This is the IELTS Energy Podcast, Episode 1554 Terrific Tone for IELTS Essays.
Part 2 Semi-Formal Letters.
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Downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
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A common mistake made in general task one letters is not keeping a consistent tone.
Today, learn when and how to write a semi-formal letter and get a band nine example.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you doing?
Hey, doing good, Aubrey.
How are you?
Excellent.
I have a question for you.
Okay.
Michelle and I talked about this recently, but I don't know for you when was the last time you wrote and mailed a letter.
Oh my gosh, it's been a...
Probably a couple of years at least.
It's been a while.
I can't even think of the last time, Aubrey.
What about you?
Like maybe a thank you card, but an actual letter.
It's been a long time since the invention of email.
I used to write a lot of letters at middle school, you know, in high school.
I had a pen pal.
Yes, absolutely.
So yeah, this is interesting.
This is part two of a three-part series about general task one.
So Michelle and I recorded about informal task one letters to friends or very close family.
Stay to the end for details.
If you missed it, you can definitely listen to these out of order and hit follow for part three.
We'll do very soon about formal letters.
Okay, good.
General task one is tricky, right, Lindsay?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, because we don't really write letters anymore these days.
So this is not something that, like we said, we're not well practiced with this.
Exactly.
And it's very different than writing an email where we're not wordy.
We're like very brief to the point in these emails usually, right?
Texting, totally different.
So you need to practice the skill of letter writing that's kind of gone the way of the dinosaur.
Or the dodo.
Yes, or the dodo, exactly.
All right, so where do we start today?
What do we have to know?
So for the task achievement score, tone is extremely important.
The examiner is looking for your tone to match who you're writing to, to be appropriate.
So the vocabulary and grammar structures you use are different depending on who you're writing to.
Okay.
So it's all about who this letter is going to.
All right.
So then, in this episode we're going to share some high scoring vocab plus an example of a band nine essay right.
Exactly.
So let's first talk about when should you write a semi-formal essay?
Okay.
So who would be these people that we would write this, take on this semi-formal tone, Aubrey?
Like what kind of, yeah.
So we use a semi-formal tone when talking to someone that we know fairly well, but not, you know, really close friends, family members that we would write very informally to.
So this is going to be like neighbors coworkers acquaintances, anyone that you know fairly well.
You definitely know their name.
You have spoken to them before, but they're not on this close friends and family level where you're going to use slang and idioms and really informal vocabulary.
It's a little more professional than that.
Yep, definitely.
And I know, because when we do like a group text with my neighbors, like we live in a townhouse and we have houses touching our house, it's always I'm always thinking a bit more about my choice of how I'm going to word things.
It is really that balance between formal and informal.
Yes, I think this is the most difficult because with friends, you can say anything they don't care.
With formal, it's some stranger that it doesn't really matter.
You're never going to see them again maybe.
But semi-formal, you can't be overly friendly.
You want to be polite.
It is trickier.
The relationship matters, right?
So it's tricky.
So this is good.
Again, we set this informal tone with both vocabulary and ideas, as well as grammar, because some grammar is much more formal or much more informal.
So idioms, slang and a lot of casual vocabulary might be too informal for this, but some idioms and casual vocabulary will strike that correct balance right.
You're going to be writing the same types of things you would say to an acquaintance, to a neighbor.
Okay.
So where can we get vocabulary and ideas for semi-formal essays?
Like what should we be consuming, Aubrey, to prepare in case we get this kind of essay?
Yeah.
So definitely listen to podcasts, whatever you're interested in, true crime, pop culture, travel.
Of course, all of the vocabulary won't be appropriate, but you are going to be learning phrases, vocabulary.
That's perfect for these semi-formal letters.
Yeah, and also keep watching television shows and movies.
You should be anyways to prepare for IELTS broadly, but it will prepare you for this kind of question.
So sitcoms, comedies, right?
Dramas, yeah.
Maybe documentaries.
Yes, definitely, right?
Whatever you're interested in, you want your IELTS prep to be engaging.
So whatever you're enjoying listening or watching, that's where you want to get this vocabulary.
There's a really good documentary on right now called The American Revolution.
