Letter to the Editor About Load Shedding

Say where and when the load shedding happens and for how long, then set out who it hurts most — students before an examination, small businesses, patients on machines. Ending with a concrete request to the local supply authority makes the letter a piece of advocacy rather than a complaint, which is what the mark scheme rewards.

The question: Write a letter to the editor about the sufferings caused by load shedding.

The format

The formal frame

Editor, paper and address at the left; date; subject line naming the area; Sir; the request for space; three body paragraphs; Yours faithfully, name, address.

Establish the pattern

A load-shedding letter needs a pattern rather than an anecdote: how many hours, at what times of day, in which area, over how long a period. That is what turns a complaint into evidence.

• Give hours per day and the times they fall — outages at midnight and outages at eight in the evening are not the same problem.
• Say how long the pattern has lasted; a fortnight and a year call for different responses.
• Name the area and, if you can, the supply authority for it.

Consequences, grouped

Group them so the paragraph has a shape: students, small businesses, health. Each group needs one specific consequence rather than a general statement of inconvenience.

The request

Ask the distribution authority — the rural electrification board, the power distribution company for the area — for a published schedule at minimum, and for equitable distribution of the shortfall. A request for a schedule is realistic even when a request for uninterrupted supply is not.

Model answer

Model answer (about 190 words)

The Editor

The Financial Express

Motijheel C/A, Dhaka

5 September 2026

Subject: Load shedding in Kushtia town

Sir,

I would be grateful if you published this letter, drawing the attention of the authorities to the load shedding that Kushtia town has faced since the beginning of August.

Supply is being cut four to six times a day, and the outages fall in the worst possible places: an hour in the middle of the morning, an hour or more in the early evening, and frequently again after eleven at night. This has continued for over five weeks with no published schedule, so nobody can plan around it.

The effects are unevenly distributed. Students preparing for the HSC lose exactly the evening hours they need, and candles are a poor substitute in September heat. The small workshops on Nawab Sirajuddaula Road — welders, printers, tailors — simply stop work and lose the day's earnings. At the clinics, refrigerated vaccines depend on generators that not every clinic has.

I request the West Zone Power Distribution Company to publish a daily schedule so that households and businesses can plan, and to distribute the shortfall more evenly across the town.

Yours faithfully,

Sumaiya Islam

Kushtia

What earns and loses marks

• Give the pattern, not a single bad night. Four to six outages a day for five weeks is evidence; “there is no electricity in our area” is not.
• Group the consequences — students, businesses, health — so the middle paragraph has a visible structure.
• Ask for a published schedule. It is a request that could actually be granted, which makes the letter stronger than one demanding uninterrupted supply.
• Name the distribution company for the area if you can; it shows the letter is aimed at someone in particular.
• Keep it to about 190 words and three body paragraphs.

Mistakes to avoid

• ✗ Load shedding is a great problem in our country. It hampers our study. ✓ Supply is being cut four to six times a day, and the outages fall in the early evening. — the national statement gives the authority nothing to act on