IELTS General Writing Task 1: The 8 Rules of Letter Tone

hello ielts general candidates one of the ways that you can maximize your writing task one score is by knowing how to change or manipulate the language used in an informal semi-formal and formal letter this is called tone before we look at the eight different ways that you can change your language to indicate tone we need to understand the difference between formal semifault and informal letters so what does formality mean in terms of language let me give you a quick and easy analogy so that you can understand this imagine you are invited to a wedding at buckingham palace this is obviously a very formal event you're gonna meet the queen and you rock up looking like this or imagine that one of your friends is having a backyard cricket match and barbecue and you decide to wear this so language is very similar to fashion you need to choose the right language at the right time to suit the situation of the letter this is called tone now on test day they won't actually tell you that you need to write a formal semi-formal or informal letter you have to infer it in other words you have to work it out by looking carefully at who you're writing to what your relationship is with the person you're writing to whether you're close or not whether you know the person or not and why you're writing the letter it's actually pretty easy to infer this but let's just do a little bit of quick practice so you can spot the difference between a formal semi-formal and informal letter take a look at this writing task one prompt here you recently purchased an item of clothing from a local clothing store upon returning home you notice that the item was faulty write a letter to the manager of the clothing store in the letter blah blah blah so you can infer or guess from looking at this particular task 1 prompt that you need to write a formal letter why because you're writing to a manager your relationship with this person is not close you don't know this person and you're writing to request something so the reason why you're writing the letter has a lot to do with the tone you're going to be using in the letter how you change language for formality let's take a look at what you might have to do in a formal or semi-formal letter you may have to complain about someone or something for example a noisy neighbor or a broken computer you may have to request something like a refund or an exchange you might have to inquire about something such as ticket prices or start times of a show you might need to recommend someone or something maybe recommend a colleague for a job promotion or recommend a particular website to your boss you might need to suggest something perhaps you would like more exercise bikes in your gym for example this isn't a complete list of the things that you may have to do in a semi-formal or formal letter but it gives you a pretty good idea now with informal letters you may have to do what we just looked at plus invite someone somewhere like a friend out to dinner or on a holiday thank someone maybe someone bought you a great birthday present okay so what we're going to do now is we're going to look at one of those functions the purposes of making a complaint and we're going to pay attention to the tone and how we change the tone between a formal semi-formal or informal complaint but before we do that in the description below you can download a pdf that's going to have all of the information you need so do check that out okay let's take a look at complaints compare these three sentences formal i would like to make a complaint about a t-shirt i recently purchased from your store semi-follow i am disappointed with a t-shirt i recently purchased from your shop informal i'm not very happy about that t-shirt i picked up at your garage sale so to be honest it's pretty unlikely in the ielts that you're going to have to complain to a friend but you never know it might happen but the purpose of what i want to do here is show you how the language changes technically between formal semi-formal and informal let's take a closer look at that formal sentence i would like to make a complaint about a t-shirt i recently purchased from your store first notice the modal verb would i would like to formal writing often contains the modal verbs could and would second notice the noun complaint make a complaint because this is formal writing i've used a noun instead of a verb put another way i have used the word complaint and not complain third notice the word purchased can you think of a simpler synonym what about bought when we compare purchased versus bought you can see that purchased is more formal vocabulary let's now take a closer look at that semi-formal sentence that i wrote i am disappointed with a t-shirt i recently purchased at your shop this sentence is a little less formal than the one we just looked at but it isn't informal either i mean you probably wouldn't say this to a friend so what makes it semi-formal first there's no contraction with i am i haven't written i'm second i have again used the word purchased instead of bought third i've used shop instead of store which is a little less formal because it's a little more common so the semi-formal sentence is a little less formal than the formal sentence and now we're going to take a look at an informal sentence to see how the language changes to suit that situation i'm not very happy about that