IELTS General Training Writing Task 1: The Complete Guide to Letter Writing

IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 is a letter of at least 150 words. Identify the recipient, make your purpose clear, cover all three bullet points and keep the tone appropriate. Below, try a quick tone exercise and compare three complete practice letters: formal, semi-formal and informal.

Reviewed: 20 September 2026. The tasks and letters are BandLadder practice examples, not reported exam questions or examiner-certified band-score answers.

Format and timing · Try the tone check · Formal sample · Semi-formal sample · Informal sample · Review your letter

IELTS General Writing Task 1 format and timing

The official General Training Writing format gives you a situation and three points to address in a letter. Writing lasts 60 minutes overall; IELTS recommends spending no more than 20 minutes on Task 1. Task 2 contributes twice as much to your Writing score.

• Write at least 150 words in connected sentences, not a list of notes.
• You do not need to put addresses at the top.
• Follow any opening supplied in the prompt.
• A short answer may provide insufficient language evidence for higher bands; do not assume a fixed automatic one-band deduction.

Use a practical 20-minute routine: about 3 minutes to plan, 14 to write and 3 to check. This is a practice suggestion, not an extra IELTS rule. If you repeatedly miss a point, improve your planning before trying to write faster.

Try it: choose the tone before writing

Scenario: a hotel manager you have never met needs to investigate a room problem. Which opening gives a suitable purpose and tone?

1. “Hey! Your hotel was terrible and you need to sort it out.”
2. “I am writing about the air conditioning problem in Room 214 during my recent stay.”
3. “I hope your family is well. Anyway, I have some news about my holiday.”

Check the opening and try a revision

Opening 2 is specific and suitably professional. Opening 1 sounds confrontational and gives little usable detail. Opening 3 assumes a personal relationship and delays the complaint. Now revise “The room was bad” into a sentence naming a problem and its effect.

One possible revision: “The air conditioning stopped working on the first evening, so the room remained too warm for me to sleep comfortably.” This adds useful information without insulting the recipient. It is a worked language example, not an automated assessment of your writing.

Ready to write a full response? Continue with IELTS General Writing practice. Your selected exam and Writing section are included in the signup link.

Formal, semi-formal or informal: how to decide

Read the relationship and purpose together. A complaint to an unfamiliar business usually needs professional distance. A colleague you already know may need a polite but warmer voice. A close friend allows conversational language. A job title alone does not settle the tone: a landlord could be unfamiliar or someone you know well.

• Formal: “Dear Sir or Madam” with “Yours faithfully” is a conventional unnamed-recipient pairing. With a named recipient, “Dear Ms Patel” and “Yours sincerely” are common choices.
• Semi-formal: a known colleague might receive “Dear John” and “Best regards”. Keep requests considerate and details clear.
• Informal: “Dear Sam” and “Take care” suit the friendly example below. Contractions can sound natural; forced slang is unnecessary.

These are examples of letter conventions, not a claim that one memorised greeting guarantees a score. Maintain the relationship throughout the letter, including the final request.

Formal letter sample: a hotel complaint

Practice task: you experienced problems during a hotel stay. Write to the manager. Explain when you stayed, describe the problems and say what you would like the manager to do. Begin “Dear Sir or Madam”.

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to complain about the condition of Room 214 during my stay at your hotel from 3 to 6 September. I booked a double room for three nights while attending a conference nearby, and I expected the facilities advertised on your website to be available.

Unfortunately, the air conditioning did not work at any point during my visit. I reported this to reception on the first evening and again the following morning, but nobody came to inspect it. As the room was extremely warm, I slept poorly and found it difficult to concentrate during the conference. In addition, the bathroom bin had not been emptied before I arrived.

I would appreciate a partial refund to reflect these problems. Please also explain how you will ensure that maintenance requests are followed up promptly. I have attached my booking confirmation and photographs of the bathroom for your reference.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,
Alex Morgan

What to notice: the first paragraph identifies the dates and room; the second explains two problems and their effect; the third asks for a concrete response. “I would appreciate” keeps the request professional. The fictional attachment reference is part of the scenario; you do not attach documents to an IELTS answer.

Semi-formal letter sample: advice to a colleague

Practice task: a colleague you know is visiting your country for work. Write to the colleague. Explain what you know about the visit, advise what to bring and suggest meeting during the stay. Begin “Dear John”.

Dear John,

I understand you will be visiting our Mumbai office next month for the regional sales conference. Priya mentioned that you are presenting our customer research on the second day, so I thought a few practical suggestions might help you prepare for the trip.

