hi there it's asiya and for this video i've prepared a full sample letter for ielts general
training writing task 1 and i'll also explain how you can write band 7 plus letters yourself
you can download this sample in the pdf format at the end of this video and now let's get started
here is our topic you're going abroad on holiday and your friend will stay in your home
while you're away write a letter to your friend in your letter explain where you hide the keys
describe what your friend needs to do in your absence and say when you are coming back
write at least 150 words you do not need to write any addresses begin your letter as follows
dear let's get straight into it dear anna this is how i address my friends by their first name
now in the first paragraph i explain the main point i explain why i'm writing this
letter thank you again for agreeing to be my house sitter a house sitter is someone who stays at your
home while you're away to protect it from any burglaries and to take care of it as well so
there may be a babysitter and a house sitter i'm so excited about my holiday in california
and i really appreciate that you're making it stress-free by staying at my place in the meantime
so this is enough that's why i'm writing this letter and i decided that my friend is
coming because i asked her to but you may invent another story for example
your friend is coming to visit the city and you are away so you offer to stay at your place
you can invent any story but just make sure you think about everything before you start writing
your letter now the main part of the letter in the task you will see three bullet points and
you must provide a detailed answer to each bullet point in your letter you need to give some details
and describe each bullet point in depth the first bullet point is explain where you hide the keys
so here is my answer i've been thinking about where to hide the keys you see at the very
beginning of the paragraph i'm saying what this paragraph is about and which bullet point it
addresses and decided that the garden shed was the best place if you go around the house you
will see it on your left the door will be unlocked and you will find a spare set of keys wrapped in
a plastic bag inside an empty flower pot i guess it's not the most surprising place to hide a key
but i definitely provide enough details for my friend to find the keys and for the examiner
to decide that i've covered the point the next one is describe what your friend needs to do
in your absence and i say may i ask you to do two little things for me again straight
away i'm saying what this paragraph is about and i'm saying that i will mention two points
so then it won't be easy for my friend or for the examiner to miss any of them
could you please water my orchids twice a week to keep the soil slightly moist
also i'm expecting a letter with details of my coffee vaccination appointment
would you mind opening any correspondence from the health service and sending me a picture of
the letter when it arrives so these are my two points and now the next bullet point
say when you are coming back and here the answer could actually be very short i'm coming back
on the 16th of july at 8pm but that is not good enough for ielts you need to provide some details
so invent some details and some story i'm coming back on friday the 16th of july the plane lands
at 8 45 pm i will take an uber from the airport and will probably arrive around 11 pm in any case
don't wait up for me as i can let myself in with my set of keys to wait up means not to go to bed
waiting for someone or something so now i just need to wrap up my letter please feel at home
and enjoy your time in london i look forward to seeing you when i'm back
warm regards asiya this is the whole letter it is 221 words long a bit on the long side but it's
quite typical for high scoring answers if you are aiming for band 7 i would say that you should try
to limit your answer to about 200 words to give yourself more time to check your answer okay the
first very important point to pay your attention to is to have a clear structure in your letter
when ielts examiners assess your answers they use four criteria the first one is task achievement or
how well you address all points in the task and the second one is called coherence and cohesion
basically that's where they assess if your essay if your letter has a clear structure if
ideas are developed if it's logically organized if your ideas flow one from another all that is
coherence and cohesion and in order to get a high score in these two criteria
you need to have a clear structure you need to decide what you write in each part of your letter
and exclude anything where your letter would go off topic this letter has five paragraphs
which is a common structure it's also possible to write a letter with just three paragraphs and it
will be organized in a slightly different way in my course i teach the differences between the five
paragraph and three paragraph structures and what to write in each part of those letters
but in this video let's continue to the next point which is also very important choosing the correct
style for your letter the tone of your letter may vary from informal all the way to formal but in
ielts we usually talk about informal semi-formal and formal letters this one is a letter to a
friend so it's easy it's definitely an informal letter and you need to use informal language on
