Formal & Informal Letters
Your letter must be written in the appropriate tone and style. There are two options:
Formal – to someone you don’t know or don’t know well.
It is essential that you are able to identify what type of question you’re required to write. Follow this general:
If the question includes the word ‘friend’, use informal language.
If the question does not include the word ‘friend’, use formal language.
To learn more about formal and informal letters and see two more IELTS letter writing samples, click here;
IELTS Letter Writing
The person we are writing to in this question is not a friend so, we must write a formal letter. This leads us on to the opening of the letter – the greeting.
The Greeting & Signoff
The Greeting
There are two ways you can begin a formal letter.
Use Dear Sir or Madam if you don’t know the name of the person you are writing to.
Use Dear + surname if you do know their name, e.g. Dear Mr Smith or Dear Mrs Jones.
It’s quite likely that you would not know the name of someone you were making a job application to but if you want to use a surname, just make one up.
The greeting you use will determine how you sign off your letter.
The Signoff
For a formal letter, there are two main options. The correct one will depend on who you are addressing:
Dear Sir/Madam (name unknown) – Yours faithfully
You could also use ‘Kind regards’. This is formal but friendly and is appropriate for most situations. It is particularly useful if you struggle to remember how to spell ‘sincerely’ and ‘faithfully’.
Always sign off a formal letter with your full name, e.g. Jacky Spear
For our sample letter, we will use this greeting and signoff:
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