How to Write Formal Letters (part 2)
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Hello IELTS students. Thank you for choosing to listen to this tutorial from IELTSpodcast.com. My name is Daphne and in this tutorial, the second one on Task 1 General Training Letters, I'm going to be talking about cover letters, which are quite specific as they require lots of fixed expressions and informal letters, where you really need to show the examiner you can write in an informal register. This is more difficult than it sounds.

As I said before, I'm really enjoying marking so many of your amazing letters. They are really good quality, high level, accurate, innovative, and sometimes so entertaining that I'm smiling when I'm marking them. So thank you for those ones.

However, I think that letter writing is sometimes an area which is a bit neglected. That means sort of rather ignored. So in this tutorial, I'm going to try and help you think about the context. That's the situation. This is really important for the cover letters, which is when you're writing for a job. It's not your CV. It's the letter that goes with it.

the content, so that's what to write, and the register, that's the level of the formality needed for letters, and to share with you some key functional language which you will need. So what we're trying to do today is understand the question, the setting, or the context for the letter. Think about what to write, so that's using the prompts that you're given in the question rubric. You're always given three clues or kind of guidance, which is really, really good.

Thinking about how creative to be. Is it OK to make up lots of strange facts and information? So, yes, especially with the jobs. Yes, you do need to do that. Understand how to start and finish your letters, which is really important. And at IELTS level, you cannot make mistakes on this. How to get your letter in a logical order. That's the coherence. And finally, how to use great grammar, but make it sound natural.

So I'm going to use two letters today, which are part of our IELTS course, which is fantastic. If you haven't looked at that yet, please look online and you'll find all the information about it on the website. Really, really useful. So the cover letters. Sorry, I was going to say I'll put some I'll put these letters on the website page which connects to this. So the cover letters. This requires what we call functional language. So that's the language you use for performing certain tasks and.

So a cover letter, as I said, the one that goes with your CV when you apply for a job. So useful phrases are, I'm writing with reference to the position of computer programmer, which I saw advertised in the newspaper or online. Okay, that is how to start the letter. It's really important. Another one, I've previously worked as a programmer for Microsoft or whatever.

This was a very successful internship or job or time of my life because I worked with a great team. We did this, this, this. Here's another one. I've always been interested in a career in advertising because whatever. I consider myself to be creative, disciplined, motivated. Great chance for you to use some amazing adjectives here. This is all about selling yourself. My skills include an ability to speak languages.

Yeah, fluent English, Japanese, whatever. And then I'd very much like to join your team. And you can see as you listen to those, I mean, in fact, pause this, write them down. But as you listen to those, they're kind of in order. They're giving you a really good order. So you're talking about the job. You're telling me what you did before. You're telling me why it was successful. And you're telling me why you want to join that team. That is the right order to do it in. Okay.

So you've got to be concise. You've got to be precise. You don't have much many words, do you? And you've got to use this great language and sell yourself. So let's look at an example. I'm going to show you two student essays, letters, which we can go through. So the question is, this is a job application cover letter. This is what it says.

Task 1, job application cover letter. You are applying for a job. As well as attaching a CV, you need to write a cover letter explaining your reasons for choosing this particular company and why you would be a good hire. Things to include are 1. This is the clues they give you. Possible qualifications or reasons for you to be hired. Your energy and enthusiasm for the job. Your past experience in a similar position.

So as before, you need to write 150 words or at least. And suggested time is about 20 minutes. Doesn't give you long. So here are some extracts. Dear sir, I'm writing in response to the advert for a dentist in the Jobs Plus newspaper. Okay, great start. I know exactly what the job is and I know where you saw it. I've attached my documents with this letter. That's the CV.

which encompass my curriculum vitae and qualification certificates. OK, instead of encompasses, I'd say which include, because encompasses isn't quite right there, which include my CV. Those are the documents that they put in. OK, so I have acquired my undergraduate degree from the renowned University of Toronto and my academic grades have always been 90%, which is considered as a remarkable achievement.

I've also done a vocational course of dentist hygienist. Okay, so let's break this down a bit. I've acquired my undergraduate degree from...

So I prefer to put in, I've recently qualified from university with a degree in dental hygiene or whatever it is. Connect it to this whole dentist idea. So rather than I have acquired my degree, I think it's better to say I've recently qualified from University of Toronto with a degree in. Okay.

The bit about which is considered as a remarkable achievement, you could always put my tutors or my overall score was always above 90%. I wouldn't put the bit about remarkable achievement. I think that's obvious. I think that just doesn't really sound very natural. I've also done a vocational course of dental hygienist. Yes, that's fine. I would say I've also completed rather than done because that's just higher level. And I've added in which I found very useful.

