O-Level Situational Writing Practice 1: The Canteen Proposal
This page gives you one complete situational writing task. Read the notice, plan your five points, then write your email. Compare your version with the model at the end.
The situation
Your school ran a survey about the canteen. The student council has posted the results as a notice.
NOTICE: What you told us about the canteen Posted by the Student Council, 12 May
We surveyed 420 students about the canteen. Thank you for your honest answers. Here is what we found.
- 7 in 10 students queue for more than 15 minutes every day.
- 9 in 10 students want a pre-order option on the school app.
- The longest queues form at the noodle and chicken rice stalls.
Mrs Verma, our vice-principal, welcomes proposals from students. Send yours to her by 30 May.
Your task
You are Priya Nair, a Secondary 4 student from Class 4E2. Your class often loses most of recess to the queue. Write an email to Mrs Verma proposing one change to the canteen.
Visual source: the image shows how long the queues get at recess. Use the notice below for the exact survey information.
Your email must include:
- the change you are proposing
- one figure from the survey as evidence
- how the change will help students
- one difficulty the school might face, and a way round it
- what you would like the school to do next
Check your plan
Which subject line fits this task best?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: (B) 'Proposal: a pre-order option for the canteen'
The correct answer is (B). A subject line tells your reader your purpose in a few words. This task asks you to propose a change, so name the change. (A) turns a proposal into a complaint, and that is the wrong purpose. (C) describes the notice you were given, so it hides what you want. (D) is vague and far too casual for a vice-principal.
Write your email
✍️ Your turn
Write an email of about 150 to 200 words to Mrs Verma. Propose one change to the canteen. Cover all 5 points in the task list, and use one figure from the survey. Keep the tone formal but warm, and check your greeting and sign-off.
The real paper asks for 250 to 350 words. This practice trims the length so you can focus on the five points. Every other rule stays the same.
The model
Reveal the model answer
To: [email protected] Subject: Proposal: a pre-order option for the canteen
Dear Mrs Verma,
I am Priya Nair from Class 4E2. I am writing to propose a pre-order option for canteen food on the school app.
The survey found that 7 in 10 students queue for more than 15 minutes each day. Many of us eat in a hurry, and some skip recess altogether. With pre-ordering, we could collect our food at a fixed time and spend the break resting.
I understand that stalls may find pre-orders hard to manage. A simple fix is to cap them at 30 per stall for a one-month trial. Orders could close at 9.30 each morning.
I hope the school will try this with two stalls first. I would gladly gather feedback from students while the trial runs.
Thank you for reading my proposal.
Yours sincerely, Priya Nair
Why this scores
- Every required point gets its own paragraph, in the order the task lists them.
- The survey figure sits inside the writer's own sentence, so the notice is used and not copied.
- The difficulty and the fix arrive together, which shows thought past the idea.
- The last paragraph asks for a small trial, so the reader has a clear next step.
- "Dear Mrs Verma" and "Yours sincerely" suit a senior member of staff, and the email carries no slang.
Back to O-Level situational writing · Next: Practice 2