Hi guys, this is Fiona from IELTS with Fiona and the Members Academy.
In this lesson, we're looking at a general training letter.
It was a request from one of the members of the Academy and it says you recently went to a concert and you thought one of the singers was very good.
You want to tell him or her how you feel.
Write a letter to the singer.
In your letter, say how you feel about their performance.
Give details of your music-related or musical activities.
And then explain how you would like him or her to help you with your music-related musical activities.
So the question from the member was this.
She said, Help, I don't know anything about music.
How can I answer this question?
So, of course, IELTS doesn't expect you to have any specialist knowledge.
So don't worry too much.
You can always write it according to how you want to write it, as long as you mention the singing in some way.
And The bigger problem, I think, was this question about how you ask somebody to help you.
How can you ask this singer to help you when you've probably never met them before?
And usually when you go to see a singer, they're usually quite famous.
So the example some of my students did were to famous people like Celine Dion.
Well, How can you ask Celine Dion to help you with your music related activities?
So, although we've done lots of letters of request before how to write a polite request, I thought the key learning point from this one was to decide quite early on who you're writing to, because that will affect what kind of request you ask.
And It's probably safer if you imagine that you're writing to maybe a local singer or somebody who sang at a local event or a school choir or something like that.
It will make the request more natural and easier for you to think about.
So more important here also is the functional language that you need.
So basically, there are three things you need to do.
You need to somehow express your feelings, which means giving some kind of positive review on the singer's performance.
And then you have to express gratitude and appreciation, because you have to say how much you enjoyed the concert.
And then you have to make the politely. and that all has to connect somehow.
So the first point if you go to my website this is included in the bronze membership then the first point is to decide who are you writing to.
So in this sample answer the writer wrote to just a local singer in a recent performance of a mozart opera in the village hall.
So in the first line it says i'm writing to express my appreciation, appreciation of your recent performance in alsford village hall.
So we know it's a small venue, it's very local and therefore it would be easy to ask this person a request.
The writer goes on to say I am an amateur conductor with a small group of 18 players based in a nearby village.
We are looking to develop our repertoire and I am putting together a programme of musical events for the coming year.
I would be delighted if you would consider participating in our programme.
We are thinking of putting on some choral works and I'm sure your collaboration would do wonders for our profile.
I hope that we can work together.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely and then your name.
So this is only 157 words and it is high level and it does have music related vocabulary.
But I'm just using this example to show you the kind of language we've got here.
So expressions that you can memorise, I mean.
I'm writing to express my appreciation of your performance.
I would be delighted if you would consider participating.
I hope that we can work together.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Those fixed expressions. that you can use in any letter of request.
So if we look at that language more closely, what do you notice?
What do these expressions have in common?
I'll read a few.
There's a list on the website.
I would be grateful for any advice you could offer.
I would appreciate any guidance you could give me.
I would be delighted if you would consider participating.
It would be an absolute honour to have you join us.
Any advice from you would mean the world to me.
Any support you could offer would be greatly appreciated.
So you can probably hear me repeating, I would, I would be grateful.
I would appreciate any guidance.
I would be delighted.
It would be an honour.
So those are some nice fixed expressions, very polite expressions, that you can use in this kind of request.
Notice they are all indirect.
So there's no, can you help me?
What is your advice?
Will you participate?
It's very indirect and also it includes expressions like I was wondering if.
That softens the direct request.
I was wondering if you might be able to help me.
On the website.
I've added a few informal requests just so you can compare them, and very often you do get comments, letters writing to a friend, request to a friend.
So here you've got all of these expressions and they are direct.
Can you give me a hand?
Can you do me a favour?
Could you help me out?
Any chance you could help me?
Sorry to bother you.
I hope you don't mind me asking.
So those are more idiomatic and informal and relaxed.
Let's get back to this former letter now.
So the next point to consider is how you show appreciation of this singer.
How do you show your feelings and how much you enjoyed the course?
Giving positive feedback and showing gratitude is quite common in task one letters.
For example, on the website, there's one about thanking colleagues for a present.
And there's another one about giving feedback on a cookery course that you enjoyed.
So I collated a few of these expressions as I was marking.
