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In this preparation series article, we will discuss how to detect an informal IELTS Letter/email in your GT IELTS test, how to plan for it, and finally, how to write a great answer to get a high band score.
But before anything else, we need to know what an informal letter or email is in the IELTS test.
What is an Informal IELTS Letter/Email in IELTS Writing Test?
In your General Training (GT) IELTS Writing test, there are two tasks. The first task is to write a letter or email, and the second is to write an essay. Writing Task 1 asks you to write a letter or email, and this can be to anyone – for example – to a friend, neighbour or the city councillor. Please note that there is no difference between a letter and email writing. And your answer would be the same whether you are asked to write a letter or an email response. Now, there could be three types of letters or emails based on the situation and to whom you are writing them. The simplest possible rule to detect an informal letter/email is that if you are writing to a friend, then it is an informal letter. Why? Because you do not need to be formal to a friend, and when you write to a friend it is not a formal situation.
An example of an informal IELTS Letter Writing Task Question:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
You have recently moved to a different house.
Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter,
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear………………,
Now look at an example of an informal IELTS Email Writing Task Question:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
You will be out of town on a business trip for a couple of days, and a friend has agreed to look after your house and children while you are away.
Write an email to your friend. In your email:
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your email as follows:
Dear………….,
Please notice that both the letter and email questions ask you to write a letter to a friend, and it indicates that the letter/email response would be informal in nature.
What exactly is an Informal Letter/Email:
By far you already know that an informal letter or email is written to a friend. Since you do not have a formal or even semi-formal relationship with your friend, your tone and language do not have to be formal. In fact, it is expected that you would be using some colloquial and casual expressions in your letter to a friend.
Now that we know what is an informal letter and how to detect it, let’s explore how we can plan for it. Well, the next paragraph explains how we should plan for writing an informal letter for the IELTS test.
How to plan to write an informal letter?
Since you know that it is an informal letter, make a quick mental note about the bullet points of the questions. Your first job would be to prepare short notes about the things you are going to elaborate in your answer.
For instance, take the GT Writing Task 1 question below and make some brief notes on the bullet points first.
Question:
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
A year ago, you lent your favourite book to a friend who you thought would enjoy it. Unfortunately, your friend has forgotten to return it. The book has sentimental value to you as it had been presented by your grandmother.
Write a letter to your friend. In the letter,
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ………..……,
First bullet point – “ask how he or she is doing”:
A brief note: Ask how he/she is doing. For example, “How are you? How was your exam? Are you planning anything special for the coming holiday?”
Second bullet point – “Remind him/her about the book”:
A brief note: The name of the book and its author, when you gave it to the friend, when he/she was supposed to return it, and asking him/her to return the book without being rude or harsh.”
Third bullet point – “explain why you need it back”:
A brief note: It was a gift from your grandma on your birthday. Now that she is no more, it is a reminder of her to you. You would not want to lose this book.
Please do not take more than a minute or two to plan for your letter.
Now that you have a solid plan for your informal letter response, you need to transform this plan into an actual letter/email response. Now we will explore how to do it.
How to write an actual informal letter or email from your plan?
Step 1: First start with the salutation.
You begin your letter by addressing your friend (also known as the “salutation”.)
You write “Dear” followed by the “first name” of your friend and then a “comma(,)”. For example:
Dear John,
or
Dear Ellina,
Please do not write “Hi”, “Dearest”, “My friend” or “Dear John Calvin”. The last one (i.e. “Dear John Calvin”) is incorrect because when you write a letter or email to your friend, you do not write the full name of your friend.
Step 2: Open your letter with personal greetings and friendly gestures. In this case, the letter question already instructs you to ask how he or she is doing. Even if the question does not do that, it is a always good idea to include it.
For example: How’re you? It’s been a long since we last met or talked over the phone. I hope everything is great on your end.
Step 3: Fully answer all the bullet points. It is a great idea to dedicate a paragraph for each bullet point. In this case, we have already answered the first bullet point in our greeting section in the first paragraph of the letter answer. So we need to have two more paragraphs that satisfactorily and thoroughly answer the next two bullet points; i.e. “remind him/her about the book” and
“explain why you need it back”.
Two example paragraphs are given below:
Yesterday, I had a talk with one of my cousins about the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, and that reminded me that I lent a book with the same title to you approximately 4 months ago. It’s a fantastic book, and I’m pretty sure you have enjoyed reading it as much as I did.
I’ve some amazing memories associated with this book. This book was read to me, as a classic storyteller for all ages, by my grandmother during my childhood. In fact, it was my grandmother who bought this book and gave it to me as a gift on my 7th birthday. Besides, this is the first novel that I read after I had learnt to read and write properly. So, I’d really like to get that book back.
Step 4: Close the informal letter. In this part of the letter, you usually thank a friend or hope to meet him or her soon. For instance,
1) Take care. Hope to see you soon.