the one hand you shouldn't use any phrases that are formal on the other hand it's still a letter
written in exam conditions so you shouldn't use any phrases any slang something that you would
write to a body in a text message for instance if you say i wanna travel or omg oh my god these
phrases are not suitable for ielts writing even in informal letters you should still use proper
english on the other hand if you write an informal letter and you use some formal language
for example i'm writing to inquire or i request or should you require any assistance
these phrases will also drag your score down because they're not appropriate in a letter
to a friend even though they sound smarter they sound more sophisticated but they will not help
you i've noticed that many ielts candidates actually struggle to choose their proper tone
and then to maintain it so that's definitely something you should pay your attention to but in
english most words are neutral and can be used in any letter some are informal some are formal some
grammatical structures are formal too and you need to learn what those are and how to control them
luckily in letter writing quite a lot of phrases are actually used in a number of letters
and for my course i even created a pdf guide with common phrases for informal semi-formal and formal
letters and i think it's really useful because not only you can learn the phrases and use in your
letters but by just reading them you can develop an awareness of what an informal or formal style
should sound like the next criterion is called lexical resource or your vocabulary
an ielts examiner's check if you use words correctly if you spell them correctly and
if your vocabulary is wide when you're writing an informal letter using some big words is not a good
idea because those words tend to be formal and you shouldn't mix up styles but what you can do is
you can describe certain details to use less common words and you can also use collocations or
expressions that english speakers use to show that you know how to combine words together
so let's have a look at this letter at the beginning of the letter a house sitter okay
that's a less common phrase someone who looks after your house while you're away
to make something stress free or to stay at my place these are set expressions then a garden shed
less common words a spare set of keys that's a common phrase to wrap something in plastic
a flower pot so i used these less common words by describing certain details of where the keys are
hidden then i also said to keep this soil slightly moist instead of just saying please water my plans
correspondence instead of letters to wait up not to go to bed waiting for someone to let myself in
to enter your home feel at home again that's a set expression the next criterion ielts examiners use
is your grammar and there says how many grammatical mistakes you make or maybe none
and how many grammatical structures features you use or if your sentences are simple and all look
alike so let's have a look at this letter a green so that's the ing form and in english
it's important to know where to use the first form to agree and where to use the ing form a green and
that shows a certain level of your english skills you're making it that's the present continuous
tense and again ielts examiners pay attention to your tenses and if you use them correctly
i've been thinking about it that's the present perfect continuous tense it's a good tense to
use because it's less common and i could just say i will hide the keys in the shed
but it's a good way to add a little element into your essay if you go around the house
you will see it so that's the conditional sentence there is a condition if you go you will see
and because if is at the beginning i put a comma in the middle of the sentence next paragraph may
could would these are three modal verbs and again it's good to use modal verbs in your letter i'm
expecting the present continuous tense opening sending visa gerunds i'm coming back on friday
okay let's talk about the tenses here i'm talking about the future but i'm saying i'm coming back
the present continuous because that's my plan but then i say the plane lands
that's because that's the shadow it lands the present simple i will take an uber i will arrive
around 11 that's because i've just decided i will take an uber so we use the future simple tense and
finally i look forward to seeing you don't forget to use the ing form here i look forward to seeing
you i look forward to talking to you you can find all the requirements i talked about in this video
and all other requirements in the document called ielts band descriptors study them carefully you
really need to know what those requirements are in my online course which i've mentioned already you
can learn how to fulfill each band 7 requirement and how to write your letters step by step
the course is code is your general writing task 1. and if you want to prepare for ielts writing task
1 and 2 and i am speaking then choose the ielts general pack you learn what really matters in your
preparation and how to maximize your score in a short period of time i will link both in the video
description box below as for the sample answer you can find it on the telegram channel called
fast track ielts when you open it search for the hashtag ft13 and you get straight to the pdf
thank you so much for watching me today good luck with your preparation and your exam bye