24 April 2011

IELTS Letter Template by John Parker

1. Complaint
불평조치내용
불평하는 이유와 결과
해결방법과 조치내용 언급
2. Inquiry
자기소개
문의 이유
문의 내용 - 순서
문의내용 언급
3. Request
요청 조치내용
요청 조치이유
감사 및 연락처
4. Apology
사과 유발 사건 및 이유
사과 내용 및 조치내용
사과 내용 및 조치내용 언급
5. Thanks
감사의 내용 및 감사
사고 경위
감사내용 언급
6. Suggestion
제안요청
제안이유
제안이유 언급
제안 언급
7. Job Application

8. Recommendation

9. Self-introduction

10. Lost Items

-----------------------
1. Complaint
(157 words)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to inform you that I wish to move into a new room next term. I would prefer a single room, as I find the present sharing arrangement inconvenient.

I must explain that the reason for my dissatisfaction is my roommate's inconsiderate behavior. For one thing, his friends are constantly visiting him, for another, he regularly holds noisy parties. In addition, he sometimes borrows my things without asking me. In these circumstances, I find it difficult to concentrate on my studies, and I am falling behind in my assignments.

I am sure you will agree that the only solution is for me to move into a room of my own, where I will be free from such distraction. Therefore, I would be grateful if you could find a single room for me, preferably not in the same building but as near to the college campus as possible.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Park


2. Inquiry
(165 words)

Dear Sir,

I am organizing a group of students to pay a visit to the historical exhibition in your town. This visit will be part of our school's activities to encourage the students to take part in social surveys. Therefore, I would be grateful if you could supply me with the following information.

First of all, what are the dates between which the exhibition will be held, and what the daily opening hours? Secondly, what is the size of the exhibition, what is its theme and what objects are on display? Thirdly, are there any other activities being held in connection with the exhibition?

I must point out that I hope to bring over students to the exhibition. So I would like to inquire if there is any discount available on entrance tickets for students. If so, how much is the discount and what is the minimum number of students necessary to quality for it?

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Park


3. Request
(209 words)

Dear Prof. James,

I am writing to formally request to withdraw from two courses: Introduction to Elementary Education (EDU602) and Teaching Methods (EDU619)

The main reason for reducing my course load is that I am finding it extremely difficult to manage six courses. In the beginning of the term, I was perhaps overly optimistic about juggling both my full time studies and my part time job (20 hours/week). Because I really must work part time, I have no other choice but to decrease my course load. I am planning on taking the two courses during the summer semester, if they are available, so that I will be able to complete all the courses for the degree program by the following year.

I would also like to request a tuition refund, and hope I am not too late to receive the full reimbursement. I am sorry for any inconveniences I have caused by this change in plans. This decision was not taken lightly, and I do appreciate the kind consideration you have shown to me.

Thank you for your attention to these requests: If you have any questions, pleas fee free to contact me at 277-9114. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely yours,

Lucy Park


4. Apology
(158 words)

Dear Mary,

I am very much looking forward to your visit to my city. Just think: after all these years to writing to each other, we will finally have the chance to meet! However, I regret to inform you that I will not be able to meet you at the airport as soon as you arrive.

The reason is that your flight will arrive early in the morning, and the quickest time I can get to the airport will be about an hour after you land. Please wait for me in the arrival lounge. You should be able to have breakfast there while you wait.

By the way, as we have never met I must tell you how to recognize me: I am of medium height an d have a small mustache. In addition, I will be carrying a copy of the morning newspaper tucked under my left arm.

Looking forward to our first meeting.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy


5. Thanks
(169 words)

Dear John,

I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude. I am referring to that unfortunate accident the other day, when I was knocked off my bike by a taxi. If it had not been for your timely assistance in giving me first aid and taking me to a nearby hospital, I fear that the consequences might have been much more serious.

The doctor says that my broken leg is healing well, and the bruises and cuts I suffered will soon be completely better. In addition, the taxi company has agreed to pay my hospital bills. Everyone agrees that it was your quick-witted response in that emergency that has lead to this satisfactory outcome.

Although nowadays many people talk about the need to be unselfish and to help others, we wee very few people practicing what they preach. But you showed by your selfless action that you are an exception. If there were more people like you, this world would be a much nicer place.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy

6. Suggestion

Dear John,

You have asked me for my advice concerning whether you should study history or computer science at university, and I will try to make some useful suggestions.

