This article gives tips on how to write suitably formal and polite letters to impress the examiner in IELTS General Writing Task 1, with advice on starting, ending and the body of answers to tasks like this:
“You recently attended an international conference in a hotel abroad. When you returned home, you realised that you had lost your workplace security badge at the hotel.
Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter
- explain places where the security badge may be
- describe what it looks like
- give instructions on what should be done if the badge is found and if it is not found
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Sir or Madam,”
For information on formal letters more generally, see Formal Letter Format: How to Write a Formal Letter - UsingEnglish.com and for teaching materials on IELTS letters, see Teaching IELTS Writing: Interactive Classroom Activities (2nd Edition) - UsingEnglish.com
How to start formal IELTS letters
Before you start writing, you need to make sure that a formal letter is needed. This is easy with tasks like the one above which tell you to use “Dear Sir or Madam,”, as this opening greeting is always followed by a formal letter. There is also one official task that tells you to start with a specific title plus family name (e.g. “Dear Ms Jackson,”) and so clearly must be formal.
Tasks which tell you to use “Dear…,” (with the dot dot dot) are usually letters to people you know such as friends and so should be informal. However, there have been a few official practice exams in which you are told to use “Dear…,” but the letter should probably be formal such as a job application. There are also situations where different levels of formality are possible and so a formal letter is one possibility, such as writing to a boss and writing a job application to someone who you have met.
If you are told to start with “Dear…,” and decide that a formal letter is most suitable, that must always be “Dear + title + family name,”, as in:
- Dear Mr Gardener,
- Dear Ms Ericsson,
- Dear Mrs Whitely,
Note that “Dear…,” and “Dear Sir or Madam,” are always given with a comma at the end, so this should always be used in your letter.
Although in real life we sometimes use “Dear + full name,”, for example if we don’t know someone’s preferred title, this should be avoided in formal IELTS letters as it looks slightly less formal and doesn’t show that you know how to use titles. Opening greetings without names like “Dear manager,” are not standard in English and so should be avoided.
Before moving onto the body of the letter and dealing with the points given in the three bullet points in the task, you also need an opening line. In formal letters, the most common suitable opening line is one giving the topic of the letter, as in:
- I am writing to you regarding/ concerning/ with regards to…
- I am writing in order to…
- I am writing due to…
Note that contractions such as “I’m writing…” are more informal and so should be avoided throughout formal IELTS letters.
Although we sometimes do so in real formal letters, there is never any need to start formal IELTS letters with small talk-like phrases such as “I hope this letter finds you well”. However, it is sometimes nice to start with mentioning the last contact with that person, as in “It was a pleasure to meet you…” and “Thank you for… yesterday”.
Between the opening greeting and opening line and then between each subsequent part of the letter, you should leave a blank line or an indent of a few spaces. An indent is more traditional in letters but a blank line is modern style and leaves more room for editing, so both options have advantages.
How to write the body of formal IELTS letters
Formal phrases to start body paragraphs include:
- Regarding…
- Turning our attention to…
- In relation to…
These medium-formality opening paragraph phrases are also suitable for formal letters:
- Starting with…
- In answer to your question (about…),…
- Looking at…
- On the related subject of…,…
- Moving on to…
- As for…
- You (also) asked about…
- As we discussed,…
In IELTS formal letter body paragraphs, the most common functions in the official practice tests are (in order):
- describing/ explaining
- giving reasons and explaining consequences
- complaining and giving negative feedback
- giving advice/ suggestions
- requesting and demanding
- giving opinions
- positive feedback, compliments and/ or thanks
- making arrangements
- apologising or giving bad news
- enquiries/ asking for information
- introducing yourself
Polite versions of these functions also often show good general tactics for being polite/ formal. For example, when giving negative feedback/ complaining, you should use the useful tactic of being indirect, as in:
- We were quite impressed by/ satisfied with… overall, but…
- Unfortunately, … did not meet the standards that I (had) expected.
