IELTS Task 1 Formal Letters Ultimate Guide

in this video want to share with you new strategy that I've been teaching my students for task one formal letters but to make it more interesting we're going to add little bit of challenge in it for me can write nine response and teach you at the same time how to do the same thing all under 20 minutes let's start the clock and let's get going so the first part of this strategy is is it formal letter or is it an informal letter what you want to do is just remove semi-formal completely is it formal is it informal so how do you know if it's formal or informal if it is informal it will include here the word friend anything else is formal so you recently booked part-time course at of college you now need to cancel your booking there's nothing here about friend so this is formal letter step one formal or informal doesn't have BR in it let's keep going the next step is read it to understand what is actually going on here big mistake that see students making is they will immediately start writing and then they'll get lost and then they'll lose time and not only does that affect your task one score but can also affect your task two score so just spend minute or so just reading this to understand it so you recently booked part-time course at college you now need to cancel your booking right write letter to the college administrator in your letter say which part-time course you booked explain why you need to conso your booking and ask about different course so the key here is to relate it to something in your real life so for me you recently booked part-time course out of college obviously am an teacher so what I'm going to do is use my own real life experience and apply that to this question you are an student so you could probably do the exact same thing say which part-time course you booked an course explain why you need to cancel your booking so again I'm going to apply my real life knowledge to this why do students cancel courses well it could be that they had death in the family it could be that they are sick could be that they're doing different test like the tofl and or pte or something like that but ask about booking different course so the reason why I'm asking you to think about this is and plan it out before you start writing is that last one ask about booking different course that could trip few people up because if you said you know my my donkey died and you know I'm so filled with grief that can no longer study anymore and then you're like but could book tofl course like that isn't going to make any sense sense so it has to make sense because of coherence and cohesion like does it actually make sense so to make it make sense it would be okay don't want academic course but could book general training course or don't want TOEFL course but could book an IELTS course something like that so you're getting it in your head how you're going to plan it out that comes next so here's the new part of the structure that we're going to use so we're going to write few numbers here we're going to write one we're going to write two we're going to write three and we're going to write four it'll make sense what these mean in second and then here we're going to write 40 to 60 I'm going to draw few lines going up to each of these bullet points so now we need to plan out we need to add in little bit of detail all right so we don't need any for here but we need detail for each of these bullet points so I'm going to put Els explain why you need to cancel your booking I'm just going to put academic to General training explain why I'm just going to put Visa because know about this because I'm going to talk about spouse visa because my wife applied for spouse visa and this did actually happen to her so just makes it much easier to write about when you know what you're talking about and ask about different course course may we talk about General English so this is not huge plan but it means know exactly what I'm going to write about and then can just start writing and not get lost because that's going to cost you lot of time next step has already been done for you start it with Dear Sir or Madam just copy that put it in there don't over complicate it next what we need to do is we need to get pen and we need to start so parag one what are we going to write about we are going to start off with am writing two so this is just simple way to start your letter by showing purpose what is the purpose of the letter you always start off with the purpose of the letter in paragraph one and you take where it says one here and you basically paraphrase this and say why you are writing the letter you recently booked part-time course at college you know need to conso your booking just state that in your own words am writing to is there any other way of saying cancel no so let's just copy that word because there's no other way of saying it my recently booked part-time course at your school so have copied few of the words there and some of you might be screaming in in the in the in the comment section you cannot copy words let me show you little trick at the end you can come back and you can improve that but number one done all right I'm writing to cancel my recently booked part-time course at your school does it make sense does it mean the same thing let's go two so paragraph 2 bullet point 2 skip line start your new sentence so say which part-time course you booked so I'm going to talk about ISS it is the let's go with academic course okay so do we end there no that's where the 40 to 60 comes in all right what does this mean it means for each of these bullet points we need to write around 40 to 60 words doesn't have to be exactly like if it's 39 Don't Panic or it's 61 but in and around there some of them will be little bit shorter some of them will be little bit longer but it means that you are guaranteed to hit the word limit of 150 words you have to go over 150 words and it also means that you're developing each bullet point sufficiently so add in more detail what detail would we need to think about here when you are WR writing this think of the reader what information does the reader need in order to help you that starts on the 17th of March 2024 so is this 40 to 60 words no can tell just by looking at it so we need to add in more information so let's get even more detailed here it is the weekend and course which lasts 8 weeks and my teacher is John Smith okay so we need to add little bit more in here what do courses come with how would it help the reader understand let's add in the booking reference my booking reference is 1 2 3 4 5 six so we're around 40 words there can tell just by looking at it but what helped us get there all we were doing was focusing on the bullet point and trying to help the reader understand put yourself in the shoes of the reader what information would they need know that's very difficult for some students based on the emails that we get every day next step three skip line and start your third paragraph explain why you need to cancel your booking so we need to create create some kind of story or add in more detail to explain why so I'm going to use my wife's situation related to my own life she was doing an academic course with me and then she realized that she needed General training because she her particular type of Visa was spicee Visa need to cancel why due to change in the United Kingdoms entry requirements for their spice Visa not sure if it's spical Visa or spice Visa I'm sure lots of people will tell me in the comments if I'm wrong okay so using that technique again explain to the reader don't assume that the reader knows what you're talking about imagine you're explaining this to someone who knows nothing about spousal visas or ISS know that you're writing to school but don't assume anyone in that school knows what you're talking about so let's explain that in the past an score of 6.0 or above was required the academic module however no they also accept General training test so imagine you're sending this to someone well well so what you know what's that got to do with you add in little bit more detail to help the person understand took the general training test last year consequently do not acquire your academic course so if you sent that to somebody would they understand your situation would they know what's happening absolutely so we move on to the next part four skip line part 4 ask about different course okay so we don't need help with IELTS what would student doing the test would they need help with anything else well they might need help with things like pronunciation or business English or general English so you can just add that in but it doesn't have to be that could be anything we're writing to college what the college is offer they offer courses can we have another course what would it be for this person so we don't need that but we need this so however can take one of your other courses instead of getting refund so what do you want instead let's explain intend to apply for for an office job when arrive in the UK so therefore can you recommend suitable course that might help me with pronunciation or let's put business English is it around 40 to 60 words yes yes yes so we're done and we can move on so just finish it off with kind regards kind regards is both formal and informal so we're just removing the amount of complexity the amount of things you need to think about so if it's formal or informal just put kind regards and then put your name not my name cuz that'll look bit weird Okay final two steps and then I'll show you how to convert it to informal what you want to do next is check for any grammar mistakes or any spelling mistakes I'm going to assume that didn't make any hopefully didn't make any because then I'll look very foolish but we can move on to the next step which is try and improve your vocabulary so look for any words here that are repetitive or you could maybe upgrade to higher level word but only if it's correct so just looking through this probably the the word that is repeated the most so I've taken course from here and I'm saying course course course course is there another way of saying that well all you have to do is just go okay not that one let's put in here pathway your part-time pathway that's synonym of course you now we've added weekend course so we've got cocation in there so let's leave that in academic course another collocation let's leave that in however can take one of your other courses let's remove that let's put programs so I'm just showing the examiner that have wide range of vocabulary and my vocabulary hopefully is accurate now we still have you know suitable course for example but if you change it to something something that's wrong then that's not going to improve your score that's going to lower your score and that should be you done hopefully that was within 20 minutes if it was little bit more forgive me I'm teaching you and making video all all the same time but if you want to know how to write an informal letter this video is for you