Tone / Formality for Better Letters and Emails – IELTS

Emails are considered to be less formal than letters, but these days letters are not used very often, so formal emails are common too. As a result, the tone / register or formality is often difficult to get right for many students in IELTS General Training Writing Task 1. This article explains how to use this to write better letters or emails.

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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 Quiz – Do You Know Enough?

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There are three basic registers: formal, semi-formal and informal.

There is a range within each, for example you could write an informal email to your best friend and to someone who you have met once or twice. The former would be much more informal because you know each other so well.

As for semi-formal, there is a difference between writing to your neighbours (who you know) and to your child’s teacher who you do not know well. So you have to try and

Formal email differences would start to change to semi-formal as a relationship is established over a period of time. Formal letters, on the other hand, would not change.

Let’s go through each part of a letter / email task

Greetings are an important part of letters and emails because it lets the reader know what you think your relationship is like.

Formal
For formal greetings, you should use one of the following:

To whom it may concern – A traditional greeting, not used so much now when you have no idea who is going to open your letter / email. Most people these days expect to read one of the other two formal greetings below.

Dear sir / madam – when it is to someone you don’t know, and you don’t know if they are a man or a woman. This could be to a bank manager, a shop, an insurance company etc.

Dear Mr. Smith, Mrs Jones, Miss Brown – similar to ‘dear sir / madam’ but when you know the person’s second name. Mr. is for a man, Miss is an unmarried woman, Mrs. is a married woman, and Ms. means we don’t know if she is married or not.

Semi- formal
Because semi-formal is a mix of formal and informal, it is difficult to address people in this way. Usually you would use an informal greeting with a first name. Using a second name would make it far too formal. In the case where you want to complain to people you know (neighbours for example). then it would be better to have an informal greeting with some kind of a reference, such as

Ref: The noise from your party on Saturday night.
Dear James,

Informal
Dear Jim, Jane …… – This is to someone you know as a friend or acquaintance. This could be a good friend, a school friend or a work colleague you get on well with.

Hi, …. – This would be to someone you are very close to, so close that you don’t even need to use their name. People like this would include your best friend, a brother or sister and so on.

The introduction says who you are and why you are writing. This is very important, and you should imagine the person receiving your letter and after reading the introduction, they know what the letter is about.

For example:

Formal – My name is Alan Grumbleson and I am writing to you to complain about the way my wife was insulted in your shop last Friday the 28th of January.

Semi-formal / Neutral – It’s Alan Grumbleson, I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch for such a long time, but I have been abroad. I am just writing to see how you are and to catch up with everything.

Informal – It’s just me. What are you up to? I’m bored out of my mind and was hoping you would be able to come over to my place on Friday afternoon for a natter and a cuppa.

In each letter or email writing question, there should be 2 or 3 points given for you to write about. Each point can have its own paragraph, although if two are similar, then you can put them in the same paragraph.

Each letter MUST have a conclusion, which summarises what you have written.

For example:

Formal – Just to repeat, I expect your company to write a full apology to my wife about the incident, otherwise I will contact the police.

Semi-formal – Anyway, that’s about all that’s been going on with me, please write and tell me what you have been doing.

Informal – Can’t wait to hear from you. Hope you’ll think of something brilliant to do of Friday.

Then you should add something after the conclusion and your signature at the end.

Formal

Yours sincerely – if you have never written to the person before

Yours faithfully – if you have written to them before

Kind regards

Best regards

Semi-formal

I am looking forward to your reply

Thank you very much for your time

All the best

Informal

See you

Hope to see you soon

Love

Lots of love

So what are the differences between formal and informal writing in letter and emails? There are several, and most of them are quite easy to remember.

What not to do	What to do
Do not use slang, phrasal verbs, jargon, colloquialisms, or sexist language, such as Hi, dude, bitch etc	Use formal language, such as hello, man, girl
Do not use shortened verb forms (contractions), such as they’re, isn’t, can’t	Use the full verb form instead, e.g., they are, is not, cannot
Do not use common vocabulary, such as have got, a lot, nice, the other thing.	Make more formal vocabulary choices, e.g., have found, a great deal, attractive/ advantageous, the other issue/problem/notion/idea/topic etc.
Do not use conversational opening phrases, such as Well, you see, Yes …, Let’s move on.	Leave out conversational phrases. Use appropriate connectors and introductory phrases, such as Furthermore, in addition, however
Do not use personal pronouns e.g. I, you, we (unless specifically required), i.e. do not write We think that you should be able to compete.	Be non-personal, e.g. It should be possible for everyone to compete.
Do not use sweeping generalisations	State main ideas clearly and concisely in your own words in topic sentences.
Do not use bullet points or lists, unless it is in a report.	Use complete sentences and link these into logical paragraphs.
Avoid waffling or repeating yourself.	Be clear and concise.
Do not pose (direct) questions in the running text, that is, do not write, for instance: Can carbon emissions be reduced?	Convert questions into statements, for example, The possibility of carbon emissions being reduced is questionable.
Do not mix words and numbers unsystematically.	Use words for numbers nine and below and numbers for 10 and above.

