study Medicine. I have seen the pride in your eyes whenever you tell our relatives about it, and I understand that behind that wish lies your deep love and your dream of a secure future for me. Please believe me when I say I have not taken this lightly. After many quiet, honest weeks of reflection, I have come to see clearly that Medicine is not where my true strength lies, and I am pleading for your blessing to read Law instead. Kindly permit me to give my reasons.
In the first place, my natural gifts point plainly towards the arts, not the sciences. Year after year, my finest results have come in English, Literature and Government, where I usually stand among the top three in my class. In Chemistry and Biology, however, I labour long into the night only to earn modest marks. A person builds a lasting career most easily upon the ground where he is already strong, and my report cards have been telling us, term after term, where that ground is for me.
Secondly, I have a genuine and settled passion for justice and argument. Nothing thrills me like reading a good case, weighing two sides of a question, and speaking up for what is right. I am the secretary of our school's Debating and Press Club, and last term I led our team to the state finals. That fire does not burn in me for the laboratory. A course pursued with love is pursued all the way to excellence, while one forced upon an unwilling mind too often ends in weariness and half-hearted work.
Thirdly, and most importantly, choosing the wrong course now could quietly wound the very future you are trying to protect. I have seen older ones in our compound who were pushed into careers they never loved; some abandoned their studies midway, and others became qualified yet joyless in their work. I would far rather grow into a dedicated, upright lawyer who wakes each morning eager for the day than a reluctant doctor who dreads his own profession. My happiness and my usefulness to our family both depend on this.
Dear Mum and Dad, I am not turning my back on your love or your wisdom; I am only asking you to trust me with the one choice that fits the child you raised. I give you my solemn word that I will study with all my might, keep my conduct clean, and make you proud in the field where my gifts can truly flourish. Please think it over, talk it between yourselves, and give me your blessing. Your approval means more to me than anything.
Do greet Grandma, Uncle Emeka and everyone at home warmly for me. I count the days until I see you all again.
Your ever loving and obedient child,
Chinelo.
A brief note on how a letter like this is marked. WAEC awards marks across four broad areas, and a top-band script must satisfy all of them together:
- Content (about 10 marks): the writer must answer the exact task, so at least three clear, well-developed reasons must be given. This letter supplies three distinct reasons, each opened by a topic sentence in bold and then expanded with concrete detail (subject results, the debating club, the example of older relatives), which lifts it above a bare list.
- Organisation (about 10 marks): this is an informal letter, so it needs the writer's address and date but no receiver's address, an affectionate salutation such as "Dear Mum and Dad," a warm opening that greets and settles the reader, one idea per body paragraph, a persuasive yet respectful close, and a suitable informal sign-off ("Your ever loving child"). Paragraphs must flow with linking words such as "in the first place", "secondly", and "most importantly".
- Expression (about 10 marks): the examiner rewards fluent, varied, largely error-free sentences and a tone correctly pitched for parents, that is respectful, affectionate and persuasive rather than demanding. Good vocabulary and controlled emotion score here.
- Mechanical accuracy (about 5 marks): correct spelling, punctuation, grammar and tense. Careless slips are penalised even when the ideas are strong.
The commonest ways candidates lose marks on this question are giving fewer than three reasons, or three that merely repeat one idea; using formal or letter-of-complaint conventions instead of the intimate register a letter to one's own parents demands; and sounding rude or ungrateful. Keeping the reasons distinct, the tone loving, and the register informal is what secures the top band.
