IELTS General Training Task 1 Sample Letters, With the Marking Explained

Sample letters are easy to find and hard to learn from. You read a good letter, you agree that it is good, and nothing transfers to your own writing, because nobody showed you which parts of it were doing the work.

So the three letters below come with the reasoning attached. Each one is a different register, which is the main variable in General Training Task 1, and after each one there is a note on all four criteria: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. The bands mentioned are estimates and reasoned opinions, not official marks. Nothing here is checked by a qualified examiner, and you should read the numbers as a guide to what the descriptors reward rather than as a verdict.

What Task 1 actually asks

You get a situation and three bullet points, and you write at least 150 words in twenty minutes. The three bullets are the task. Covering two of them well and one briefly is the most common way to lose marks under Task Achievement, because that criterion asks whether all the bullets were addressed, not whether the letter reads nicely.

Register is set by who receives the letter. A stranger in an official role takes formal. A person you know in a working relationship, such as a landlord or a tutor, takes semi formal. A friend takes informal.

Letter 1: formal, to an organisation

You recently received an electricity bill that you believe is incorrect. Write a letter to the energy company. In your letter, explain what the bill says, describe why you think it is wrong, and say what you would like them to do.

Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing about my most recent electricity bill, reference 4471 082, which I received on 2 September and which I believe contains an error. The bill states that my household used 940 units between June and August, and it asks for a payment of 212 pounds. This is more than three times the amount I was charged for the same period last year, although nothing in my circumstances has changed. I believe the reading is incorrect. I was abroad for six weeks of that quarter and the flat was empty, with only the refrigerator running. The meter now shows 8,214 units, which does not match the closing figure printed on the bill. I suspect that an estimated reading was used rather than an actual one. I would be grateful if you could arrange for the meter to be read again and issue a corrected bill. If the error is confirmed, please also explain how the estimate was produced, so that it does not recur. I look forward to your reply. Yours faithfully, Daniel Okoro

Task Achievement. All three bullets are covered, and each one gets a paragraph rather than a clause. The request is specific, which matters: "please sort this out" would be weaker than naming the two actions wanted. This is the shape of a band 7 or above response on that criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion. One idea per paragraph, in the order the bullets set. The linking is mostly grammatical rather than labelled, as in "although nothing in my circumstances has changed" and "which does not match". Notice there is no "firstly, secondly, finally", and the letter is no harder to follow for it.

Lexical Resource. The vocabulary is ordinary and exact: reference, quarter, estimated reading, corrected bill, recur. Precision in a narrow field is worth more than unusual words used loosely.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Mixed structures, including a relative clause, a conditional and a passive. Yours faithfully is correct here because the letter opens with Dear Sir or Madam.

Letter 2: semi formal, to someone you know in a working relationship

The heating in your rented flat has stopped working. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter, explain the problem, say how it is affecting you, and suggest what should be done.

Dear Mr Harris, I am writing to let you know that the heating in the flat at 12 Ashwood Road stopped working on Tuesday evening. The boiler starts, runs for about a minute, and then shuts down with a red light showing. The flat has been very cold since then, particularly in the mornings, and my daughter has a persistent cough that I do not want to make worse. We are managing with a small electric heater in one room, but it is not enough for the whole flat and it is expensive to run. Could you arrange for an engineer to visit this week? I can be at home on Thursday afternoon or at any time on Saturday. If it would be easier, I am happy to contact the company that serviced the boiler last year and give them access myself, and you could settle the bill directly with them. Thank you for looking into this. Best regards, Anna Petrova

Task Achievement. Three bullets, three paragraphs, and the suggestion offers an alternative, which reads as cooperative rather than demanding. The detail about the red light is the kind of specific that makes a letter sound real.

Coherence and Cohesion. The sequence is cause, effect, request, which is the natural order for a complaint and needs almost no signposting to follow.

Lexical Resource. Semi formal register held throughout. Could you arrange is a request, not an order. I am happy to is warm without being casual. Register control is part of this criterion, not a separate one.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy. A present perfect for the ongoing situation, a conditional for the offer, and one longer sentence that stays under control. Most candidates lose marks here by attempting a sentence with three clauses and losing the subject, so length is only worth attempting when accuracy survives it.

Letter 3: informal, to a friend

A friend has agreed to look after your house while you are away. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter, thank them, explain what needs doing, and tell them where to find things.

Dear Sam, Thank you so much for agreeing to look after the house while we are in Lisbon. It has taken a real weight off our minds, and it means we can actually relax instead of worrying about the cat. There is not much to do. Mia needs feeding twice a day, morning and evening, and her food is in the cupboard above the kettle. The plants in the front room need water about every three days, but the ones in the kitchen are fine until we get back. If the post piles up, could you move it off the doormat so it is not visible from the window? The spare key is with Mrs Dawes at number 14, and the alarm code is written on a card inside the cutlery drawer. My mobile works abroad, so call any time if something goes wrong. See you on the 30th, and thanks again. Love, Priya

Task Achievement. All three bullets, and the instructions are usable. A reader could act on this letter, which is what the task is really testing.

Coherence and Cohesion. Grouped by theme rather than listed. Feeding and plants sit together because both are routine tasks; keys and codes sit together because both are about access.

Lexical Resource. Informal but controlled: taken a weight off our minds, piles up, any time. Informal does not mean careless, and slang or text abbreviations would lower the score rather than prove the register.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Simpler sentences than letter 1, which is correct for the register, with one polite request form to add range.

What to take from all three

Three habits carry across every register. Give each bullet its own paragraph. Make the request specific enough to act on. Keep the opening and closing pair matched, since Dear Sir or Madam with Yours sincerely is a visible error.

For more on openings, see how to start an IELTS letter, and for the formal register in detail, the General Training formal letter.

What to do today

Write one letter in twenty minutes, timed, on a situation you have not seen before. Then, before checking anything else, count your paragraphs against the bullets. If one bullet is buried inside another paragraph, rewrite it as its own.

When it is finished, you can paste it into Bandly for an estimated band on each of the four criteria, with the sentences that drove each estimate marked, which is the quickest way to see whether your register held from the greeting to the sign off.