2009 HKCEE Task 1B #2 sample

  2. Write an EMAIL TO THE PRINCIPAL saying whether you think detention is a good form of punishment in response to a forum post on your school website.

  Dear Principal:

 Recently, there has been a lot of talk about the anonymous post in the “Share Your Opinion” forum on our school’s website.  The forum poster, widely believed to be a teacher, mentioned the school’s intention to revise its student detention policy. I do not know whether the rumor is true, but I think it is time we revisit the issue of punishment.

  No one denies the good intention behind the current detention policy.  For one thing, it keeps misbehaving students out of trouble; for another, it allows detained students time to finish their homework in school. But the policy is not working the way it should. Students kept in detention are not doing their work -- they are chatting, “flying airplanes”, or playing pranks on each other. The teacher in charge often have so many papers to grade they neither have time nor energy to manage misbehaving students after hours.

  I am wondering if, instead of detaining students, asking them to provide services for our school may be a better form of punishment. If nothing else, the school could use a few helpers in the library or in the canteen.

 Yours sincerely,

 Chris Wong, Form Six A