Have you seen it?
Yeah, it's a Ken Burns documentary, and he's super famous for good documentaries.
Interesting.
Well, yeah.
So see if you can catch that.
It should be recorded somewhere.
I think it's an eight-part series.
Just goes through the 100, 200 years of American history.
Amazing.
Check that out.
And our recommendation is, for every 30 minutes of a podcast or a TV show, four to five vocabulary words that you're adding to your notebook with the sentence you used it in.
And then, of course, use it actively in practice, speaking questions and these essays, so that you're ready.
You have them ready on test day.
Yeah, I like that.
That seems like a good cadence.
So every 30 minutes, four to five new words are written down.
It's not every word we hear that we're going to write down that's going to overwhelm us.
If you have a list of 100 words after a half an hour show, it's going to be extremely difficult to actually add any of those to your active vocabulary.
Yes, 100%.
What about linking phrases?
What about semi-formal linking phrases?
Right, because some linking phrases are too informal and some are extremely formal.
So you want to avoid those in semi-formal essays.
There are quite a few that are very neutral, that aren't, you know, too informal or too formal, for example.
However, truthfully, right, we would use this when writing a note to a neighbor.
Yep.
Frankly would be another.
For example, yeah, this feels like something I would put in a letter to my neighbors.
Yes, indeed.
Exactly right.
Not overly informal, but not so extremely formal like the ones in part three.
We'll share some of those more formal linking phrases that you would want to reserve for a formal letter.
Okay.
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Okay, Aubrey, we are back for a task one question.
Let's go through a little example here, shall we?
Yes, we're going to read a task one question with the bullet points.
And then we're going to go through, paragraph by paragraph, what we would write in this semi-formal letter.
And we're going to compare, we're going to point out the semi-formal vocabulary and phrases and what maybe would be, you know, too informal or too formal.
Yeah, this is really an important skill to build here.
So shall I read the question?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right.
Write a letter to your neighbor about the noise that has been coming from their apartment late at night.
Oh, boy.
So then you have these bullet points right in your letter explain how the noise has been affecting you, give details about when it usually happens and suggest a polite solution.
So those bullet points are really important for the general task one letter.
You need to share at least two details per bullet point in order to satisfy this task.
Response score.
Yeah, this happened to me when I was living in New York.
But it wasn't a letter.
I had to talk to them, just knock on their door.
It was stressful.
I got apartment buildings are quite hard when it comes to music, right?
Because you can really hear almost your walls are vibrating, right?
With the music.
Difficult.
Yes, that happened a lot.
I remember someone hitting Um.
I was at the floor of the ceiling camera with like a broom handle because our kids would be really loud or like running around and stomping.
Yeah, they were hitting the floor if I remember.
Sure.
So I'd much rather maybe a letter someone would write if they like, don't dare come and talk to you in person and write this letter and slip it under your door.
Sure.
Probably better.
Yeah.
All right.
So let's see what this letter might look like.
So we have those bullet points that we have to fulfill.
Aubrey, where should we go?
How should we look at this?
So remember that you will know this person's name.
So you would not want to start it with like, dear sir or madam.
IELTS does tell you how to begin your letter.
So just use that.
We're going to assume here we write like, dear Debbie would have their name, comma.
And then I'll go ahead and read this first paragraph answering that first bullet point of explain how the noise has been affecting you.
Okay.
Right.
I hope you are doing well.
I am writing to let you know about a small concern regarding the noise in your apartment late at night.
Truthfully, I hesitated to mention it because I know everyone has their own routines.
However, it has recently been affecting my sleep, especially on weekdays when I need to be up early for work.
Yes.
So we're just going bullet point by bullet point.
So each paragraph answers a bullet point, right?
Exactly.
Right.
So And that's how you want to format these essays.
In each individual paragraph, answer one bullet point.
That's the best way to organize it, and make sure that you give at least two details per bullet point.
So notice the linking phrases here.
Truthfully, I hesitated.
However, it has recently been affecting.
You can see how we have this semi-formal tone not being overly formal, but I am staying quite professional.
But I also did start it in a friendly way, right?
I hope you are doing well.
This is something we'd say to an acquaintance, to someone that we know, but we're not super close to.