And again, listen and what do you notice about them?
I was absolutely captivated by your performance.
I was deeply moved by the experience.
It was a truly unforgettable experience.
I was particularly struck by how you engaged the audience.
If you noticed, there's an adverb in almost every one of those examples.
I was absolutely blown away.
I was deeply moved.
It was truly unforgettable.
So those are collocations, adverbs that often go together with those adjectives like deeply moved.
These adverbs have an extremely positive effect on the reader and it will increase your vocabulary score.
The next point is about adding details.
The question asks you to give details of your music-related activities.
Now, this is where I'm going to show you, you don't have to be a music maestro to talk about this.
And what you could do is demonstrate your flexibility with tenses.
So listen to these six expressions, not specifically music-related, but they all show that you've got a command of the different tenses.
So you could say, I've always been interested in music.
Present perfect simple.
I've been learning to play the piano for two years.
Present perfect continuous.
I used to play the piano when I was younger.
So that's used to for past habits.
I'm currently working on my own songs.
Present continuous at the moment.
I write my own songs, present simple.
It's always true, a habit.
I'll be performing in my hometown, future continuous.
You might say that I'll be performing soon.
And I was wondering if you could give me any tips to build my confidence.
So there's a lot of opportunity there to show off when you add the details and they're not really music related.
So let me show you sample answer two.
Dear Mrs Smith, I attended your concert last weekend and I was absolutely blown away by your performance.
I found myself moved to tears during your rendition of Hymn.
This was the Celine Dion song that she sang at the Olympics, which I really enjoyed.
The way you connected with the audience was truly special.
I am an aspiring singer myself, and I've been taking singing lessons for the past two years.
I also play guitar and write my own songs, performing at local festivals. events whenever I can.
Music has become such an important part of my life.
Given your immense talent and experience, I was wondering if you might consider mentoring me.
I would be incredibly grateful for any advice you could offer on improving my vocal technique or songwriting.
Your guidance would mean the world to me as I pursue my musical dreams.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you.
So in that letter, I use that to show the tenses.
You could use past simple.
I attended your concert last weekend.
I was blown away by your performance.
I found myself moved to tears.
Present simple, your voice has such incredible range and emotion.
I play guitar and write my own songs.
Present perfect continuous, I've been taking singing lessons for the past two years.
Music has become an important part of my life.
And then there's second conditional.
I would be incredibly grateful for any advice.
Your guidance would mean the world to me.
Then finally, ways of ending the letter.
Remember to thank the person for the time that they took to read your letter and to consider your request.
So this could just be a simple, thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter.
Thank you so much for considering my request.
Or thank you for your time and consideration.
And then close the letter with an expression for what you hope will happen next.
I look forward to hearing from you whenever you have the chance.
I look forward to the possibility of hearing from you or I look forward to your reply.
Finally, there's a little practice activity on the website, as there is in every lesson.
So there's one learning point, and I think the main one here is how to use indirect questions so that you're very polite.
So there are five ways here.
Instead of saying, can you help me?
You could say, I was wondering if you could help me.
I would be very grateful if you could help me.
I would appreciate any help you could give me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
We would be delighted if you could be of any assistance.
And in that little quiz there I've put a few tricks for you, because there's the spelling of grateful.
Is it great, G-R-E-A-T or great, G-R-A-T-E?
This is a common mistake.
Of course, the answer is great, G-R-A-T-E.
And the other little trick I've put in there is about advice.
I see this so many times.
Advice, is it singular or plural?
Is it uncountable or countable?
And of course, it's uncountable.
So, advices is wrong.
Just say any advice would be greatly appreciated.
So that's a general training letter for this week's lesson.
And remember, if you have any requests, then I would be very happy to create a lesson for you based on your request.
So just get in touch on social media or go to my website, find the contact form and send your request there.
If you're in the Members Academy, we do this every month.
We set a task and I mark them and give feedback.
There's a whole catalogue of previous lessons like this, where you go through a question and you look at the different aspects of it and you review the language that you need to complete that task to a very high level.
OK, thank you for listening today.
I really appreciate it.
I'm glad you're still here.
Do let me know if you have any requests.
Bye for now.
Bye bye.
