IELTS Energy 1438: How to Lie on General Training Letters to a Neighbor
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This is an IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1438, How to Lie on General Training Letters to a Neighbor. ♪

Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English, downloaded more than 22 million times with former IELTS examiner Jessica Beck and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.

Get your estimated band score now with our two-minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward slash my score. Today, you'll hear about a band nine general training letter complaining about a neighbor's dog. You'll get insider writing tips and band nine vocabulary phrases as well. Useful for every part of the IELTS exam.

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Aubrey, do you know a lot about dogs, about having dogs as pets? No, I know very little about having dogs as pets.

- So what if you're taking the general training IELTS exam and you're asked about this in writing task one, what would you do? - I would have to lie. - That's it, guys. - If I were asked about, yeah, experience with the pets, I would have to lie through my teeth.

guys you don't know what situation you're gonna be asked to write about in writing task one right um and ultimately every one of these situations is pretend it's all it's made up yeah you should try and use as much personal sort of information to make it sound natural to make it believable as you can but

It's not possible, right? Right. That's the thing about general training, right? Maybe you've never complained about a poor flight or a poor cab ride or whatever, all of these crazy prompts for letters. Even if you have, like you haven't written a letter about it. So you're going, you're likely going to need to make some stuff up. That's the thing right there. That's the thing is...

We don't write letters anymore. So like this is all a taxing experience if you're not prepared. If you're ready to be fully prepared, check out our course. It has general training letter lessons as well. All ears English dot com slash K-E-Y-S. Check that out.

So guys, today we are going to provide a sample band nine letter for a recently reported task one general question about a dog barking letter to a neighbor. So stay tuned for that, guys. We're going to give you the full

model letter there. And even if you are an academic student, stay tuned, right, for how to brainstorm specific details, for great vocabulary. If you're a general training student, the last time we talked about a letter was a while ago. Scroll up to IELTS Energy 1386. It's called Band 9 Plan for General Gym Letter. So scroll up for that. But all

all students have to do have to fulfill the same requirements for task two right what's a great recent task two episode yeah whether you are doing general or academic task two is the same and ielts energy 1435 scroll up for that one was can ielts writing templates hurt your score you may have wondered this don't miss that episode for all of the answers you need

Exactly. Exactly. All right, guys. So some tips first. Okay. Just to remind you in case you haven't, you don't know what to expect in the general training section of the writing. In task one, guys.

You are expected to have the correct tone for your task score. This means you have to know if you're writing to someone you know or someone you don't know. Is it a formal letter, an informal letter, or a semi-formal letter? You have to know that so you hit the right tone with your linking words and your vocabulary. How should students brainstorm for this, Aubrey?

Yeah, so you need two details for each bullet point. Your topic is going to provide you with three bullet points and each one needs to be its own paragraph with at least two details. And ideally, you do want to pull from your own life, your own experience will be easier to come up with details that will be more believable. But there will be things that you will need to make up because sometimes you just get prompts for letters like today's that you don't have personal experience with.

Exactly. Exactly. All right. Aubrey, can you read today's general training letter?

Sorry. Yes. Question. Your next door neighbor owns a small dog that barks throughout the day and the night. Write a letter to your neighbor requesting that something be done about the dog. Include in your letter your reason for writing, what problems this situation has caused you, what you would like to happen. So this is a good example for me. I have never had this experience. I have neighbors that have dogs, but they don't bark.

So I would have to invent this situation. Yeah, I think a lot of people would, right? I mean, this is a very specific situation. So let's get into the letter itself.

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All right. So in the first paragraph, we tackle that first bullet point, right? Which was your reason for writing. Okay. So in this case, guys, we're basically just sort of paraphrasing, but adding specific details to the question itself. So what could we do in the first paragraph? All right. We might say, "Hey, my friend, I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I must inform you that your sweet Labrador is keeping me up at night.

As you know, I adore Max, but the incessant barking has become quite a problem. So we're using a semi-formal tone here. It's your next door neighbor. You're going to know them. You're going to know their dog's name, or you should. And so you want to strike this semi-formal tone. You're not family, maybe not best friends. So you're keeping a little bit of formality, but we're being pretty informal. We're treating them. We're talking to them as if we know them because we would. Exactly. And

You know, when we are describing a problem, we do tend to use language that's a little bit more formal, right? If you're just talking to an acquaintance and you're describing a difficult situation, we're going to veer towards the formal language. So you'll see a nice mix here in our example letter today that shows the

perfect semi-formal tone, the mix of formal and informal. So even in that first paragraph, right, we start with, hey, my friend. And I would do that, right? If I know someone, I would start the letter like that. I'm not like, hey, bestie.

I love you. Not like that, right? Just, hey, my friend. And then some great vocab here. Incessant barking. What does incessant mean? Yeah, never ending, right? It seems like it's constant. Yeah.

