Skip to main content

Writing Skills - Invitation

 Many teachers often ask me for help with the topic of 'Invitation' in CBSE's writing skills section. I condense CBSE's questions in this section thus: 

What that means is:

1. There are 2 types of invitation: formal & informal.

2. Formal invitations can be in the form of cards or letters. 

3. Cards are used when you have to invite large numbers of people (anniversaries, marriages, etc.)

4. Letters are used when you invite a few individuals.  Example: judges for a competition, chief guest for a function.

5. Informal invitations are used when your function is informal. Example: birthday celebrations, party for celebrating admission to a prestigious institution.

6. Strictly formal replies are used only by people who have (or should have) enormous egos. Example: bureaucrats, ambassadors.

7. Formal replies are just ordinary formal letters and informal replies are plain informal letters. 

Let me give examples for the above types so that they become clearer. 

1. Formal - Card

Newton Public School, Nagpur is celebrating its 30th Annual Day. On behalf of the principal, draft an invitation card to be sent to parents and well-wishers. 

It's easy to remember the format of a card invitation if you understand it in a sequence like: Who's inviting, which institution, the occasion, when, where, chief guest.

Let us take an example from one of CBSE's question papers. 

You are Dhruv/Deepa. Your father, Sri Dheeraj Garg of Gurugram wants you to draft an invitation to be sent to friends and relatives on the occasion of your elder sister’s marriage. Prepare the invitation giving necessary details in not more than 50 words. [2019] 

Let’s practise:

Ms Lakshmi Sharma, one of the teachers of Sun Public School, Pune has received the national award for teachers. The school is organising a formal function to congratulate her and appreciate her contributions. Draft a formal invitation to be sent to parents and well-wishers on behalf of the principal.

2. Formal - Letter

You are the Director of Apex Orientations, a leading name in coaching for competitive examinations including IIT-JEE and CBSE-PMT. Write letters to the principals of some prestigious schools inviting 2 brilliant students from each institution to attend their Counselling Session free of cost. 

3. Informal Invitation

This is nothing but a usual informal letter. 

Example

Rohit has cleared the CBSE-PMT. He wants to celebrate his admission to Shivaji Medical College, Nagpur by throwing a party to his friends. Write an informal invitation giving details of venue, time and date. 


REPLIES

1. Strictly Formal

Draft a formal reply accepting an invitation to be present on the occasion of the wedding of Ankush S/o Mr & Mrs Shankar of 24, Green Park Road, Kanpur. You are Vikram Gaur MLA.


Answer:


Mr Vikram Gaur MLA & Family thank Mr and Mrs Shankar for inviting them on the occasion of the wedding of their son Ankush at 24, Green Park Road, Kanpur on 17 Aug. They will be present at the venue at 8.00 p.m.
Vikram Gaur
31 July 2022

Example 2:

Write a formal reply expressing your inability to attend the birthday celebrations of your friend Suresh Pradhan of 1235, Vivekananda Marg, Belur. You are Somesh Basu.


Answer:


Mr & Mrs Somesh Basu wish to thank Mr & Mrs Suresh Pradhan for extending an invitation to the birthday celebrations of their son Akshay at their residence 123, Vivekananda Marg, Belur on 20 Aug 2022 and wish the young boy many happy returns of the day but regret their inability to be present personally on account of some previous engagements.
Somesh Basu
31 Jul 2022

2. Formal Replies

You are Arjun /Aparna. Your school has been invited to participate in an inter-school On-the-spot painting competition organised by the Lions Club of your district. As General Secretary of the Painting Club of your school, respond to the invitation.


Answer:


General Secretary

Painting Club

D.N. Public School
Karnal


07 Aug 2022


The President
Lions Club
Karnal

 

Subject: Confirmation of participation


Sir
This refers to your invitation to our school to participate in the inter-school on-the- spot painting competition. We thank you for inviting us and gladly confirm our participation in this interesting competition.


Yours sincerely
Arjun
General Secretary

 3. INFORMAL REPLIES 

You are Aakash/Varsha. You have been invited to attend the wedding of your friend’s sister during summer vacation. Respond to the invitation, regretting your inability to attend it.


Answer:


205, Vasant Kunj
New Delhi


07 Aug 2022


Dear Neha,


Thank you for your cordial invitation on the occasion of your sister’s wedding. I, however, regret my inability to be with you on this happy occasion as we will be leaving for Shimla for a family function on 16 Aug. Please excuse my absence. Do convey my regards and best wishes to the couple.


Yours sincerely
Varsha


PS. You may also be interested in Reading Comprehension for Senior Students

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanJuly 31, 2022 at 4:27 PM

    Hari OM
    Nice tutorial! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. जितेन्द्र माथुरAugust 11, 2022 at 8:13 AM

    Definitely a very useful guide for the students as well as the working people as well as the others in general.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Toddler houseAugust 19, 2023 at 1:34 PM

    Wow! Thank You for sharing your knowledge with us. This blog provides a proper explanation. I have one more piece of information related to the Best Playgroup. Best Playgroup school in Lucknow

    ReplyDelete
  4. Online EducationOctober 11, 2023 at 3:31 PM

    Very useful information thank you for sharing
    Orientation Courses

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unnati ChaurasiaJune 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM

    This is so helpful. Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
18 comments
Read more

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...
6 comments
Read more

The RSS does not exist

An organisation that has 80,000 branches in India does not exist legally in any document. This is the cover story of The Caravan this month. By the way, The Caravan is one of the very few publications that still continues to exist in spite of being overtly critical of Narendra Modi and his Sangh Parivar. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is not registered as an organisation under any of the usual Indian registration laws such as the Societies Registration Act or as a trust or company. It functions as an unregistered voluntary organisation, though it is arguably the largest public organisation in the country. This situation makes the organisation absolutely unaccountable to anyone, argues The Caravan . The RSS is not legally required to file annual returns to the Tax department or disclose its financial details publicly though it deals with thousands of crores of rupees every year especially after Modi became the Prime Minister of the country. The membership of the organisat...
12 comments
Read more

No Problems Only Opportunities

You’ve probably heard this joke. A young man walked into his office one morning and found a beautiful young lady sitting in his chair. He called the MD and said, “Sir, I have a problem.” The MD replied, “Don’t you know our company’s motto, young man? No Problems, Only Opportunities .” When Suchita of The Blogchatter sent me a mail with the topic of this week’s blog hop –  - the first thing that came to my mind was the above joke. I know many people – too many, in fact – who went through terrible problems. My own life was a series of problems in none of which was there the consolation of any beautiful woman. One essential lesson I learnt from life is that life is a series of problems. You solve one and then arises the next one. Now I have reached an age when problems are no more problems: they are life itself. If you ask me what was the biggest problem I ever dealt with, it was my last years in Shillong. I was a lecturer in a college drawing a fat salary stipulated by the U...
13 comments
Read more