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

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 2

Fort Kochi’s water metro service welcomes you in many languages. Surprisingly, Sanskrit is one of the first. The above photo I took shows only just a few of the many languages which are there on a series of boards. Kochi welcomes everyone. It welcomed the Arabs long before Prophet Muhammad received his divine inspiration and gave the people a single God in the place of the many they worshipped. Those Arabs made their journey to Kerala for trade. There are plenty of Muslims now in Fort Kochi. Trade brought the Chinese too later in the 14 th -15 th centuries. The Chinese fishing nets that welcome you gloriously to Fort Kochi are the lingering signs of the island’s Chinese links. The reason that brought the Portuguese another century later was no different. Then came the Dutch followed by the British. All for trade. It is interesting that when the northern parts of India were overrun by marauders, Kerala was embracing ‘globalisation’ through trades with many countries. Babu...
11 comments
Read more

Schrödinger’s Cat and Carl Sagan’s God

Image by Gemini AI “Suppose a patriotic Indian claims, with the intention of proving the superiority of India, that water boils at 71 degrees Celsius in India, and the listener is a scientist. What will happen?” Grandpa was having his occasional discussion with his Gen Z grandson who was waiting for his admission to IIT Madras, his dream destination. “Scientist, you say?” Gen Z asked. “Hmm.” “Then no quarrel, no fight. There’d be a decent discussion.” Grandpa smiled. If someone makes some similar religious claim, there could be riots. The irony is that religions are meant to bring love among humans but they end up creating rift and fight. Scientists, on the other hand, keep questioning and disproving each other, and they appreciate each other for that. “The scientist might say,” Gen Z continued, “that the claim could be absolutely right on the Kanchenjunga Peak.” Grandpa had expected that answer. He was familiar with this Gen Z’s brain which wasn’t degenerated by Instag...
12 comments
Read more

Re-exploring the Past: The Fort Kochi Chapters – 3

Street leading to St Francis Church, Fort Kochi There were Christians in Kerala long before the Brahmins, who came to be known as Namboothiris, landed in the state from North India some time after 6 th century CE. Tradition has it that Thomas, disciple of Jesus, brought Christianity to Kerala in the first century. That is quite possible, given the trade relationships that Kerala had with the Roman Empire in those days. Pliny the Elder, Roman author, chastised in his encyclopaedic work, Natural History (published around 77 CE), the Romans’ greed for pepper from India. He was displeased with his country spending “no less than fifty million sesterces” on a commodity which had no value other than its “certain pungency.” Did Thomas sail on one of the many ships that came to Kerala to purchase “pungency”? Possible.   Even if Thomas did not come, the advent of Christianity in Kerala precedes the arrival of the Namboothiris. The Persians established trade links with Kerala in 4 ...
10 comments
Read more

Florentino’s Many Loves

Florentino Ariza has had 622 serious relationships (combo pack with sex) apart from numerous fleeting liaisons before he is able to embrace the only woman whom he loved with all his heart and soul. And that embrace happens “after a long and troubled love affair” that lasted 51 years, 9 months, and 4 days. Florentino is in his late 70s when he is able to behold, and hold as well, the very body of his beloved Fermina, who is just a few years younger than him. She now stands before him with her wrinkled shoulders, sagged breasts, and flabby skin that is as pale and cold as a frog’s. It is the culmination of a long, very long, wait as far as Florentino is concerned, the end of his passionate quest for his holy grail. “I’ve remained a virgin for you,” he says. All those 622 and more women whose details filled the 25 diaries that he kept writing with meticulous devotion have now vanished into thin air. They mean nothing now that he has reached where he longed to reach all his life. The...
62 comments
Read more