Email Inviting Your Friend to a Programme

Put the occasion in the subject line and the facts in the first paragraph: what, when, where, and how to reach it. Add a second short paragraph on who else is coming or what will happen, then close by asking for a reply. An invitation missing the date or the venue loses marks however well it is written.

The question: Write an email inviting your friend to attend your college annual programme.

The format

Facts before warmth

The opening paragraph carries what, when, where and how to get in. A reader deciding whether to come needs those immediately, and burying them after a warm paragraph is a structural error.

• Day, date, start and end time.
• The venue and how to reach it.
• 🚨 Put the date in the subject line as well.

Use the second paragraph to persuade

Once the facts are down, say what will happen and who will be there. This is the part that actually makes someone come, and it is what most invitation answers omit.

• Name the programme in sequence, briefly.
• Mention one person your friend knows.

Ask for a reply by a date

Close by asking for confirmation and giving a deadline with a reason. A deadline with a reason attached is more likely to be met and shows you understand the purpose of an invitation.

Model answer

Model answer (about 135 words)

To: [email protected]

Subject: Our college annual programme on 20 September

Dear Rimjhim,

Our college annual cultural programme is on Saturday 20 September, from three in the afternoon until about eight, in the college auditorium on Kachari Road. I would very much like you to come, and there is no ticket — just tell me and I will put your name on the list at the gate.

It is a bigger event than last year's. There is a drama in the first half, then the music, and our class is doing a Nazrul recitation which I have been dragged into against my will. My cousins from Rangpur are coming and my aunt is bringing food for afterwards. Let me know by Wednesday if you can make it, so I can arrange your name at the gate in time.

Yours ever,

Prova

What earns and loses marks

• Check for date, time and place before you check anything else. An invitation missing one of the three is marked down however well it is written — read the answer once looking only for those.
• Write about 120 to 150 words in the body. An email answer of 250 words has usually become a letter with a subject line on top.
• 🚨 Do not add your postal address anywhere. That is the single clearest sign that a letter answer has been reused for an email question.
• Keep the subject line and the first sentence consistent — if the subject says one thing and the message opens on another, the answer looks assembled rather than written.
• Sign with your name only; no designation, no address, no phone number in an informal email.