IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 asks you to write a letter of at least 150 words in about 20 minutes, responding to an everyday situation described in the prompt.
On paper it looks like the gentler half of the Writing test, and that is exactly why so many candidates underprepare for it.
In my years of teaching and examining, I saw the same pattern again and again: strong students who had drilled essays for weeks lost easy marks on the letter because they opened with the wrong greeting, drifted between formal and chatty language halfway through, or skipped one of the three bullet points entirely.
Every one of those errors is avoidable, because the letter is the most predictable task in the whole Writing test.
This guide walks through the format, the three tones and how the prompt tells you which one to use, the greeting and sign-off conventions examiners expect, a structure that works for every letter, and the traps that quietly pull answers down a band.
What IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 asks you to do
The task gives you a short situation — you recently attended a disappointing course, a friend has invited you to stay, your neighbour's building work is keeping you awake — followed by three bullet points telling you what your letter must do.
You must write at least 150 words, and the standard advice is to spend about 20 minutes so that you protect the 40 minutes Task 2 needs.
That time split mirrors the scoring: Task 2 carries twice the weight of Task 1, which means the letter contributes roughly one third of your final Writing band. It is still worth preparing seriously, precisely because it is the more predictable of the two tasks.
The situations vary endlessly, but the underlying letter types repeat, and a well-drilled candidate can walk into the exam knowing almost exactly what shape the answer will take.
The letter replaces the chart and diagram report that Academic candidates write, and it is the single biggest difference between the two versions of the test — if you are still deciding which test to book, our guide to IELTS Academic versus General Training sets out the full comparison.
Your letter is assessed on the same four criteria as every IELTS Writing answer: Task Achievement, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy, each worth a quarter of the task score.
For letters, Task Achievement is where answers are won and lost, because it covers the two things candidates most often get wrong: the tone of the letter and the coverage of the bullet points.
Get those two right and the rest of your preparation transfers directly from your essay work.
How the prompt tells you which tone to use
Every General Training letter falls into one of three registers — formal, semi-formal or informal — and the prompt always tells you which one you need. The clue is never hidden: it is the relationship between you and the person you are writing to.
Formal letters go to people you have never met and whose name you do not know: the manager of a company, a local council department, an airline's customer service team.
The prompt signals this with anonymous roles — "write a letter to the manager", "write to the company" — and no suggestion of any personal relationship.
Because the recipient is a stranger in a professional role, the language stays impersonal and polite from the first word to the last: no contractions, no chatty asides, and conventional phrases such as "I would be grateful if you could" and "I look forward to your reply" doing exactly the job they were built for.
Semi-formal letters go to people you know, but in a professional or practical capacity rather than a personal one: your landlord, your manager at work, a teacher, a neighbour you speak to politely but are not close to.
The prompt usually names the relationship — "write a letter to your landlord", "write to your manager" — and often includes a phrase like "who you know" somewhere in the situation.
The register sits in the middle: you address the person by name and can sound a little warmer, but the letter still needs restraint, courtesy and a clear structure.
In my experience this is the tone candidates find hardest to hold, because it borrows features from both ends and invites drift in either direction.
Informal letters go to friends and family, and the prompt says so plainly: "write a letter to a friend". Here contractions are natural, idiomatic language is welcome, and stiff official phrasing is actively wrong.
"I am writing to enquire about your wellbeing" addressed to your best friend is a tone error, not a demonstration of range.
The examiner wants to see that you can sound like a real person writing warmly to someone they like — which, for many candidates who have only ever practised essays, turns out to be the unfamiliar skill.
Greetings and sign-offs that match the tone
English letter-writing has fixed conventions for opening and closing, and examiners notice immediately when they are broken because the greeting is the very first thing they read and the sign-off is the last. The pairings are not optional style choices; they are matched sets.
"Dear Sir or Madam" pairs with "Yours faithfully" — used when you do not know the recipient's name. "Dear Mr Smith" or "Dear Ms Patel" pairs with "Yours sincerely" — used when you know the name but the relationship is professional.
