In task 1 of the General Training Writing, you will have to write a short letter using informal or semi-formal style. As suggested, you should spend 20 minutes on this task.
In this task, you are given a problem or situation which requires a written response in letter format. What you are expected to do is:
ü Respond to task
ü Show familiarity with letter style
ü Use appropriate and accurate language.
For more information about how your writing is assessed follow this link
Here, you have some two samples of Task 1 of the General Training Writing:
You and your family are living in rented accommodation in an English speaking country. You are not satisfied with the condition of some of the furniture.
Write a letter to the landlord. In your letter
• introduce yourself
• explain what is wrong with the furniture
• say what action you would like the landlord to take
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write your own address.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ..........,
A Canadian friend recently sent you a present by post. You want to thank him/her.
Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
• say how you felt when you received the present
• describe what you like about it
• explain how you will use the present
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write your own address.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ..........,
How to deal with Task 1 (GM)
Task prompt analysis
Firstly, you need to know how to analyze the task prompt; this is perhaps the most important part as it tells you what you have to do in your letter. Let’s take a look at the following sample:
A Canadian friend recently sent you a present by post. You want to thank him/her.
Write a letter to your friend. In your letter
• say how you felt when you received the present
• describe what you like about it
• explain how you will use the present
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write your own address.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ..........,
As you can see, I have underlined some key words in this task prompt; notice that by doing this, I have identified who I should write to, therefore, I have also recognize:
ü the style of the letter I need to produce;
ü the language I may use and the appropriate opening and closing of the letter;
ü the verb tenses I need to use.
The style of the letter and language to use: in this case, you have to write a letter to a friend; this means that the style can be semi- formal and the language can be more relaxed and friendly than in a formal letter (friendly does not mean rude).
Opening and ending of the letter: the way you start and close your letter will depend on the style of the letter I am required to write. Here -because the prompt calls for a semi-formal letter- you may start asking your friend some personal questions such as how is your family? How is your life these days? Or you could apologise for not writing as much as you wish (this is very common between friends). For your ending, also, you need to find the proper closing phrase for a semi-formal letter; in this case, you could use Kind regards, Best wishes, With love.
Verb tenses: the three bullet points are telling you what information to include; in other words, this information will be the body of your letter. Here, you need to pay attention to the verb tense of the sentences:
• say how you felt when you received the present: you need to use past tense in order to say how you felt when you received the present.
• describe what you like about it: here, you need to talk about what you like about the present which means you need to use present tense.
• explain how you will use the present: last but not least, you need to mention the future use of the present which means you need to use ‘going’ or ‘will’ structure.
Letter structure:
It is very important to have clear the structure of your letter, in other words, you need to know how to organize your ideas into *sections. If you are able to do this, I am sure this will have a positive impact on the clarity of your writing.
*a section may contain one or more paragraphs
Carrying on with the example, you may organize your letter in 3 sections:
Section I: Letter opening
Section II: Letter body
Section III: Letter closing
Let’s have a look at the following sample answer and see how this IELTS candidate has organized his letter:
Dear John, -include a real name
section 1
It has been a long time since I visited you in Canada. It is a shame we have not been able to keep in touch, but I have been busy working on a new project. -Letter opening - as you are writing to a friend the start can be relaxed and friendly.
section 2
I am writing to thank you about the present I received from you last Monday. It was a big surprise, totally unexpected. ¹I really felt like a child in Christmas because I was really anxious to open the present. I must say that I am grateful because I really needed this calculator.
Besides, ²it is the last edition of the TI-89 calculators, with 2GB of RAM and USB port it also has night vision on the screen so I can work late. ³I love my new calculator because I can use it at work since it has many engineering programs and I can download even more.
– state the reason of your letter; also expand the three bullet points with your own ideas.
section 3
I really appreciate this gift. It really suits me. Well, I had better return to work. –letter closing
Regards, - appropriate closing phrase
Carlos Rossi – sign your letter
160 words
Comments: this candidate has started with an informal greeting –suitable for a semi-formal letter. He also has covered and expanded the three bullet points with good and very well linked ideas. Verb tenses and grammar in general are fine. He also has closed his letter with a friendly message and an appropriate good-bye phrase. The word count is perfect (within the advised word count 150-165). I would expect Band 7 -7.5 for this letter.
N.B. this letter has been graded by an IELTS teacher no by an IELTS examiner.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
ü Task 1 of the General Training test is always a letter, so your answer needs to look like a letter on your ‘writing answer sheet’ ü Don’t forget that task prompt analysis is very important. This will tell you the style and language to be used in your letter.
ü The three bullet points form the body of your letter. Be sure you include all of them and expand them with your own ideas.
ü Try to follow the order of the bullet points. This will help you to organize your ideas and to avoid missing any of them.
ü Use clear connectors to link all sections.
ü Make your letter real: remember to fill in a name if your letter is to someone you know.
ü Write at least 150 words – Underlength answers will lose marks- however, do not write too much, as you won’t have time to edit your work. Keep your word count within 150-165 words.
ü ALWAYS EDIT YOUR WORK. Leave at least 1 minute to edit and re-read your final letter. In this way, you can amend spelling mistakes/wrong verb tenses and punctuation that may affect your score.
It is also very important to know what areas are assessed in the Speaking test. The examiner will focus his/her attention on 6 main areas of your Speaking. These are: fluency, coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range, accuracy and pronunciation. 