You must keep in mind that, above all, your university training is a preparation for your future career. Therefore, your fist consideration should be to study a subject which will best equip you to earn a living. There is no doubt that the field of computers offers far wider job opportunities than history.

Besides, we are now in the age of the high-technology revolution. For the foreseeable future, not only will it be necessary for everyone to be computer-literate, it will also be necessary for them to be equipped with computer skills merely to earn a living! History, I'm afraid, however fascinating it may be, offers few career prospects.

Of course, you don't have to devote all your time at university to studying computers and nothing else. On the contrary, I would recommend that you keep your reading of history in your spare time. That way, you will find that your leisure hours are enriched while you prepare yourself for a worthwhile career in computers.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy


7. Job Application
(189 words)

Dear Mr. Moore,

Re: Waitress position

I am writing to express my interest in your recently advertised position for a waitress. Enclosed with this letter is my resume, which further details of my previous experience and qualifications.

Not only do my qualifications and work experience make me a perfect candidate for the job, my personality is well suited to working as a waitress. I am a very friendly person who can quickly establish rapport with people of all ages. In my last waitress job, I had over a dozen repeat customers each day. And, the fast-paced environment of waiting on tables suits me will, because I thrive on working under pressure. In fact, my former boss was surprised at both my incredible stamina and efficiency in dealing with customers' orders.

I would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience, to discuss the possibility of working at your restaurant. I can be reached at 456-3646 during the days and 352-6634 after 6 pm.

Thank you for your consideration of my application. I look forward to meeting you in the near future.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Park


8. Recommendation
(196 words)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I have learned from your newspaper advertisement that your center is organizing an international summer camp for overseas teenagers, and you are looking for a bilingual assistant tutor to work with the children. I am writing to you to recommend one of my best friends, Hana Kim, for this post.

Hana used to be my classmate at Korea University, where she was already a very active organizer and participant in extracurricular activities. With her outstanding leadership skills and cheerful personality, she was elected chairperson of the Student Union several times.

Busy as she was, she passed the College English Test Band Six and completed her major - teenage psychology - with an excellent school record. Upon graduation she was assigned to be a teacher in an international high school in Seoul, where she has been teaching bilingual lessons for five years. What's more, she loves her job and enjoys working with children. This has won her great popularity among her students.

Therefore, I do not hesitate to recommend her as an ideal candidate for the post you advertised. I am sure you will make a wise decision in hiring her.

Sincerely yours,

Lucy Park


9. Self-introduction
(229 words)

Dear Monica,

Hi! My name is Lucy Park, and I obtained your name and address from Pen Pals International. I am very glad to have this chance to write to you and become pen pal.

Let me first introduce myself. I'm currently working as a computer programmer in a large multi-national company. I graduated from Korea University with a Bachelor's degree in computer science in February 2008. While I enjoy my current job, I'm interested in pursuing a Master's degree, and hope to begin graduate studies next September. My hobbies include listening to pop music, playing the piano, and playing table tennis. I'm also very interested in traveling, and have visited every province in Korea at least once.

This summer, I will be traveling with my mother to California. She will be attending a history conference at the University of California-Berkeley, and I have just received permission to go with her. We will stay in California for a total of 2 weeks - from August 2nd to 16th, 2011. If you are free, I would be very happy to meet you in person. Perhaps we could spend a day or two together.

Well, let me finish here. I am already eagerly awaiting your reply to this first letter. Please tell me all about yourself and your interests. I hope that we can become good friends.

Yours truly,

Lucy


10. Lost Items
(167 words)

Dear Mr Simpson,

I stayed in your hotel on the 23rd and 24th of October. I was in Room 603. When I arrived home, I discovered that I had left one of my bags at the hotel. Could you please check your Lost and Found Department and see if my bag is there?

The bag is a small black leather, document case with a narrow strap. Inside the bag, you will find several business card, a fountain pen, a small address book, three copies of a business proposal and a silver pocket calculator. These things are not very valuable in money terms, but they have a lot of personal value.

I would appreciate it if you could contact me as soon as possible, particularly since I need the proposals for a presentations this week. If you could send the bag to me by courier service, I would be most grateful. I have arranges to pay for the service.