Just to add in that relative clause there, just giving a little bit more information. OK, so nice. So here we've got, I'm extremely enthusiastic regarding this job in your multi-speciality hospital as I've always aspired of working under your guidance. OK, that's really nice. I'm extremely enthusiastic. Corrections should be about this job in your hospital as I've always aspired to work. So we aspire to something with the infinitive. Aspire to work under your guidance.

And then it's a bit confused, but what I will correct it would be currently I specialise in orthodontics and something else. I don't know the words. It's a bit technical here. And I am restless work tirelessly and I'm motivated for treating patients after joining and can work for approximately 12 hours a day as I feel satisfied performing dental procedures. OK, obviously very qualified.

Obviously, the student probably is a dentist and knows what he's talking about. Although I'm finding this a little bit complicated to read and it's a bit too long, that sentence. So why don't we just break this down? So currently I specialise in, that's great. Instead of I'm restless, work tirelessly and am motivated, I would simplify this. I'm extremely hardworking and motivated. Yeah.

um, and can work long hours, um, as I have enormous job satisfaction, something like that. Keep it precise, keep it concise, keep it clean. We need details, but we don't need to go on and on and on. Um, and again, this level here, we're talking about register. This should be, you know, formal. Um, we don't want it to be too chatty. Yeah. Um,

After this, we're going into a bit of past experience. I have been working as a junior dentist in Alexa Hospital for the past three years. Be careful on that for, they wrote from, so for the past three years. And before that, I attended a course on implants. Okay, perfect. So that's nice previous information. So that's why you're qualified.

Very nice ending on this one. It says, I'd be grateful if you would consider me as a suitable candidate for this position. Thank you for your consideration. I await your prompt reply. And then yours faithfully. So there's lots of good stuff there. So I would just as you hear, I've just tidied up, added in a few of those fixed expressions I gave you.

And just try to make it a little bit tidier. So it's got useful information, but not too much information. But what I also really like is the context. So they've chosen a job, dentist, giving me the relevant qualifications, relevant experience. It's a believable letter. I have to believe it.

The letters that don't work are the letters which are too general. I want to apply for the job and then doesn't tell me which job. I need to know which job it is. That's why you have to be creative. There's another one here. Dear Sir, Madam. It should be a comma after that, not a full stop. Dear Sir, Madam.

I'm writing to request you to consider me for the job vacancy financial analyst at your firm. OK, so I'm going to just slightly shift that. I'm writing to request. I'm writing in reference to the job. So I really think that's the best start. I'm writing in reference to the job vacancy, reference to the job vacancy for a financial analyst at your firm.

They carry on. I have a professional certification that meets the requirement of the position advertised by your company. Okay, that's fine. I will then put after that I completed my professional studies as a certified chartered accountant.

two years ago and I'm capable of analysing and evaluating the financial statements for the purpose of management reporting. Okay, so very technical detail here about what the chartered accountant does, but this is excellent because it's precise information. It's giving the examiner really high level vocabulary. Very nice verbs here and also good grammar. Capable of analysing and evaluating, so good structure there.

on verb patterns, financial statements for the purpose of all very, very good stuff. This is nice. Then they say I could provide recommendations. So regarding the course of action that is required to be taken to rectify financial issues faced by the company. Okay. For me, this is a bit too detailed. It's not a real job. I don't need all this. It's getting complicated. But what I would do is put, additionally, I have experience in a

financial issues or advising on complicated financial issues faced by the company. So use a bit of it, but put in, I have experience in. So these are my expressions I want to use here. I'm writing in reference to, I completed my studies in, what did we just say? I have experience in. So by putting in these expressions, we are giving this some structure. And so the

A bit later, it goes on to talk about your weekly tasks. My weekly tasks involved reporting to the sales team regarding variances in budgets. OK, again, maybe too much information on that one, but they go on. This is a bit about why I'm good for it. Good for the job. So I'm very much like to join your team as I believe my past work experience, qualifications and dedication make me the perfect match for this job. That's good. The perfect match for this job. I really like that.

So it's nice and tidy. It's giving these three words here, past experience, qualifications and dedication. So to use three nouns like that, I always think is really powerful. Good chance to show off your Lexus. And it just reads nicely. So I think that would be good. And it says...

I hope to prove to you that I will be an asset for your company. So that's a really nice way to finish. Okay, good letter there. I mean, you don't need too much detail. This is a little bit technical, this one, but there's some good language and it's well organised. The structure's good and you're selling yourself in a nice way. One more example, just on this kind of letter. This is a really nice example of how to talk about yourself.

there's this subtle balance between boasting, which is not nice, which is talking about yourself like, whoa, I'm amazing, you've got to hire me, and also sort of selling yourself in a high level way. This is good. I'm suitable for this role because I love talking to new customers each time. Not only can I work under pressure, but also I enjoy working in a team.