And then also this, to be the bearer of bad news. I love this phrase. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It's a great chunk that just means I'm going to give you some news you might not want to hear. Yes. Yeah. And you know, you can use that on IELTS speaking. If you're asked, you know, like, do you read a lot? And I know a lot of students don't, which does make me sad, but I know it's true. You could answer, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm

not an avid reader yes good point this is a great way to start a lot of answers if you kind of assume the examiner would expect a different answer all right so moving on to the second paragraph and the second bullet point the second bullet point was what problems this situation has caused you so

This has to be where you're going to lie, right? Because unless you actually have a neighbor's dog keeping you up at night, you have to lie here, okay? So Aubrey, what would we do in the second paragraph? I could say, unfortunately, I have been unable to remedy the situation on my end. I lie awake at night listening to the barking and earplugs have been no help.

Hence, my performance at work is suffering because I'm in a constant state of sleeplessness. Plus, honestly, my overall health has begun to suffer due to the extreme lack of rest." Sounds so bad. A lot of great vocab here. And it is interesting, the semi-formal tone. There are some formal chunks and also some more informal language. It's an interesting tone to strike. Yeah. I think it's the trickiest tone to strike, right? For sure.

All right. So some vocab guys that you can use all over the exam here, remedy the situation. That, of course, is great for problem solution essays and speaking part three. But honestly, anytime you're talking about trying to solve a problem, you could say remedy the situation, even in part one.

Yes. And you may have seen remedy as a noun, but not as a verb. This is less common. I don't see students do this as often. So definitely, if you're about to say fix, replace it with remedy. I need to remedy this situation.

And I also want to draw attention to advice that we give for all of the writing, right? Writing task two and task one. The more specific you get, oh, and speaking actually, the more specific you get, the more amazing vocabulary comes out, right? So instead of saying like, I just, I can't sleep because of the barking, right?

Right? That's so boring. And it's still general, right? It's not a good enough detail. It's a detail, but it's not so specific. So we get more specific. I lie awake at night listening to the barking and earplugs have been no help. Right? Now that is it's painting a picture for the reader. And that is what we want to do with our details and vocab in speaking and writing.

Yes, and same, we were saying a constant state of sleeplessness. My overall health has begun to suffer. So you're also seeing interesting grammar forms here that are what is required when you're describing how you've been affected. Exactly.

Exactly. All right. Now the third paragraph tackling that third bullet point, which is what you would like to happen. Aubrey, can you read that paragraph, please? Yes. Due to the above, I'm afraid I have to ask you to try and fix this situation. One idea might be kennel training. This is wonderful not only for controlling barking, but also for taking away dog's anxiety.

Another option to try would be to buy a bark collar, but depending on how you feel about giving small electrical shocks to your dog, this might not be desirable. So we offer two possible solutions, right? And that's what you want to do, two details, or in this case, two solutions for each bullet point. And I want you guys to...

I want you guys to notice all of the linking phrases throughout this letter at the beginning of every paragraph, between almost every sentence. It doesn't matter if it's informal, formal, or semi-formal, guys. You need to have a lot of linking phrases sprinkled throughout your letter to get a high score for cohesion coherence.

we have modeled that in this letter. And then we finish with just a one line sign off, we can say, if you want to talk about this in person, text me and we'll chat again, that informal tone, right? Like I know you, we can meet in person. And then we sign off best John or whatever your name is. All right. So this, of course, as we've said, is a band nine letter with a

of lies. Aubrey, what do you think is the biggest takeaway today for our students to reproduce a band nine letter like this? Yeah, do not hesitate to lie on the IELTS exam. On IELTS speaking answers, feel free to lie. In your letters, feel free to lie. The examiner doesn't care, doesn't know. They're listening for your impressive vocabulary, all of those details. So it may happen that you don't have experience with it and you can absolutely make something up. Yeah.

Yeah, we did an awesome episode a few weeks back called How to Lie in Speaking Part Two. So guys, scroll up if you missed that and make sure to hit follow right now so you don't miss another amazing episode of IELTS Energy. Yes, we want to share some poll results from a recent episode. 1430, we asked, what's killing my reading and writing? Oops, no, the question was,

Are you leaving no stone unturned in your IELTS study? That was the name of the episode, What's Killing My Reading and Writing Scores. 72% of you said yes. So that's fantastic. You're leaving no stone unturned. You're doing everything you possibly can. 27% said no, which we get it. You're busy. I love that you're honest. At least you're listening to us, right? That's a big step in the right direction.

Yes, and we have a poll for today's episode. Be sure to go over to Spotify, or if you're listening on Spotify, you're already there. Answer today's poll. We want to know, have you been kept awake by a neighbor's dog? I'm very curious about this.

I think my neighbors would say yes because of my dogs. No, just kidding. My dogs don't bark at night. They're in their kennels. Okay, guys. Thank you for listening. Answer that poll. And as always, our course is available online, allearsenglish.com slash K-E-Y-S. All right. Wonderful. I'll see you next week, Aubrey. Awesome. See you guys next week. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy. Hit subscribe now and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglish.com slash myscore.

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