September can still be wet here, and I recommend bringing a light waterproof jacket and shoes that dry quickly. A heavy coat would be uncomfortable in the humidity. Please also bring a power adapter for your laptop and a copy of your presentation on a separate drive, in case there are problems accessing the shared folder.

It would be good to meet outside the conference sessions. Would you be available for dinner on Wednesday evening? There is a quiet restaurant near your hotel where we could catch up and discuss the next stage of the project. If that evening is inconvenient, I can also meet on Thursday.

Let me know which option suits your schedule. I look forward to seeing you.

Best regards,
Ravi

What to notice: the advice has reasons, and the invitation offers a specific evening plus an alternative. The tone is friendly without becoming intimate. The weather is background for this fictional practice scenario, not travel advice for your own trip.

Informal letter sample: a friend moving to your city

Practice task: a close friend is moving to your city. Write to the friend. Say how you feel, share useful information about the city and offer help with settling in. Begin “Dear Sam”.

Dear Sam,

I was delighted to hear that you have accepted the job here. It will be wonderful to have you nearby again after spending so many years in different cities. We might finally manage those regular weekend walks we keep talking about!

There are a few things you will probably like about the area. The neighbourhood around the university has affordable cafés and a lively weekend market, while the riverside is quieter and has plenty of space for cycling. Buses run frequently from both areas to the city centre, so you should not need a car immediately. I would look at flats near a bus stop before choosing somewhere farther out.

Let me know your moving date and I can help you unpack. You are also welcome to stay with me for a few nights while you collect your keys and organise the essentials. On your first weekend, I could show you the market and introduce you to a few friends.

I cannot wait to see you!

Take care,
Jamie

What to notice: the enthusiasm matches a close friendship, the city information is useful, and the help is specific. Warmth comes from the relationship and details; an informal letter does not need an idiom in every sentence.

How to review your letter against the scoring criteria

IELTS assesses each Writing task using four equally weighted criteria, described on its official scoring page. Use these practical questions after your attempt:

• Task Achievement: can the recipient understand why you are writing? Does each requested point have enough relevant detail? Is the tone suitable?
• Coherence and Cohesion: does each paragraph have a purpose, and can a reader follow the connections without repeated linking phrases?
• Lexical Resource: are your words precise, appropriate and correctly spelt? Replace vague phrases such as “some bad things” with the actual problem.
• Grammatical Range and Accuracy: do sentence forms fit your meaning, and are tense, agreement and punctuation controlled?

The official Writing band descriptors include General Training-specific points about purpose, bullet-point coverage and consistent tone. A complete score depends on the whole response across the criteria. A polished opening, a particular word count or one developed paragraph cannot establish Band 7 on its own.

A short practice routine that produces something to improve

1. Plan: write “recipient”, “purpose” and the three requested points in your notes. Add one useful detail for each.
2. Attempt: write your own letter before reading the sample. Use different details so you practise making choices rather than copying sentences.
3. Review: underline where you covered each point. Circle one vague phrase and one sentence whose grammar you need to check.
4. Revise: improve those two places, then write a fresh task with a different recipient. Check whether the same weakness returns.

For a longer preparation period, spend the first week recognising relationships and purposes, the second developing requested points, the third maintaining tone across complete letters and the fourth practising under time pressure. Adjust this routine to your starting level and test date; four weeks is not a promised score-improvement period.

Common letter-writing questions

Must I write exactly four paragraphs?

No fixed paragraph count is prescribed in the official format. Choose paragraphs that make the purpose and requested content easy to follow. The samples use an opening, developed points and a closing; do not force that layout onto a task where it becomes repetitive.

Can I reuse a memorised letter?

Practise useful phrases, but build the response around the actual situation. A prepared complaint about a hotel will not answer a request to organise a work event. Learn the decisions behind the samples, then use your own language.

Should I use impressive vocabulary everywhere?

Choose the word that expresses your meaning accurately. “The heater stopped working” is more useful than an elaborate phrase that leaves the recipient unsure what failed. After drafting, look for unnecessary repetition and unclear wording.

Continue with the right Writing practice

Start IELTS General Writing practice to work on more tasks and review practice feedback. BandLadder has 30k+ IELTS questions across its supported IELTS exams; this is not a count of General Training letters alone. Free allowances and paid plans determine access. AI practice feedback is not an official IELTS result.

For the other Writing task, use our Task 2 essay guide. If you are taking Academic instead, use the separate Academic Task 1 guide. You can also explore IELTS study resources and the July 2026 Task 2 prediction archive for additional practice themes; those predictions are not guaranteed future exam questions.