I'm good at solving customer problems on the phone as well as in person. So there's lots of detail in that nice grammar structure, not only but, which is really good. So I think that works very well there and lots of useful information. So you've got lots of good stuff there on cover letters, I hope.

as well as writing a good cover letter. You may need this. I mean, I know that we're writing for an exam, but hopefully when you've got your great IELTS grades, you can use this for a real job. So you need the formality here. This will get you a great score, the formal language, the functional language. And this, you know, these expressions will sort of guide you through. So in terms of cohesion and coherence, that will get you good marks as well.

Now, in contrast, let's look at informal. And I mean really informal, not neutral informal, which you might need if you're writing to someone you know, but not that well, like a tutor or a colleague. This informal style we're going to look at now is for friends, but it's an exam. So we're not going to go as informal as you might really write in an email. You're not going to use hi mate, that kind of thing.

But you can use phrasal verbs, which we normally would avoid. You can use idiomatic language and you can use contractions. And I think it's actually a good idea to show a contraction just to prove, you know, it's OK. So rather than whereas in the academic essay you would write people would not contract.

norm or I don't know, would not support this idea or something. You can say people wouldn't or I don't. So you can use those short forms just to show you understand this difference. So I'm going to just talk about another question here, which is in the course. General letter. You begin working in a new company. You write a letter to your friend. In your letter, one, explain why you resigned from your previous job. Describe your new work.

tell him her other updates regarding your life. Okay, nice letter. And I want to say thank you to my two students who very kindly said I could use their letters here. These are good letters, they've done well and they're very happy to share with you.

So it starts off this one. Hi, dear Sue. OK, now, hi, dear. Hi and dear. It's a bit confusing. It's it's quite endearing. It's quite nice in English, but I wouldn't put it in an exam because the examiner might think you've got confused. So I would either go hi, Sue or dear Sue. OK, so just be careful of that one. Don't put like don't throw all the greetings in there together.

And it starts like this. Hope this letter finds you well. It's been a long time since I met you last time. And I really like this. Hope this letter finds you well, exclamation mark, which is exactly what you would write. I mean, I could put, I hope this letter finds you well, but hope this letter finds you well, exclamation mark is great. It's just the right sort of tone. It's just the right register. It's friendly. She's a friend. Yeah. Yeah.

It's been a long time since I met you last time is okay, but I'm going to just relax that a little bit and say, it's been ages since I last saw you. Okay. It's been ages since I last saw you. So it's been ages, obviously not literally ages. So this is idiomatic. Ages since I last saw you. I just wanted to tell you that I've left my old job because...

The student didn't give a reason, but I'm going to. Oh, sorry. There is a reason here. Sorry. I left my old job because I can't bear the micromanagement of my new boss anymore. OK, of the new boss. I can't bear the micromanagement. So I wanted to tell you that I've left my old job because I can't bear. So really nice. I can't bear. Absolutely fantastic. We love that. It's brilliant. Informal.

Like idiomatic. We're not talking about real bears. We're talking about I can't bear like I really don't like it. The micromanagement of the new boss anymore. It used to be a great job until the reorganisation happened. OK, so really, really good stuff that used to be good. It's not good anymore. So I quitted. So it's not quitted. It's not a regular verb. So I quit Q-U-I-T and have been busy finding a new job.

So that little paragraph there very neatly answers all those questions. Why you resigned? Yeah. And what you know, what is kind of starting to go into what you've been doing. The tone for me is absolutely right. Informal, friendly. We've got contractions. So we've got the it's been ages. Just wanted to tell you can't bear micromanagement. So I quit. All these sort of things is absolutely right.

Next paragraph. Fortunately, last week I got a new job with a decent salary. OK, so with a decent salary. Now, decent salary is absolutely great for this. In a formal writing, I would not use the word decent because it is like a quite informal word. It's not academic. In a formal writing, I would say a very well paid job or I would say a well remunerated is a good one. Well remunerated job.

But this is just right for here with a decent salary. It's great because I've moved up the ladder by changing companies. OK, moved up the ladder. Again, another lovely idiom here. You're not literally climbing a ladder, but you're going up. You got promoted, basically. So you're going up the company. So really, really nice there. My job roles are similar to what I did before in that I'm in charge of the development of the new recommender system.

which guesses and suggests what our customers would probably buy. So this is quite technical. It's quite specific, but it's fine because I assume the friend knows what she's talking about. So I'm in charge of the development. Yeah, the job roles are similar. There's lots of really, really nice stuff here. It's fascinating work, although a bit demanding. So it's fascinating work, although a bit demanding. So nice work.