- I am afraid I was not (fully) satisfied with…
- I was somewhat surprised to find that…
- We experienced a couple of issues with…
- There seemed to be (some kind of) a problem with…
We can also make opinions language more polite by being indirect, as in:
- … was not entirely accurate in terms of…
However, with opinions it is also okay to be more direct, as long as you use suitably formal language like:
- (I am afraid that) I am strongly opposed to… (for the reasons outlined below).
- I fully support the idea of…
- It is my belief that…
- The chief argument for this is…
Apologies and giving bad news are good examples of being more formal by using longer single words and language that is unlike normal speech (not idioms made of short words like “let you know”), as in:
- Please accept my (sincerest) apologies for…
- I would like to apologise for…
- I regret to inform you that…
Thanking also is more polite with longer words, as in the formal example phrases:
- I am (very/ extremely/ most) grateful for…
- Please accept my heartfelt thanks for…
These phrases are also formal enough for thanking in formal letters:
- Thank you very much for…
- I really appreciate…
With requests, you have to be even more careful than usual not to use language for commands/ instructions/ demands when you just want to ask for help (so not “Please send me…”, not “Would you please…?”, etc). Suitably polite request phrases include:
- I would be very grateful if you could…
- Could you possibly assist me with/ by…?
- I was wondering if you could…
- … would be greatly appreciated.
- Would you be able to…?
- If at all possible, I would like…
Formal phrases for giving advice include:
- I would (highly/ wholeheartedly/ be inclined to) recommend…
- I am not (so) sure that I would recommend…
- I would therefore suggest…
These suggestions phrases are also suitable in formal situations:
- Another (possible/ good/ recommended) option is…
- You could (also) think about…
- My (personal/ main) recommendation would be…
- It might be helpful to…
- It would (probably) be useful to…
- The best way to solve this problem seems to be to…
- … will help deal with…
You don’t have to be so careful when doing positive things like giving positive feedback and complimenting, but these formal phrases are good ways of showing your range of language:
- It is my great pleasure to share my satisfaction with…
- Please accept my compliments on…
- I was extremely impressed by…
Positive sentences related to invitations and arrangements can also be quite neutral and direct, but particularly polite forms including:
- It would be my very great pleasure if you could attend…
- I would like to invite you to…
- I am available (for…) at any time.
- I am able to… between… and…, if that is convenient with you.
As with informal letters, each body paragraph needs at least two sentences, including adding additional information to the topic of each. This most commonly means giving reasons such as explaining cause and effect, for which formal phrases include:
- thus
- As a consequence,…
- in order to…
- As a result,…
- therefore
- This is due to…
These medium-formality phrases are also useful in formal letters:
- The main reason for this is...
- This is because…
- as
- For this reason,…
- Given…
- since
- so that
- This means that…
- This could lead to…
More general formal adding further information phrases include:
- In addition,…
- Similarly,…
- Additionally,…
- In addition to…
- Furthermore,…
- Moreover,…
How to end formal IELTS letters
After three body paragraphs of at least two sentences each, you will need three ending parts to finish your letter:
- closing line
- closing greeting
- name at the end
Formal closing lines include:
- I look forward to hearing from you (soon).
- If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
- Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
- I hope we have the chance to meet again soon.
- Thank you in advance (for any assistance you can provide).
- I hope that this (…) is of assistance (in…)
- Once again, thank you for…
The closing greeting “Yours faithfully,” is only used to end letters that start without their name, in other words letters starting with “Dear Sir or Madam,”. In contrast, “Yours sincerely,” is only used after “Dear title + family name,”. If you get confused, “Sincerely yours,” and “Best regards,” are less impressive but match both situations and so are safer choices.
The most formal way of putting your name at the end are (with most formal top):
- initials, family name and title in brackets, as in “A.M. Case (Mr)”
- full name and title in brackets at the end, as in “Alexander Case (Mr)”
We don’t put our title before our own name, so not “Mr Alex Case” X.