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

Lucy Park


17 April 2011

Writing Letter Templet

(1) Semi-formal Letter

Dear Sir/Madam,
  • [Asking for Help] I'm writing to ask you that ... / I would like you to ...
  • [Complaining] I am writing to express my dissatisfaction about ...
  • [Thanking] I very much appreciated ...
  • [Apologizing] I'd like to apologize about ...

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thinking you in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,
Lucy

[Words] inform me, cancel, contact, obtain, apologize, postpone,
request, compensate, establish, discover, handle, investigate,
tolerate, increase, children, many, much


[Sample Semi-formal Letter - Band 7]
You have bought a new laptop computer and in a few days of purchase discovered a major flaw. Write a letter to the company. In your letter

- introduce yourself
- explain the situation
- say what action you would like to company to take.

Dear Sir/Madam,

[
introduce yourself] I am writing you to express my dissatisfaction with a laptop computer I bought in your store four days ago.
[explain the situation] As soon as I turned on the computer, I realized that Windows operating system was not installed in it, even tough the offer said it was included. In addition, I chose a gray laptop and the one I received was black. Moreover, the default language of the laptop is Japanese and I haven't been able to change it to my native language, which is English. To make matters worse, the memory specifications of this laptop are not the same as the ones that I read in your catalog.
I definitely need this situation to be solved as soon as possible. I made the decision to buy the laptop at your store, because of previous good recommendations some friends of mine gave me about your store. However, after this experience, I feel deceived.

[say what action you would like to company to take] I would like you to send me the laptop I first chose at your store, including all the specifications as shown in the offer. If I don't get a quick response to my request, I will request a full refund of the payment I already made.
Thanks in advance for your response.

Yours faithfully,
R.

(2) Informal Letter

Dear John,

Hi there! It's been so long since I've heard from you. I hope you are doing well and I hope all your family are doing fine. I'm pretty good in spite of working hard. Anyway, the reason I'm writing is ...


Yours,
Lucy


[Words] let me know, drop, get in touch with, get, say sorry, delay,
ask for, make up, set up, find out, deal with, check up with,
put up, go up, kids, a lot of, heaps of


[Sample Informal Letter - Band 7]
IELTS writing – sample letter 5

You migrated to another country. Write a letter to your friend
to describe your present life and tell him/her
why you chose this country.

Dear Linda,

I’m sorry I haven’t been writing to you for such a long time. I am writing to let you know that
I have migrated to Perth, Australia. My family and I arrived in Perth on the third of April 2008 and we have finally settled down.

[why you chose this country] We migrated to Perth because my sisters and their family have also migrated there three years ago. We have planed to join them in Perth and also for the children’s education and their future as well.
[describe your present life] We have just settled in our new house and the kids are enjoying the pool almost everyday. They have been attending a public school and have made quite a lot of friends. The people here are very friendly and helpful. John has also found a job near the city. The working environment here according to John is very different from Malaysia. And as for me, I am a full time housewife, enjoying the morning coffee with the newspaper.
Do let me know when you plan to visit Perth and you are always welcome to stay at my new house.

With love,
Sharon.

Samples and words for Writing

[Samples]

IELTS Sample Letters of Band 7
http://www.ielts-blog.com/category/ielts-writing-samples/ielts-letters-band-7/

IELTS Essay Samples of Band 7
http://www.ielts-blog.com/category/ielts-writing-samples/ielts-essays-band-7/

--------------------------------------------------
Recently, ...
Some people let their voice out to ... .
On the other hand, others claim that ...
Although both sides have their own reasons, I personally agree that...

First and foremost, ...
This is largely because ...
The recent research by the ABC has indicated that more than 70% of the animals are ...
In this respect, ...

Second but not least, ...
It is well known that ...
The rational behind this is that ... / This is mainly attributed to the fact that ...
For example,
Consequently, ...
Likewise, ...


To sum up, ...
Therefore, I strongly urge people to ...
In conclusion, ...


==================
http://www.ielts-blog.com/ielts-preparation-tips/writing-tips/essay-writing/


Cohesive phrases include wordings like…

It is clear that…
Because of this, …
To illustrate this, …
As this shows, …
As can clearly be seen from this example, …
After analyzing both points of view, …
Thus, the idea that…
Without a doubt, this causes…
To provide a summary, …
---------------------------------------

Nowadays, ...
Primarily, ...
Moreover, ...

