An informal letter to a friend
A full General Training Writing Task 1 letter in the register most candidates get wrong: the informal letter. Written online against the clock, self-assessed against the four criteria, and shown beside the Band 7.5+ model letter I wrote for it.
How to use this. Write the letter in the box below in about twenty minutes, at least 150 words, as in the real test. Cover all three bullet points and hold a consistent register throughout. When you've finished, open Self-assessment to mark your own work against the four criteria and read the Band 7.5+ model letter I wrote for it. You can download a copy to keep. For a person to mark your writing against the criteria, the first lesson includes a full assessment. New to the letter? Start with the GT Writing: the letter guide. The other two registers: paper 01, formal and paper 03, semi-formal.
Write the letter.
Recommended 20 minutes · at least 150 words
An old friend is visiting your town for a few days next month, but you will be away for work on the dates they arrive. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- apologise and explain why you will be away
- suggest what your friend can do in the town while you are gone
- offer to meet before they leave
Write at least 150 words. You do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter Dear ...,
Mark your own work.
Be honest with yourself against the four criteria, the same four an examiner uses on the letter. Then read the model letter and see exactly what a Band 7.5+ answer does.
Task Achievement
Coherence & Cohesion
Lexical Resource
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
The model letter I wrote for this task
Dear Priya,
It was brilliant to hear you’re finally coming to Marsden next month. Now for the bad news: I could have kicked myself when I checked the dates, because I’ll be in Glasgow for work the whole week you arrive, and there’s no way out of it. I’m so sorry, especially after all our talk about me showing you around.
Don’t let that put you off, though. The covered market is worth a whole morning, especially the food hall at the back, and if the weather behaves you should walk the canal path out to the old mill, easily the prettiest stretch of town. On Thursday there’s live music at the jazz café on Bridge Street; tell Tom behind the bar you’re a friend of mine.
I’m back on the Friday, so keep your last evening free and dinner’s on me. There’s a new Thai place I’ve been saving for a proper occasion.
Give my love to Daniel, and see you very soon.
Best wishes,
[Your name]
Why it scores. The register is held from the first line to the last: contractions throughout, everyday idiom (I could have kicked myself, dinner’s on me), and warmth that sounds like a real friend. All three bullets are developed with specifics rather than listed, the linking is informal but still guides the reader (Now for the bad news, Don’t let that put you off, though), and Dear + first name with Best wishes is the correct frame for a named friend. Yours faithfully here would be a register error.
Where a letter like this usually loses marks. Drifting formal is the classic failure: I am writing to inform you that I shall be unavailable to your oldest friend caps Task Achievement even when the grammar is perfect. Also common: apologising in one line and never developing it, listing attractions without a word of detail, and finishing an informal letter with a formal sign-off. Fix the register first.
This is a model letter I wrote for this task, not a marked student submission. For a person to mark a letter of yours against the four criteria, the first lesson is a full assessment.
Take your work with you.
Download your letter alongside the model, so you can revise it later or bring it to a lesson.
First time writing a letter? Work through the GT Writing: the letter guide, then write this one against the clock.
Send a task. Get it back marked.
A model shows you the target. It can’t tell you why your own letter sits below it.
Write the letter above and send it to me. I’ll mark it in detail against the four assessment criteria and return it to you annotated, line by line, so you can see exactly where the band is sitting and what is holding it down. Written work is handled this way around the lessons, sent over and returned marked between sessions, which keeps the fifty minutes themselves free for speaking. The first lesson is a full assessment. Regular lessons are £20 for fifty minutes, one to one, in proper British English.