10 Tips on Writing IELTS LettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

10 tips on on writing IELTS le lettersDominic Co Cole's IE IELTS and Be Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Navigation ²

IELTS letters – 10 top tips

How should you write a letter in general training IELTS? Here are some tips to help you maximise your band score so that your IELTS letters impress the examiner. A summary of  these tips would be that letter writing may hae its own conentions conentions but so does IELTS ! so whateer else you do" ma#e sure you answer the $uestion and use good English.

1. Make sure you answer the whole question This is probably the most common mista#e. Each IELTS letter $uestion contains % bullet points and you need to ma#e sure that you address all % points in your answer. answer. If you leae one of them out" you will be penalised on tas# response. response. A more detailed point is that you need to ma#e sure that you include the appropriate amount of detail for each point ! this may mean you need to write more about one topic and less about another. If you li#e" go and isit my sample IELTS letter $uestions page $uestions  page and ma#e sure you can identify the tas#s in each letter.

2. Think about who you are writing to &erhaps the one complex thing about letter writing is that you need to be aware of register register.. This means that you need to be able to write in a more formal style if the letter is to someone you don't #now and in a less formal style to a friend. &art of the problem here is that conentions conentions differ in different countries and cultures. (ne sensible pi ece of adice is to aim for a relatiely neutral style and don't try to be too formal or too informal.

1 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

3. Think about the purpose(s) of the letter )efore you start writing" you should thin# about what the purpose of the letter is. IELTS letters tend to be $uite predictable and generally fall into one or more of these functions* complaint re$uest explanation apology application suggestion This information helps you because you can then use the appropriate letter writing ocabulary for each of those functions.

4. on!t forget to use varie" gra##ar A common problem with letters is that candidates use language that is too simple. +ust as in essays" there is a band score for grammatical range and accuracy. This means that een if  you are writing to a friend" you still need to use aried sentences. ,ou cannot -ust use short and simple sentences.

$. %earn how to start a letter hen we write more formal letters" we tend to start with a sentence explaining exactly why we are writing. A common phrase here is /I am writing to0.1. e start li#e that because the person doesn't #now us and needs to understand what the purpose of the letter is. hen we write to a friend" we normally start by tal#ing a little about our relationship in a fairly general paragraph. A common phrase might be" /I was so pleased to hear from you again. It's been ages since we'e seen one another01. It's important not to forget to do this in IELTS letters as it shows the examiner you understand the type of letter you are writing.

&. %earn how to en" a letter There are also conentional ways to end letters. If you are unsure how to do this" the best adice is to thin# about what you expect to happen next. In a more formal letter where you hae as#ed for some information" you might write* /I loo# forward to hearing from you soon.1  )y contrast" in a letter to a friend who is coming to isit you" you might try*

2 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

/I can't wait to see you. And don't forget to gie my loe to all your family.1  ,ou can learn some set phrases to help you do this but as I say the best adice is -ust to thin# about what you expect to happen next.

'. lan your letter hat? &lan a letter? ell you may not bother in life" but IELTS is a ery peculiar form of life and you should definitely spend time thin#ing about and organising your letter. This means that you should thin# carefully about* how many paragraphs you are going to use what the main points to include are what details you need to add what ocabulary you need

. Make sure you write at least 1$* wor"s This should be self2explanatory. ,ou will be p enalised if you write less than 345 words and my general adice is that you should aim for about 364 words. I say this because the examiner may not count any words you hae directly copied form the $uestion.

+. ,he-k your spelling an" pun-tuation &erhaps because letters are often less formal than essays" candidates fre$uently ma#e more basic spelling and punctuation mista#es in letters. 7on't be one of those people* een if it is an informal letter ma#e sure you use correct English. This means* you may use short forms li#e /can't1 if it's an informal letter you shouldn't use abbreiations li#e /cos1 be ery careful with spelling of common words li#e /beli ee1 and /sincerely1 write in sentences with full stops and capital letters

1*. ra-tise using stan"ar" letter writing phrases Letters hae their own language to some extent. (ne way to improe your letter writing is to loo# at sample IELTS letters and find phrases which you can use in your own letters.

et #ore /0%T lessons in your inbo Enter your email address*

3 f 13

Morelessons 7eliered by 8eed)urner

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

 ou #ight also be intereste" in Sample IELTS -ob application letter IELTS letter ! a wor# placement Improe your IELTS spea#ing ! adice from a successful candidate 95 more tips and ideas for IELTS IELTS letter* an apology

