Part One: Warm Up
Discuss the following questions with your partner(s).
- What occasions can you think of where you would write a congratulatory message?
- When was the last time you’ve been congratulated for something that you’ve done? What did you do?
- Why do you think a congratulatory message would be given instead of saying congratulations in person?
Part Two: Writing a Message of Congratulations
There are a few occasions in someone’s life that require a congratulatory message to be written. Take a look at Writing Task: Message of Congratulations to review the structure of a congratulatory message.
When you have finished reviewing the lesson in Writing Task: Message of Congratulations, open the exercise and complete section #1.
Part Three: Being Brief and Direct / Further Discussion
One of the most important things to think about when writing a congratulatory message is to be sincere, but brief and direct. Being brief and direct is avoiding unnecessary words and phrases to keep it short.
Tips for keeping your message brief and concise:
1. Avoid saying the same thing twice and using redundant phrases
Many uneducated citizens who have never attended school continue to vote for better schools.
It is obvious that “uneducated citizens” are people who have never attended school, so the phrase is unnecessary.
A phrase that repeats itself, like “each and every” is called a pleonasm. Using pleonasms can make your writing imprecise and repetitive.
Below are other examples:
- Original phrase (OP): a person who is honest
Concise version (CV): an honest person - OP: a total of 14 birds
CV: 14 birds - OP: biography of her life
CV: biography - OP: circle around
CV: circle - OP: close proximity
CV: proximity - OP: completely unanimous
CV: unanimous - OP: consensus of opinion
CV: consensus - OP: cooperate together
CV: cooperate
Reduce clauses to phrases, and phrases to single words.
Clauses or phrases can be cut to simpler and shorter constructions.
Adjective clauses to adjectives
- Citizens who knew what was going on voted the president out of office.
- Knowledgeable citizens voted the president out of office.
Phrases to single words
- Not worried by a sense of responsibility, Jason left his wife with ten children.
- Jason irresponsibly left his wife with ten children.
2. Use intensifiers appropriately
Avoid using words such as really, extremely, very when it’s unnecessary. You could use a stronger adjective instead.
- I’m really happy that you got the job!
- I’m thrilled that you got the job!
A ‘really’ is unnecessary here. It is already enough to say you are ‘happy’ to express the emotion you have.
3. Avoid expletive constructions
Expletive constructions begin with there is/are or it is. Avoid them when possible.
- There are twenty-five students who have expressed their desire to attend the school next summer.
- Twenty-five students have expressed their desire to attend the school next summer.
Open the exercise and complete the remaining sections.