t-shirt i picked up at your garage sale first notice that i've used a contraction i'm rather than i am second i've used not as in not happy where i could have said unhappy if it were more formal third i've used not very happy to soften the tone because i'm speaking to a friend there is a difference between i'm not happy about and i'm not very happy about it makes it a bit friendlier fourth notice that i have not used the word purchase or buy instead i've used pick up if you pick something up from a shop for example it means you purchased it or you bought it but it's a lot less formal this is called a phrasal verb and you should certainly use these in your informal writing okay so we've seen the changes in language between a formal semi-formal and informal letter around making a complaint this time let's do it again a bit more quickly and we're going to look at a request requests formal could i kindly request that the volume of the music be decreased in the cafeteria during lunch times notice the modal verb could notice the adverb kindly notice the word request as opposed to ask notice the passive sentence be decreased rather than you decrease notice the word decrease as opposed to turn down notice the word cafeteria as opposed to the shortened form cafe semi-formal would you be able to make sure the music is not too loud in the cafe during lunch times notice the modal verb would notice the phrase be able to notice the phrase make sure notice the phrase not too loud notice the shortened form cafe as opposed to cafeteria informal can you please turn down the music in the cafe during lunch notice how direct this question is can you please notice the phrasal verb turn down as opposed to decrease so i've pointed out a number of different ways that you can change the tone to suit the situation or in other words match the right level of formality now there are actually eight things that we looked at and if you want you can download that list from the description below in this pdf you'll see the eight do's and don'ts of formal language and tone for ielts general writing task one you'll see how to use personal pronouns in formal semi-formal and informal letters as well as directness active and passive sentences modal verbs word choice noun or verb contractions as well as adverbs let's go through them one by one number one personal pronouns like i you he she we or they in formal letters you should avoid personal pronouns where possible but of course you must use them sometimes for example could the volume of the music be decreased versus could you decrease the volume of the music in semi-formal letters you can use these personal pronouns or not depending on what you're trying to say and in informal letters you should certainly use personal pronouns can you please turn down the music number two directness in formal letters you are less direct in semi-formal letters you are more or less direct and in informal letters you are more direct number three active and passive sentences in formal letters you'll write more passive sentences but still of course use active sentences in semiformal use a mix of both and in informal letters you'll use more active sentences number four modal verbs in formal letters you will use could and would in semi-formal letters you'll use a mix of all and in informal letters you'll probably use can and will number five word choice in formal letters use the fanciest words such as purchase or decrease in semi-formal letters you use the mid-range words such as by or the fancy words such as decrease but in informal letters use the phrasal verbs such as pick up or turn down number six so in formal letters use the noun form if possible like complaint request requirement recommendation suggestion or invitation in semi-formal letters you use either or or a mix and in informal letters try to use the verb form if possible like complain ask need recommend suggest or invite number seven contractions in formal letters avoid contracting words same in semi-formal letters and in informal letters use contractions such as i'm or it's or doesn't number eight adverbs informal letters use adverbs to soften language such as kindly or quite in semi-formal letters use a mix of formal and informal adverbs to enhance the meaning and in informal letters use adverbs to make language friendlier such as very or really or pretty like pretty good okay so there's a lot to learn there about manipulating or changing the tone of the letter to suit the formality so what i think you should do now is use that downloadable pdf go across to e2language.com sign up to one of our packages write a letter submit it through the platform and get some feedback from one of our experts who will be able to comment on all or some of these things this will help you cool my name is jay see you soon [Music] you

Channel: E2 IELTS

Views: 44,874

Keywords: IELTS, IELTS Writing, E2 IELTS, E2, ielts, IELTS General, ielts general, IELTS letter, IELTS Writing Letters, IELTS letters, Letter Writing, Band 9 Letter, Band 8 Letter, IELTS General Writing, Writing Task 1, IELTS Writing Task 1, IELTS Letter Writing, Modal Verbs, Informal Letters, Formal Letters, Semi-formal letters, Nouns, Verbs, Band 9, Band 8, IELTS Writing Tips, 8 Rules, IELTS Rules, Letter Tone, Writing Tone, General Writing, general writing task 1, IELTS Tips, e2

Id: WfsBb9Xhjq0

Length: 13min 12sec (792 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021