IELTS Letter Asking for Information: A Full Answer, and Why Formal Is the Wrong Target

A letter asking for information is one of the most common General Training Task 1 prompts. Almost every page about it gives the same advice: be formal, and open with I am writing to enquire about. That advice is not wrong, but it is aimed at the wrong target.

The published band descriptors for General Training Task 1 do not contain the word formal at any band. What they ask for is a tone that is consistent and appropriate, and those are two different requirements. This page quotes the actual wording, gives a full request letter with each criterion marked, writes the same three requests to a friend, and lists the five ways this task type loses marks.

What the prompt gives you

A General Training Task 1 prompt gives a situation in one or two sentences and then three bullet points. You write at least 150 words in about 20 minutes. The three bullets are the task: an answer that covers two of them has not covered the requirements, whatever else it does well.

One bullet in a request prompt is usually not a question. It is context, normally the thing you want and why you are writing at all. Candidates who turn all three bullets into questions lose the purpose of the letter, which is the part the descriptors care about most.

The descriptors never say formal

Here is the published Task Achievement wording for General Training Task 1 on the second bullet of each band, the one about purpose and tone.

Read down the right hand column. The words that move are consistent, inconsistencies, variable and inappropriate. There is no band at which the complaint is that the writing is insufficiently formal.

This matters in two directions, and candidates usually only hear about one of them.

A formal letter written to a friend is as wrong as a casual letter written to a college. If the prompt says you are writing to a friend who studies at the college, Dear Sir or Madam and I am writing to request information are inappropriate to the reader, and the descriptors say so plainly. The three registers and when each applies sets out how to read the prompt for the reader before you choose an opening.

Consistency is a separate mark from appropriateness. A letter that opens Dear Sir or Madam and later says Anyway, hope you are doing well is inconsistent. That is the band 6 bullet, and it is the most common way a candidate who has read the usual advice still loses the mark: they memorise a formal opening, then write the middle in their own natural voice.

So the question to ask is not how formal should this be. It is who is reading this, and does every sentence sound like it was written to that person.

The question

You are planning to take a short course at a college in another city. Write a letter to the college asking for information about the course. In your letter 1. explain which course you want to take and when you want to start 2. ask about the cost and the timetable 3. ask what help the college can give you with accommodation Write at least 150 words.

The reader here is a college office. Nobody is named, so the opening is Dear Sir or Madam and the closing is Yours faithfully. How to start an IELTS letter covers the three cases, and how to end one covers which closing goes with which opening.

A full answer, 156 words

Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to ask for information about the short course in graphic design that your college is running this spring. I saw it advertised on your website and I would like to join the group starting in April. Could you please tell me how much the course costs, and whether the fee can be paid in two instalments? I would also be grateful if you could confirm the timetable. I work on weekday mornings, so I need to know whether the classes are held in the evening. Finally, I am moving from another city for this course and I have nowhere to stay. Does the college keep a list of approved accommodation, or could your office put me in touch with students who are looking for a flatmate? I would be grateful for a reply before the end of March, because the application deadline falls shortly afterwards. Yours faithfully, Mehmet Aydin

The four marks, with the published wording behind each

Total 29, which averages to 7.25 and rounds up to 7.5.

These four marks are mine, written against the published band descriptors so the reasoning is visible. The letter was not run through Bandly and no examiner has seen it. The wording on the right is public and quoted; the number beside it is a reading of that wording, which is what any marking is until an examiner does it.

Task Achievement is the strong mark, and here is the reason. Every question carries its reason with it. I work on weekday mornings, so I need to know whether the classes are held in the evening. The reason is not decoration. It turns a question into a request a real office could act on, and it is what the band 8 bullet means by illustrating the bullet points rather than listing them. The same thing happens with accommodation: I am moving from another city and I have nowhere to stay comes before the question, so the question has a purpose.

Coherence is a 7. One paragraph per bullet, in the order the prompt gave them, with the purpose in the first line and the response deadline last. The links are plain and appropriate: also, Finally, because.

Vocabulary is a 7, not higher. Instalments, approved accommodation, flatmate and intake are precise and specific. What holds it at 7 is that nothing is unusual: the letter is well chosen rather than wide ranging, which is the honest reading of the band 7 wording.

Grammar is a 7. There is an indirect question, a conditional politeness form, a participle clause and an alternative question joined with or. Several sentences in a row are error free.

The same three requests, written to a friend

Now change one thing in the prompt. The letter goes to a friend who already studies at the college. Nothing about the information changes. Everything about the tone does.

Dear Elena, I hope you are well. I have finally decided to do the graphic design short course at your college, and I am aiming for the April group, so I need to pick your brain. First, do you know what it costs, and can people pay in two parts? I also need to work out the timetable. I am at work every weekday morning, so evening classes are the only ones that would work for me. The other thing is where to live. I will be moving over from Izmir and I have nothing lined up. Does the college hand out a list of places, or do you know anyone looking for a flatmate? Let me know when you get a minute. I am hoping to apply before the end of March. Best wishes, Mehmet

Every one of the three bullets is still covered, and every question still carries its reason. What changed is the reader. Pick your brain, the other thing is, nothing lined up and Let me know when you get a minute are appropriate here and would be wrong in the first letter, and I would be grateful if you could confirm would be wrong here. A letter to a neighbour written three ways runs the same comparison on a different situation.

The five ways this task type loses marks

1. A question with no reason attached. Please tell me the timetable is a question. I work weekday mornings, so I need to know whether classes are in the evening is a request. The second one covers the bullet point more fully, which is the difference between the band 7 and band 8 wording.
2. Treating all three bullets as questions. In most request prompts the first bullet is context. Answer it as context.
3. Mixing registers. A memorised formal opening followed by your natural voice is the band 6 bullet, word for word: inconsistencies in tone.
4. Only yes or no questions. Do you have accommodation? can be answered in one word. What help can the college give me with accommodation? cannot, and it shows more range.
5. Spending the word count on the frame. A greeting, a closing and a sign off take about fifteen words. The three bullets need the rest. If you are at 150 words and one bullet has a single sentence, the words went to the wrong place.

Sentence frames that work, by reader

Use one column or the other. Do not mix them in one letter, which is the third mistake in the list above.

What to do today

Take a request prompt and write only the three questions, nothing else. Then, under each one, write the sentence that gives the reason for asking it. If you cannot write the reason, the question is probably too general to earn the bullet point.

Then read two of the marked General Training letters in the library and look only at the Task Achievement notes. The sentences those estimates were based on are shown under each one, so you can see where the purpose was judged clear and where the tone was judged to slip. More marked sample letters with the reasoning walk through several situations.

If you want your own four marks separated out, paste the letter into Bandly. The bands are estimates and no examiner has checked them, but tone is the one thing a reader notices in the first line, and the sentences the feedback points at are text you can judge for yourself.