... , while ...
However, ...
Conversely, ...
Of course, ...
According to ...
Not only ... , but also ...
such as ... / ranging from A to B / including A and B
used to ...
If
the more ... , the better ...
physically, psychologically, financially
It is common knowledge that ...
I definitely believe ...



Composition for an argument essay

Including a thesis (in the case of an argument essay),
at least 2 supporting ideas,
real-life examples,
proper discussion of those examples as well as
some kind of summary and finally a reasoned conclusion.

To break it down, an argument essay is most likely going to contain 15 sentences partitioned into 4 paragraphs and follow a pattern something like this:



Introduction paragraph
  • A background sentence giving some background information on the essay topic.
  • A more detailed sentence linking the background sentence to the thesis.
  • A thesis that presents your point of view on your given topic.
  • An outline sentence declaring the 2 points you are going to use to support your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 1
  • A topic sentence illustrating the first point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
  • A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
  • A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.
  • A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Supporting paragraph 2
  • A topic sentence illustrating the second point you will be presenting to support your thesis (this point taken from your outline sentence).
  • A sentence showing a real-life example of this topic in action.
  • A discussion sentence that shows how your example links or proves your topic sentence.
  • A conclusion sentence that links this entire paragraph back to your thesis.

Conclusion paragraph

  • A summary sentence that briefly states the 2 points you discussed in your supporting paragraphs.
  • A restatement of your thesis using different words.
  • A prediction or recommendation based on the topic you have been given.


16 April 2011

Writing Letters

* Marking for the IELTS General Training Task 1 Writing
  • Task Achievement
  • Coherence and Cohesion
  • Lexical Resource
  • Grammatical Range and Accuracy

1 Answering the question.

1) Write at least 150 words.
2) Fully do all the things that the question asks you. In this case it asks you to do 3 main things:
  • explain the situation
  • apologize for the inconvenience
  • say what you are going to do
3) Make your letter realistic so it would function in a real life situation.


2 The Opening Greeting of the Letter

A friendly letter will open with Dear followed by a name which should then be followed by a comma, eg:
Dear John,

A semi-formal letter will also open with Dear and then be followed by a name, (if you decide that in the situation you would know the name) or by Sir (if it's a man), Madam (if it's a woman) or Sir/Madam if you don't know, eg:
Dear Mr. Phillips,
Dear Mrs. Phillips,
Dear Sir,
Dear Madam,
Dear Sir/Madam,


3 The Opening Paragraph of the Letter

In a semi-formal letter, I feel it is important to state the reason for the letter straight away. You could use the following to help you:

I am writing to ask/ tell//inform you that...
I am writing to ask/inquire...
I am writing with regard to...
I am writing with reference to...
I am writing in connection with...
I am writing in response to...
In reply to your letter, I am writing to... (if the question indicates that you have had a letter)

If the letter is a less formal one to a friend then you should open the letter in a friendlier way. EG:

Dear John,
Hi there! It's been so long since I've heard from you. I hope you are doing well and I hope all your family are doing fine. I'm pretty good in spite of working hard. Anyway, the reason I'm writing is...



4 The Substance of the Letter

[Asking for Help]
  • I would like you to...
  • I would be grateful if you could...
  • I need to ask your advice about...
  • I'd like to ask for information about...
  • What I'm looking for is...

[Complaining]
  • I'm writing to express my dissatisfaction/annoyance/ about...
  • I'm writing to express my anger at...
  • I am not happy about...
  • ... is not what I expected/was expecting.
  • I want to know what you are going to do about this situation.

[Thanking]
  • I'm very grateful for...
  • I'd like to thank you very much for...
  • I very much appreciated...

[Apologizing]
  • I'm very sorry that/about...
  • Please forgive me for...
  • I'd like to apologize about...
  • Please accept my apologies

5 Ending your Letter


For a formal letter, you could use:

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanking you in advance for your help, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

For a more informal letter you could use:

If you need to know anything else, just get in touch with me as soon as you can. Thanks a lot for your help and I hope to hear from you soon.


Finally you'll need to sign off your letter. For a formal letter use:

Yours faithfully, OR
Yours sincerely,

For an informal letter, love is not always appropriate though English speakers use it a lot. Better would be to use:

Regards,
Yours,
Best wishes,



THE FREE IELTS GENERAL TRAINING WRITING TEST - TASK 1 TUTORIAL