The kind of natural language that you really would use. Final paragraph. One last thing I didn't tell you. I'm engaged. Now, there's a bit of punctuation stuff going on here. So one last thing I didn't tell you. Hyphen or dash. I'm engaged to the guy you've heard of. Don't overuse this punctuation. It's OK because this is what you really would write in a real letter. But don't use it too much because quite often instead of punctuation, we could be using a connecting word.

I'm engaged to the guy you've heard of or the guy I told you about. He works as a product manager at Macro Hard Company. And this is great. I think we should have dinner together sometime. Does next weekend work for you? Question. Waiting for your reply. Exclamation mark. And then best wishes. OK, or you could have love or see you soon. It'll be fine. Maybe I wouldn't go best wishes. Maybe I think love or see you soon might suit the tone of it better.

But you can probably hear from this and even the way I'm reading it, it reads very naturally. So the informal work on register is absolutely right.

it's friendly, it's chatty, it's answering the question, it's telling me what I want, but also it's showing the examiner, yeah, I get this, I know what you want here. You know, I'm engaged, not I am engaged. One last thing I didn't tell you. I mean, this is really, really lovely. So good, good one there. Very good. Here's another similar, it's the same title, about just update on the job. Dear Fred,

I hope you and everyone in your family are in good health. Well, I'd probably say I hope you and all your family are well rather than good health. I'm writing this letter to share my experience of working at a new place. So again, I'm going to just make that more informal. So rather than I'm writing this letter to share, I just use this word just like I have. I just wanted to write and tell you my news or I just wanted to write and tell you what I'm up to. So we use just a lot here. And

It's very frequently used. I just wanted to write and tell you my news or what I'm up to. As you know, I started working in a nursing home after passing my registered nurse licence entrance exam. At the beginning, I had high expectations and was excited to work as a nurse. That's fine. It's almost getting a bit formal here. I had high expectations and was excited. Rather than excited to work as a nurse, maybe you could say excited about the job. Maybe we could just make that a bit more informal.

However, and then we've got this really nice, to be honest, it wasn't great. Or they said this job did not provide me a sense of satisfaction. So I've just, for me, that's a little bit formal. I've gone, the job wasn't very fulfilling or wasn't very satisfying as it was mostly an administrative role. It was mostly an administrative role. So the job wasn't very fulfilling or satisfying as it was mostly an administrative role. Okay.

so that's what went wrong with it. So instead, I applied for, but that's really nice. Instead, I applied for a vacancy on a medical surgical floor at the hospital. Okay. I was very keen on getting this job. And finally, they've put here, I secured this golden opportunity. I think golden opportunity is okay, but I know, um,

You're sort of told to use this expression, but we don't really use it very often in actual real spoken English. So because this is informal, I've just changed this. I was very keen on getting this job. And finally, I got lucky. So I got lucky, something that we could say.

I'm really enjoying this new work life with challenging responsibilities. And then it goes on to details. I sit with the patients. I go to meetings. I work as a team leader. OK, so telling me a bit what's going on in the job. But I think there's lots of nice stuff in there. There's a few things you'll see when I put this at the bottom. There's a few things that look a little bit formal, which we've tried to relax.

But the content is really great. There's lots of information. They've really built a context. They built a story around this letter. And that, for me, is really, really important. We talked about being creative. We talked about understanding why you're writing. And you need to, I know you only have 20 minutes. It's not long. But you need to build the story so it makes it believable. And for me, this is really believable. It's great stuff.

So it's been a long day finish. It's been a long time since I heard from you. Do write back when you have time. Really good. Do write back. So using these sort of command structures, do write back when you have time is informal and it works. It's really good to show this because there are not many opportunities to show this in your writing. So this is lovely.

And so they put love and regards, which is OK. Maybe a bit confusing to have love and regards. Regards is a bit formal. Love is quite friendly. So I will put love or best wishes or, you know, or see you soon. Something like that. And signing off. So that is really, really good. So there we go. That's it for the second one on podcast on letters.

I hope you found this useful. So we've looked here at two more types of general letters, cover letters for jobs and informal ones. So that would work for friends, for members of your family, that sort of thing. And I hope I've given you some useful expressions and some ideas about context, content and register. If you are struggling with your arts preparation and you want to get some super friendly professional help,

Don't forget, sign up for the podcast and emails at IELTSpodcast.com full of tutorials and guidance and get involved in the course, which gives you lots of essay feedback, specific modules on task two writing, which people find really, really hard. It's brilliant, really helpful. And if you've got a friend who's also working towards IELTS, share this podcast with them. So good luck to all of you with your preparation. I'm Daphne and thank you for listening.

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