Exactly.
That's a great phrase for this semi-formal tone.
And you have achieved the goal of the first bullet point, which is explain how the noise has been affecting you.
It's that you haven't been sleeping, especially on weekdays.
Exactly.
And then notice the lack of super friendly banter because we don't know them that well.
And then also we're not adding really informal language like saying I have to get up super early or way early in the morning.
I might say that to a friend.
That's too informal for a semi-formal letter.
Maybe if you're explaining to a friend what's going on with the situation, you might use those words.
But that's a different person that's consuming this.
So that would be a more informal kind of situation, right?
Exactly.
Semi-formal.
OK, so then in the second paragraph, let me read that.
So you say the noise usually starts around 1130 p.m. and continues for an hour or more.
For example, the sound of loud music and what seems like moving furniture can be heard quite clearly through the wall.
Frankly, I didn't realize how much sound carries between these walls.
So I'm guessing it's the same for you.
And I thought I should let you know.
Nice.
OK, so, yes.
This is tricky because you have to answer those bullet points directly, right?
And here you're asked to give details about when it usually happens.
So that's what we're sharing here.
It starts usually around 11 p.m. and continues for an hour or more.
And then you're giving details about what's happening at that time.
These linking phrases, for example, and frankly, which are good semi-formal tone.
I like those really good linking phrases throughout this entire letter.
Love it.
Yeah.
And then, if you look at some of these phrases, to say it can be heard quite clearly is not overly formal, but definitely more formal than saying like super clearly, right.
Right.
We're not using that really informal language we would with a friend.
We're keeping it a little more polite and professional.
And in addition to that, you're using the passive voice here, right?
So So that automatically fits pretty well for semi-formal, I think.
Because if you're talking to someone that's informal, I can hear it, right?
You don't need to hide anything.
That's a really good point.
That passive voice also gives us a great semi-formal tone.
We don't use that nearly as often with friends, right?
We're in the active voice.
We're super friendly.
And that's different for a semi-formal letter like it.
So far, we're scoring high on this.
Yeah right, this i thought i should let you know, instead of maybe a more formal option, like i thought i should bring this to your attention that you might use in a formal letter, but that would be too formal for a neighbor.
Yeah, that's really nice.
It's articulate.
I thought i should let you know, but it's not overly formal or stuffy right, exactly.
All right, I'll read our next paragraph here.
So this, again, the bullet point is suggest a polite solution.
And so we have here, would you mind keeping the volume a bit lower after 10 p.m.?
Another option might be to place felt pads under chairs to reduce scraping sounds.
I think that would really make a difference.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
Please feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss this further.
Okay, so you've achieved the bullet point, right?
So you've offered two solutions, two ideas.
And have we done it politely?
I would say so.
Definitely, right?
We have this really polite phrase, would you mind?
This is polite and semi-formal.
And also, I think that would really make a difference.
Instead of something really formal like I, believe a small adjustment like this would make a drastic difference, right.
There are more formal phrases that would feel inappropriate for a neighbor that you have probably chatted with a few times.
Yes.
I love this letter because we've got the right tone, the semi-formal tone.
We're using the linking words we talked about and we are addressing each bullet point methodically, right.
Exactly.
Oh, this is so tricky.
There's so much that goes into these general task one letters.
And this is something students often forget about is striking the right tone.
So I'm excited for this series so that you can see examples of each one for informal, semi-formal and formal to really get a good idea of how to set that tone.
Yeah, guys, go and check out IELTS Energy 1550.
Terrific tone for IELTS part one.
Informal letters.
Check that out.
All right.
Yes, that was part one of the series.
And that informal letters are to like a friend or a family member, some coworkers, if you know them really well.
So you want to be ready for those informal letters as well.
Definitely check out that episode if you missed it.
Yep.
And hit follow so you don't miss any of these parts of series.
We do series a lot on this show, so you definitely don't want to miss a single section of a series.
All right.
Absolutely.
Part three will be formal letters, so don't miss it.
Hit follow here on the show.
We'll be ready for it.
Sounds good, Aubrey.
See you soon.
Have a good day.
Thanks.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
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