2) I can’t wait to meet you soon and discuss the upcoming event in person.
3) Wishing you all the best.
4) Thank you a lot for your help. It means a lot to me.
5) Please send me a reply when you can.
6) Write me back when you have some free time.
In this case, we recommend closing the letter as –
Hope to hear from you soon.
Step 5: Sign out the letter. This is the last part of the informal letter that you would write. In this part, you write “Yours truly, Warm wishes”, “Best wishes” and then your first name. For instance,
Warm wishes,
James
Now we will combine all the parts of the informal letter together. The following is the complete answer to the letter.
Dear John,
How’re you? It’s been a long since we last met or talked over the phone. I hope everything is great on your end.
Yesterday, I had a talk with one of my cousins about the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, and that reminded me that I lent a book with the same title to you approximately 4 months ago. It’s a fantastic book, and I’m pretty sure you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I did.
I’ve some amazing memories associated with this book. This book was read to me, as a classic storyteller for all ages, by my grandmother during my childhood. In fact, it was my grandmother who bought this book and gave it to me as a gift on my 7th birthday. Besides, this is the first novel that I read after I had learnt to read and write properly. So, I’d really like to get that book back.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Warm wishes,
James
Note: The above letter contains approximately 170 words. Since you are asked to write at least 150 words, you should not write less than 150 words. If you do, you would lose some important points.
Also, note that we have used some contractions in our letter and you should use such contractions (like, I’ve, It’s, I’m etc) only in an informal letter/email. Do not use them in formal or semi-formal letters.
How an informal letter is different from a semi-formal or formal letter/email?
In your IELTS test, you would be given one of the three types of letters – formal, semi-formal and informal. So it is important that you detect the letter/email type without wasting any time at all. From our earlier discussion you should by now know that when you are asked to write a letter to a friend, it is an informal letter. There are some other differences among these three types of letters/emails as well. And in this part of the article, we would focus on that.
Difference 1: An informal letter is written to a friend (someone you are very close to). An informal letter, on the other hand, is written to someone you personally know but who is not close to you. Such persons could be your landlord/landlady, neighbour and so on. Finally, you write a formal letter to someone you do not know in person, or you do not even know the name. For instance, the HR in an office you are applying for a job.
Difference 2: You begin an informal letter with “Dear (first name of your friend). On the contrary, you begin a semi-formal letter with “Dear Mr (last name of the person)”. Finally, you begin a formal letter with “Dear Sir or Madam” (It is assumed that you even don’t know the gender of the person you are writing a formal letter to.)
Difference 3: You begin an informal letter with personal greetings and friendly gestures. For example, “Hope you’re doing fine. It’s been ages since I have last talked to you”. On contrary to that, you begin a semi-formal letter with a friendly gesture but that should not be too personal. For instance, “I hope this letter finds you in good health. The reason I am writing this letter is to inform you that…”. Finally, you do not use any personal greetings or friendly gestures when you write a formal letter or email. To give an example, “I am a resident of Cantuberry locality, writing to express my concern regarding the recent development of ……… I hope you would take necessary initiatives to resolve this important issue.”
Difference 4: You can use some contractions (‘I’m’, ‘you’re’, ‘they’ll’ for example) in an informal letter but not in a semi-formal or informal letter/email.
Difference 5: You sign off an informal letter/email with the expression “Yours truly”, “Warm wishes”, or “Best wishes”. On the other hand, you sign off a semi-formal letter with the expression “Yours sincerely”. Finally, a formal letter should be signed off using “Yours faithfully”.
Difference 6: You can use some informal expressions in an informal letter or email. For example, “It’d be great”. The same expression in a formal letter/email should be changed to “We would be honoured.” Following is a list of a few informal expressions and their formal versions to give you more insight into this.
A) Informal: Just a few lines to say that …
Formal: I am writing to inform you that …
B) Informal: Tell me when you can meet.
Formal: Please inform me when would be the best time to meet and discuss the matter.
C) Informal: Thanks a lot!
Formal: A really appreciate your assistance.
D) Informal: I owe you one!
Formal: I would like to express my gratitude for…
E) Informal: I am sorry about that.
Formal: Please accept my apology about …
F) Informal: I truly think that …
Formal: In my earnest opinion …
G) Informal: I think it would take some time.
Formal: In my opinion, it is going to take a few more days.
H) Informal: Please keep me posted.
Formal: I would appreciate being kept informed.
I) Informal: Don’t forget.
Formal: I would like to remind you that.
Last word:
I hope this preparation material would help you get better prepared to write an informal IELTS letter in your IELTS GT Writing Test. Please keep in mind that it all comes down to practice. The more you practice, the better you get. Best wishes to you!
This post was last modified on 6th February 2023 1:31 pm