This article gives tips on how to write suitably friendly letters to impress the examiner in IELTS General Writing Task 1. It includes advice on starting, ending and the body of the informal letter, for tasks like this:
“Your friend has just got a working holiday visa to live in your country for a year. He/ She would like your advice on learning some of your language before they arrive.
Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
- describe how your language compares to other languages
- recommend some good language learning materials
- warn him/ her of some difficulties he/ she is likely to have
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear…,”
How to start informal IELTS letters
The first thing you need to do is to work out if an informal letter is needed, by looking at the situation that you are writing in and the opening greeting that you are told to use. “Dear Sir or Madam,” is always followed by a formal letter. With “Dear…,” it depends on the situation, but ones which are obviously informal like writing to friends are quite common. There are other situations like writing to your boss or someone you have only met once where both formal or informal letters are possible, so this article will also deal with such situations.
Informal IELTS letters must start with “Dear + first name,” to follow the instructions and be friendly enough. Unfortunately, you are told to use “Dear…,” so you cannot change it to something more friendly that is more common in real life like “Hi John”. Notice that there is a comma that you are told to use, so “Dear John,” is correct but “Dear John” with no comma does not follow the instructions. Expressions without names like “Dear friend,” X are not common in modern English.
Before you start the doing the three things that you are told to do in the three bullet points in the question, you need at least one sentence before you get down to business. The most useful opening lines for informal letters are:
- (It was) so nice to get your letter.
- (It was so) lovely to hear from you (again).
- (I) was so thrilled to get your letter (telling me that…)
- It was so nice to hear that…
- How’s… going?
- How are you getting on with…?
- Hope… is going okay.
- Long time no see! How have you been (since we last met)?
- Hope you’re enjoying…
- How was your…?
- Congratulations on…/ Congrats on…
- Sorry it took me so long to get back to you.
- Sorry it’s been so long since I was last in touch.
Note that some of those phrases can be made more informal by missing off parts of written grammar like the subject and/ or auxiliary verb (as can also be seen in the body and ending below). Similar phrases like “Thank you for your letter”, “How are you?” and “I hope you are well” are too formal for friendly casual letters.
Either in the next sentence of the opening line or at the beginning of the first body paragraph, you are then ready to get down to business with phrases like:
- Writing about…
- Sorry to write out of the blue, but…
How to write the body of informal IELTS letters
As with all IELTS General Writing Task 1 tasks, you have to fully cover all three bullet points in the question in the body of your informal letter. That is always best done with three body paragraphs of at least two sentences each. The only obviously informal way to start those body paragraphs is “About…”, but these are also not too formal:
- When it comes to…,…
- As we talked about,…
- As for…
- Starting with…
- In answer to your question (about…),…
- Looking at…
- You (also) asked about…
The most common things that you need to do in the body of informal IELTS letters are to give advice, deal with invitations or arrangements, say something negative such as giving bad news, make or deal with requests, thank, and give good news. You will also need to add extra information by adding details, giving reasons, etc.
It’s worth remembering in the body that “informal” means “friendly”, not “rude”. For example, with requests, make sure that you don’t use commands like “I’d like you to…”, and if possible casual language like idioms and spoken grammar to soften the request, as in:
- Can you give me a hand with…?
- Can you do me a (huge) favour and…?
- You couldn’t… for me, could you?
Informal apologies and bad news phrases are similar, as in:
- So sorry about…
- Sorry to say that…
Informal ways of giving advice include:
- There’s no way I’d recommend…
- Avoid…
- I reckon… would be right up your street
These are also not too formal:
- (For…) you can’t beat…
- Don’t miss…
- (Have you) thought about…?
- Be sure (not) to…
- Whatever you do, don’t forget to…
- Make sure…
It’s quite difficult to make negative feedback informal without making it rude, apart from maybe “Sorry to say that it wasn’t up to scratch”. These are also not too formal for informal letters:
- I was surprised to find that…
- I wasn’t very happy with…
Positive feedback and praise is much more natural in informal letters, with phrases like:
- Wow!
- …totally blew me away.
- …blew my socks off.
- I really got into…
- I got a lot out of…
- I couldn’t believe how good… was.
Informal thanking phrases include:
- Thanks a million for…
- Thanks soooo much for…
- Cheers for…
- You’re a lifesaver!
- There’s no way I could have… without your…
Informal invitations and arrangements phrases include:
- (Do you) fancy…?
- What about coming…?
- Any time (at all/ between… and…/ except…) is fine by me/ okay with me.
- Just let me know when (you want to…)
- You can catch me…
Informal opinions phrases include:
- I reckon that…
When it comes to adding support for your ideas etc later in each paragraph, informal phrases for giving reasons include:
- If you’re wondering why, well…
- Why? Well,…
- The reason? Well,…
- So,…
- ’cos
Informal phrases for adding other details such as second ideas include:
- Oh, and…
- Not just that, but also…
- … too.
These are also not too formal:
- Another (…) is…
- … also…
- Likewise,…
- not only… but also…
- … as well.
- Not forgetting…
- The other is…
- What’s more,…
How to close informal IELTS letters
Just as formal letters need three parts in the closing part in order to be polite, informal letters need the same three parts to be friendly. These are:
- closing line
- closing greeting
- name at the end
The most informal and therefore friendly closing lines include:
- Write soon!
- Can’t wait to hear from you (about…)
- If you need any (more) info, drop me a line anytime.
- Give me a ring (anytime) if I’ve missed anything out.
- Looking forward to seeing you then/ soon/…
- Can’t wait to see you again! – Can’t wait seeing you again! X
- Keep in touch!
- Hope you can come(!)
- Hope you have the chance to enjoy…
- Best of luck with….
- Thanks a million.
- Cheers.
- Hope that helps (with…)
The most informal closing greeting in work settings or with other people you don’t know so well is probably “Best wishes,”, with the variations “Best,” and “BW,” being more informal. With friends, you could go even further with “Lots of love,” or “Hugs and kisses,”. The abbreviation “XXX” might also be okay, but make sure that you don’t use language from the internet like “CU” for “See you” (also true in the rest of the letter).
Note the comma after all those closing greetings, which is necessary to match the comma that you are told to use in the opening greeting.
Your name at the end should be just your first name, or you can use abbreviations like “Al” or “A” to make it even more informal.