5ow to like it6 share it an" share it &rint with &rint8riendly &ost to 8aceboo# Like

27

Send

7

&ost to 8aceboo# &ost to Twitter Send ia Shareaholic :ail &ost to &interest Add to Tumblr &ost to ;oogle< Add to Lin#edIn 赞

赶快成为第一个赞的人吧

7elate" %essons IELTS letter* an apology A letter of complaint* mobile phone A holiday competition ! sample IELTS letter =hanging your course ! a more formal letter International food ! a more informal IELTS letter Sample IELTS -ob application letter IELTS letter ! a wor# placement Improe your IELTS spea#ing ! adice from a successful candidate 95 more tips and ideas for IELTS :otiation and IELTS

5ow to follow #e Get daily lessons in your inbox (please don't forget to open the confirmation email) or follow me on Twitter or Facebook E-mail

4 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

, letter, tips <

Improve your IELTS vocabulary

Improve your IELTS vocabulary >

22 Responses to IELTS letters – 10 top tips Kasthuri June 10, 2011 at 12:50 pm # This too was really helpful. Thank you very much. You are the BEST Sir !

Thanks Dominic for leaving us with this information for easy access to tackle ielts papars. October 24, 2011 at 12:09 pm # Dcielts.com

CINDY November 13, 2011 at 9:10 pm # SIR, PLEASE WHAT IS THE TRICK IN GENERAL TRAINING READING AND WRITING? I NEED A 6.5 BUT GOT 6 IN BOTH.INTERESTINGLY I DID ACADEMIC MODULE AND GOT A 6,5 IN READING AND 7.5 IN WRITING.I KEEP W ONDERING WHAT ACTUALLY WENT WRONG.

5 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Dominic Cole November 27, 2011 at 7:13 pm # Wow. A strange one. How on earth did you manage to do better in academic reading than general training reading?!?! I can’t help you there. The skills are the same but the GT passages should be quite a bit more straightforward. On the writing, the difference is in the letter format. I have known good candidates go wrong with that – largely because they don’t address all the parts of the question.

alia January 20, 2012 at 12:44 pm # Dear Cole,,, Thank you so much for such a golden advice . once again many thanks alia

Ibrahim Turay July 18, 2012 at 11:07 pm # Hi Mr Dominic, Is the letter writing aspect meant for both general and academic IELTS candidates? with regards Ibrahim Turay.

Dominic Cole July 18, 2012 at 11:52 pm # Hi The letter only appears in general training.

Mohei August 8, 2012 at 5:59 pm # Good day,

6 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Dear Mr Dominic, First of all I want to thank you for this tips. I’m writing this comment to complaint about the page design, as I can not find a links to simples to explain the idea of each tip, or even practices. But anyhow thank you very much for this useful tips. Kind regards

Dominic Cole August 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm # Fair comment. I am in fact working on the site design at the moment and at some time the posts will all neatly link together – there are currently over 250 lessons so this will take some time though. The idea is for the site to become a complete online course and not just another blog. Can I suggest that you visit the front page and look through the reading/writing/listening pages there – you will find most of the important lessons catalogued there.

Mohamed August 17, 2012 at 3:44 pm # Hi CINDY, I had a same experience. Unlike most people who think that GT is much more easier , especially in Reading I think differenly. I think that because the GT is much more tricky. You think that you understand the question well while answering wrongly. In scoring as you know there is not important you already know sophisticated/difficulty vaocabularies. What is important is the right answer. By contrast, in Academic IELTS you hardly find those questions focusing on tricking candidates. Instead, they want to focus on vocabularies. My suggestion is in GT we should not answer questions hastily . And always should know that in IELTS there is never very easy question.

joanne October 27, 2012 at 10:21 pm #

7 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Hi, I’m really thankful for all your valuable tips for IELTS preparation. One quick question, do we need to write in paragraph when writing a letter? Thanks.

