semi-formal email/letter

• English
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 1

How to write emails and letters

An email/a letter is written in response to the situation outlined in the question. Letters and emails in the B2 First Writing paper will require a response which is consistently appropriate in register and tone for the specified target reader. Candidates can expect to be asked to write letters or emails to, for example, an English-speaking friend or colleague, a potential employer, a college principal or a magazine editor.

from: Cambridge English First Handbook for Teachers

Do this for emails AND letters

When you first look at an exam task you should always consider two questions in order to get ready to go:

 What do I have to include in my email/letter?

Who is going to read it?

There are usually two or three things you have to write about in every text you write in the exam so make sure that you find and underline them when you analyse the task.

You also have to choose the right register (formal, neutral, informal) language for your email/letter and we decide which tone is the most appropriate by checking who is going to read your text. For example, if you write to a good friend, your language needs to be informal, but if you write a letter of application to the manager of a company, you want to choose formal English.

There are usually two or three things you have to write about in every text you write in the exam so make sure that you find and underline them when you analyse the task.

You also have to choose the right language (formal, neutral, informal) for your email/letter and we decide which tone is the most appropriate by checking who is going to read your text. For example, if you write to a good friend, your language needs to be informal, but if you write a letter of application to the manager of a company, you want to choose (semi) formal English.

example of an exam task for an informal email

example of an exam task for an informal email

I’ve underlined the reason why David’s friends are coming to your area (“…travel around and learn about …”), which gives us a general idea of what to write about as well as two very specific things David is asking us to tell him (“places they could visit” and “the best way to travel around”).

On top of that, when you write to a friend like David you have to write in an informal style. Generally speaking, this means that you should use contractions ( e.g. I’m, don’t), colloquial expressions (e.g. tons of, ‘What’s happening?’) as well as phrasal verbs and idioms 

example of an exam task for a semi formal email

In this task you are going to write a letter of application to Mrs Hopkins. Her first name isn’t mentioned so we need to be polite and choose formal language. This means the opposite of what I told you about the email task above. Do NOT use contractions (‘I am’ instead of I’m), do NOT use colloquial expressions and even rather formal ones (e.g. ‘I am writing in order to …’) and do NOT use phrasal verbs or idioms.

At first, this can feel unnatural and you will have to practise a little bit. I often see contractions and colloquial expressions in formal writing tasks that my students give me to correct because they are not used to being so polite when writing in English. However, don’t worry, just practise formal letters regularly and it will become easier and easier.

In our example task above there are also (surprise!) three topic points that we have to include in our letter: the reason why we are interested in the trip (1), useful skills we have (2) and our previous travel experience (3).

informal email/letter

See page 166 in Gold Experience

Example in Unit 4 p.59

semi-formal email/letter

See page 167 in Gold Experience

Example in Unit 8 (p.115)