Which hobby should I choose to write about?

The one you can give real detail about, not the one that sounds most impressive. Gardening, cooking, keeping fish and repairing bicycles all produce better letters than stamp collecting written by someone who has never collected a stamp, because the marks are for the writing rather than the hobby.

Can I write about watching television or using a phone?

It is safer not to. Examiners in Bangladesh generally expect a hobby to be an active pursuit, and a letter defending screen time as a hobby has to win an argument before it can start describing. Choose something you do rather than something you consume.

English · Letter Writing

Letter to Your Friend About Your Hobby

Q: Should I explain the benefits of the hobby?

One sentence, at most, and inside the description rather than as a separate lecture. A line like “it is the only part of the day when I am not thinking about anything else” does the job better than a paragraph listing advantages, and it keeps the letter sounding like a letter.

A model informal letter about a hobby, with the structure examiners expect.

Name the hobby in the first line of the body, then explain how you came to it, when you practise it and what you get from it. A hobby letter scores on specific detail — how many stamps, which birds, what time of day — because a general statement that a hobby is enjoyable could be written about any hobby at all.

The question: Write a letter to your friend about your hobby.

The format

Answer what, how and why

Three questions fill the middle paragraph with no further planning: what the hobby is, how you came to it, and what you get from it. Answer them in that order and the paragraph builds itself.

What takes one sentence — name it and move on.
How is where the interest lies: hobbies usually begin by accident.
Why should be honest rather than improving.

Choose a hobby you can count

Quantities are what make a hobby letter convincing. Eleven pots, four attempts, half an hour before school. A hobby described only in adjectives could belong to anybody.

Pick something you do, not something you watch.
Give at least one number and one time of day.
⚠️ Do not claim a hobby you know nothing about; the detail will not come.

Close by suggesting your friend tries it, briefly, then ask what they have been doing. A recommendation longer than a sentence turns the letter into advice, which is a different question.

Model answer

Model answer (about 170 words)

Mirpur, Dhaka

5 September 2026

Dear Arif,

I was glad to get your letter last week. You asked what I do with myself now that the tests are over, and the honest answer is that I have been gardening.

It started by accident. My mother had some chilli seedlings left over in the spring and gave them to me rather than throw them away, and I planted them in old paint tins on our roof because there was nowhere else. They did well, which surprised both of us, and I have kept adding to them since. There are now eleven tins up there — chillies, two tomato plants, coriander, and a lemon sapling that has done nothing at all for four months. I go up for about half an hour before school and again in the evening. The work itself is dull, mostly watering and picking off insects, but I have found that it is the only part of the day when I am not thinking about anything else.

You should try it, even with one pot. What are you doing these days? Write soon.

Yours ever,

Mahin

What earns and loses marks

Choose a hobby you can be specific about. Eleven paint tins and a lemon sapling that has done nothing is convincing; “my hobby is gardening and it gives me pleasure” could have been written by anyone.
Length is not the point — a letter of about 150 words that does the four parts properly beats a rambling 300-word one.
Keep the tense consistent: a letter about something that happened stays in the past, a letter about a plan stays in the future.
Ask at least one question of your friend, so the letter reads as one half of a conversation rather than a speech.
Leave a clear blank line between paragraphs — layout marks are given for what the examiner can see at a glance.

Mistakes to avoid

✗ Gardening is a very good hobby. It has many advantages. ✓ It started by accident, with some chilli seedlings my mother had left over. — a letter tells; an essay explains