"Dear John" pairs with a warm close such as "Best wishes" or "Take care". The table below puts the full system in one place.
| Tone | Greeting | Sign-off | Language features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Formal | Dear Sir or Madam | Yours faithfully | No contractions; fixed polite phrases; precise, impersonal vocabulary; requests softened with would and could |
| Semi-formal | Dear Mr Smith / Dear Ms Patel | Yours sincerely | Few or no contractions; courteous but warmer; personal detail kept relevant and restrained |
| Informal | Dear John | Best wishes / Take care | Contractions throughout; idioms and phrasal verbs; direct questions; personal news and feeling |
Two details trip candidates up repeatedly. First, "Dear friend" is never correct — if the prompt says the recipient is a friend, invent a first name and use it.
Second, the faithfully-versus-sincerely rule turns entirely on whether you used a name in the greeting: no name means faithfully, a name means sincerely. Memorise the pairings as a mechanical rule and you will never lose marks on them again.
After the sign-off, add a name: a first name alone for a friend, a full name for formal and semi-formal letters. It does not have to be your real name, and there is no need for addresses or dates — IELTS letters begin at the greeting.
The three bullet points decide your Task Achievement score
The three bullet points under the situation are not suggestions or optional prompts. They are the task.
Task Achievement for General Training letters is assessed largely on whether you cover all three bullet points, develop each one with relevant detail, keep the purpose of the letter clear, and hold an appropriate tone.
Miss a bullet point completely and your Task Achievement score is capped low no matter how elegant your English is, because the descriptors reserve the higher bands for answers that cover every requirement.
Mention a bullet point in a single rushed sentence and you fare only slightly better: the examiner can see it was acknowledged but not developed.
The ladder between bands is instructive. In the official IELTS.org Writing Task 1 band descriptors, a Band 6 letter presents and highlights the bullet points but may include details that are irrelevant or inaccurate, and its tone may waver.
A Band 7 letter covers the requirements with a clear purpose and a consistent, appropriate tone, though the points could be extended further. A Band 8 letter covers all requirements sufficiently and illustrates each key point clearly.
Notice what climbs as the bands climb: not vocabulary fireworks, but completeness, development and consistency. For a plain-language tour of all four Writing criteria and what separates the bands on each, see our companion guide to how IELTS Writing is scored.
Development means specifics. If the bullet says "explain what the problem is", do not write "there is a problem with the room". Write which room, what is wrong, since when, and how it affects you.
Invented details are not just allowed — they are expected. The examiner is assessing your English, not the truth of your plumbing, so give yourself names, dates, model numbers and consequences to work with.
Two to three sentences per bullet point is a reliable rhythm: enough to demonstrate development, not so much that one bullet starves the others.
A letter structure that works every time
Every IELTS letter, regardless of tone, can follow the same five-part shape. Open with the greeting.
Follow it immediately with a purpose sentence that says why you are writing: "I am writing to complain about the fitness course I attended at your centre last month", or, informally, "Thanks so much for your invitation — I would love to come and stay in July".
Then give each bullet point its own short paragraph, in the order the prompt lists them.
Close with a brief final line that fits the tone — "I look forward to hearing from you" for formal letters, "Write back soon and tell me your news" for a friend — and finish with the matched sign-off and a name.
The purpose sentence deserves special attention because the descriptors reward a letter whose purpose is clear, and the fastest way to make a purpose clear is to state it in the first sentence.
It also helps you: once the purpose is on the page, every following paragraph has a job, and the letter almost organises itself.
Candidates who skip the purpose sentence and dive straight into narrative detail are the ones whose letters read as rambling, however good the sentences are individually.
On length, the floor is 150 words and writing fewer attracts a penalty, so never gamble with a short answer.
There is no ceiling, but around 160 to 190 words is the sweet spot: enough room to develop all three bullets, short enough to leave time for checking and to protect Task 2. Overshooting to 250 words does not earn extra credit and usually costs accuracy and time.
For the full picture on word counts, how examiners count, and what the penalties actually are, see our guide to IELTS essay length rules.
Tone consistency traps that quietly cost a band
Here is the detail most candidates never learn: the band descriptors mention tone explicitly, and they treat inconsistency — not just wrongness — as a band-limiting feature. A Band 6 letter may show "inconsistencies in tone"; a Band 7 letter keeps the tone consistent and appropriate throughout.
