Dear Sir/Madam,
As an avid reader of your newspaper, I'd like to offer some suggestions for changes that hopefully could be made to your future editions. A section that I think you can do without would be Culture and, in the meantime, a section that I suggest adding to the newspaper is Career Planning. My reasons are as follows.
Since this newspaper is intended for students, a relaxed tone and light-hearted topics would get in good graces with us. Culture seems a rather serious section, which isn't really necessary considering our school curriculum has done an excellent job imparting to us gems of various cultures in the world. Besides, culture and entertainment are inextricably linked—that is, we can subliminally learn about western culture through listening to English songs and watching American or British TV series. For example, Big Bang Theory has shown us how Americans now regard "smart is the new sexy," and Sherlock has shown us how the wry humor of Brits can actually strengthen the bond between two detectives.
The reason why I'd like to see a Career Planning section is that high schools in Shanghai seldom offer career guidance, something that should be made indispensable to the curriculums. Employers often complain about graduates' lack of skill and, more importantly, mental preparedness to do things professionally. I think that it's part of a school's responsibility to help students build links between academic subjects and employable skills. These are not mutually exclusive entities, but rather a mutually dependent whole. Book knowledge bolsters our qualifications and confidence necessary for a successful career, while proper career planning will be beneficial in directing our limited time and energy to what really matters to us personally. Better still, it would be fantastic to read about other people's reflections on job seeking and career development.
It is time we made the newspaper breezier to its readers and incorporated some practical tips on finding work and building a career.
Many thanks
Chen Fei