Rohit February 26, 2013 at 5:21 pm # Hi Dominic, I would like to ask you about Tip no. 6. “I look forward to hearing from you soon.” Sometimes, I have seen on internet that people have used comma after the above mentioned sentence like given below: I look forward to hearing from you soon, Yours faithfully, ………….. ………….. Please let me know which is better and correct from IELTS point of view. Thanks, Rohit

Dominic Cole February 26, 2013 at 5:36 pm

#

It all depends whether it is in a complete sentence and what comes next. Send me some examples and i would be happy to comment

Rohit February 27, 2013 at 3:35 pm # Letter Writing Task: Recently stay in a hotel. The heating system in the room was not working. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:  – give details of what went wrong  – explain what you had to do to overcome the problem at the time  – say what action you would like the manager to take  ——– 

8 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Dear Sir, ……………………………. I am shocked by this terrible service. This is not what anyone expects for $600 a night! To compensate me for this inconvenience, I would like to ask a full refund of my money and offer me a free, more comfortable stay in one of your finer suites. If not, I am prepared to take my complaint to a higher authority. I look forward to hearing from you at the earliest, Yours faithfully,  _______ _______ 

Dominic Cole February 27, 2013 at 6:41 pm

#

This is a great question – I now understand what you mean. I’ve just spent a fair while researching it. Like you, I have found examples with commas, full stops and no punctuation at all. My first instinct, and best answer, is that you need a full stop as what you are writing here is a complete sentence. A very strong argument for this is that you need a capital letter for “Yours sincerely” and “Yours faithfully” and this would be entirely inappropriate with a comma before it. I would add though that I have found what I would regard as “good” examples with commas. With regards to IELTS, I would say relax and that either variant would do. I say partly because letter writing conventions (and this is part of letter writing conventions) vary around the world and IELTS examiners are going to be relaxed about accepting different conventions because IELTS is such an I(international ELTS) exam. The one point you do need to get right is the level of formality of the way you end the letter: it would be a problem if you ended an informal letter to a friend with Yours faithfully, for example.

Rohit February 27, 2013 at 7:42 pm # Thanks Dominic! I have scored 6.0 in Writing when I have given my exam on Feb. 02, 2013 and now I am practicing a lot as I have to give the exam again and would like to score at least 7.0 in each. Also, my weakest part is Speaking in which I scored 5.5. Can you

9 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

suggest anything how should I improve my speaking so that I can reach at least 7.0. Do you have any material to prepare for Speaking test? I have read your profile on this website and found that you are a freelance teacher. Do you give any online tuition service overseas so that I can prepare for the speaking part at least?

Dominic Cole February 27, 2013 at 8:22 pm # Hi Rohit There is quite a big step from 5.5 to 7.0 in speaking and, yes, I do think that you should approach a teacher. I will be teaching myself from June, but life in China doesn’t make that practical for me just yet. Friday/Saturday this week (depending on where you are in the world) I will be posting the details of Jan – a teacher based in Melbourne, Australia – and she does specialise in Skype and speaking. The time zone may not be great perhaps for you – but here’s hoping.

Rohit February 28, 2013 at 2:59 pm # Thanks Dominic! I will contact Jan.

saeed March 8, 2013 at 6:25 am # Where can i get general training’s reading and writing practices which actually appeared in exams?

10 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Dominic Cole March 8, 2013 at 6:32 am # The only source for this are the Cambridge exam books 1-8. Be careful with internet sites that give you “recent questions”, they may be remembered well, they may not be.

prashant pathak March 27, 2013 at 5:09 pm # sir, i am lagging in listening section. I am not able to answer the multiple question as well as mapping. Besides this i use to listen a lot of stuff of English. thanks.

Dominic Cole March 28, 2013 at 9:26 am # Another listening coming today with a map.

Leave a Reply  Name Email (will not be published) Website

User:

11 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

Login Pass: Forgot?

Register Login with Facebook

Get daily lessons Get free daily updates to Dominic Cole's IELTS Blog by Email

How to follow me Get daily lessons in your inbox (please don't forget to open the confirmation email) or follow me on Twitter or Facebook

E-mail

IELTS resources and teachers Band score calculator IELTS directory IELTS tutor service

Where people visit most Listening tests IELTS Vocabulary IELTS writing task 2 – essays Downloads Academic Word List Exercises Academic task 1 IELTS Reading IELTS Writing IELTS speaking questions – part 2 IELTS Listening

Subscribers

12 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55

10 tips on writing IELTS lettersDominic Cole's IELTS and Beyond

http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-letters/ten-top-tips/  

How to contact me Facebook page Twitter page Email contact QQ

 [site_copyright]   [site_credit] 

13 f 13

01 03 2014 22 55