That means a single slip matters. A perfectly formal complaint that suddenly says "I'm really annoyed about this" has demonstrated exactly the inconsistency the descriptor names.
Three traps account for most tone errors I saw as an examiner. The first is contractions in formal letters — "I'm writing to complain" as the opening line undermines the register before the letter has begun.
The second is the reverse: formal stock phrases parachuted into letters to friends. "Should you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me" addressed to someone you supposedly went to school with reads as memorised language, and examiners are quick to spot it.
The third is drift: the letter opens in the right register, then relaxes paragraph by paragraph until the formal complaint ends like a text message, or the friendly invitation stiffens into a business memo.
The fix is procedural rather than linguistic. Decide the register during your one-minute plan and write it at the top of your notes: formal, semi-formal or informal.
Then audit five checkpoints before you finish: the greeting, the purpose sentence, the first line of each body paragraph, the closing line, and the sign-off. If all five match the register you chose, drift has almost nowhere to hide.
This costs perhaps forty seconds and protects a criterion worth a quarter of the task.
Six common letter types and a first line for each
The situations rotate, but nearly every General Training Task 1 belongs to a small family of letter types. Practising one of each puts you in reach of almost anything the test can ask. Here is each type with a sample opening purpose line you can adapt.
Complaint (usually formal). "I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with the guided tour I took with your company on 14 March." Complaints should be firm but calm — state the problem, evidence it, and request a specific remedy. Anger reads as loss of control, not strength.
Request for information (formal or semi-formal). "I am writing to enquire about the evening photography courses advertised on your website." Requests live or die on precision: ask numbered, specific questions so each bullet point gets a clear home.
Apology (any tone, depending on recipient). "I am writing to apologise for missing the project meeting on Tuesday morning." A strong apology names the offence, explains without excusing, and offers to put things right.
Invitation (usually informal). "I'm so glad to tell you that we're finally moving into the new flat, and we'd love you to come to the housewarming." Invitations need warmth plus logistics — date, place, and what the guest should know or bring.
Application (formal). "I am writing to apply for the part-time library assistant position advertised in last week's Gazette." Applications pair a clear statement of interest with brief evidence that you fit the requirements.
Explanation (any tone). "I am writing to explain why I was unable to return the projector I borrowed before the end of term." Explanations are chronology plus consequence: what happened, why, and what you propose to do about it.
How to practise letters before test day
Because the letter types repeat, practice pays off faster here than almost anywhere else in IELTS. Build a rotation: write one letter of each type, deliberately spreading them across the three tones, so that by the end of a fortnight you have met every combination that matters.
Write every letter to the clock — twenty minutes including planning — because the exam skill is not writing a good letter, it is writing a good letter at speed.
Official practice materials are the best source of realistic prompts, and the British Council's free IELTS practice tests include General Training Writing tasks in the genuine format.
Then close the loop with feedback, because tone drift and thin bullet points are exactly the errors you cannot see in your own writing — you know what you meant, so the gaps are invisible to you.
The IELTSbiz AI writing checker gives you a band estimate with feedback on all four criteria in minutes, which makes it practical to check every practice letter rather than the occasional one a teacher has time to mark.
Watch the Task Achievement feedback across several letters: if the same weakness keeps appearing — an underdeveloped second bullet, a wobble in register — you have found the thing to fix next.
For the wider skill-building programme around your letter practice, our guide on how to improve IELTS Writing covers the other three criteria in depth.
Conclusion
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 rewards preparation more reliably than any other part of the Writing test. The format never changes: one situation, three bullet points, 150 words, twenty minutes.
The tone is always signalled by the relationship in the prompt; the greeting and sign-off follow the tone by fixed rules; and Task Achievement is earned by covering and developing every bullet point in a consistent register.
Learn the three tones, memorise the pairings, practise the six letter types against the clock, and check each attempt against honest feedback.
Do that, and the letter stops being the task you hope will go well and becomes the task you know you can score on — leaving your energy where it belongs, on Task 2.