From this list, if you want to be less formal, then you use more of the points on the left, perhaps adding contractions and some phrasal verbs to make a letter sound semi-formal. Doing this can make it seem like you are trying to be more friendly to the person you are writing to.

So, when you are writing to your best friend (informal), it should sound the same as if you were chatting on the phone.

For someone that you don’t know so well, it would be better to add some more formal points, such as using some more formal vocabulary or being non-personal in some parts.

For sending a letter or email to your neighbour or someone you know to complain, then use an informal greeting, but mostly formal language.

For someone who you want to help you, such as a shop manager or a neighbour you don’t know very well, then use a more formal greeting, but add contractions and personal pronouns to make it seem more personal.

To write to a bank manager, a large company or a government department, then be completely formal.

The secret is to think about who you are speaking to. You would speak to someone like your boss or your headmaster at school in a completely different way than your best friend’s mum or the shopkeeper you meet every day. That again would be different to the way you speak to your classmates or colleagues and again to your best and closest friends and relatives.

Formal

You have lost an item of value on a train.


Write a letter to the railway company.

In your letter

• describe the item
• explain where and when you left it

• say what action you would like the company to take

Dear sir / madam,

I am writing to you hoping you can help me. My name is James Milburn and I have just realised I left my bag on the 10:15 from Paddington to Newcastle. Inside my bag was my laptop.

The laptop is a brand new black Acer model MN139 with some stickers on the lid. It is in a beige backpack, with an extra battery, a mouse and a mat.

I am reasonably sure I left the backpack on the luggage rack in the second carriage from the front of the train. As the train was moving, I was sitting on the right-hand side. I would have the ticket on my phone, however, I deleted it as soon as I got in the taxi with my wife.

I would sincerely appreciate if someone has handed it in, so could you please take the time out of your busy schedule to check or ask another member of staff to do so. Please reply to this email address as soon as you have any result because it will take me at least two hours to get there.

Yours in hope of a successful outcome.

James Milburn

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Semi-Formal

You had a very good experience in a local restaurant with your family.

Write a letter to a newspaper to

• tell them about it
• describe what you liked about it
• why you think the restaurant is worth visiting

Dear editor,

I am writing to you to tell you about an amazing little restaurant in our town that’s just opened. I think your readers would love to read a review of it.

The restaurant is called Jubu and serves authentic middle eastern cuisine. It isn’t very big, but it has an alfresco dining area in the garden at the back. This is quite romantic with fairy lights in the trees and outdoor heaters for cooler evenings.

The staff are really friendly and helpful and are all happy to recommend dishes to suit different tastes. We had Manakeesh, which is kind of like an Arabic pizza, grilled halloumi and Foul Meddamas. The last one is anything but foul by the way.

This is a great addition to the eateries in this area and I would hate to see this place go downhill due to a lack of interest. For this reason, I was hoping to encourage you to send a reporter there (or go yourself) and write a review, so Jubu will become a permanent feature here.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my letter, and I hope you will take heed and give Jubu a good review.

Yours sincerely

Alan Williamson

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Informal

A friend has agreed to look after your house and pet while you are on holiday.
Write a letter to your friend. In your letter.

• give contact details for when you are away
• give instructions about how to care for your pet
• describe other household duties

Alright?

Just writing to give you some details about the house-sitting (and Bobble :)) Let me just say it again, we’re going away on Friday the 28th and coming back on the morning of the next Friday the 3rd.

As far as contact details are concerned, Jill has made a list and it’s on the fridge, so you can’t miss it. You can get us on our mobiles (we’re roaming) and the name of the hotel is The Really Great Hotel in Dodgy Area in London. That’s so if the nosy neighbours cause any problems, you can come across as being official.
Bobble gets a tin of food every day. It’s kept under the sink and he should get about half in the morning and half at night. If you could clean his litter tray daily, that would save any smell from starting. Just tip it in the bin outside. Remember, he doesn’t like loud noises too much.

The last thing I’d like to ask you to do is to put out the bins on Tuesday night, for the Wednesday collection and water any plants you think look a bit depressed.

Cheers mate, I’ll see you when I give the keys.

Chris