Duration: 90 minutesModule: General Training WritingFocus: What GT Task 1 is · the three registers · the pairing rule · one paragraph per bullet · a formal complaint
Objectives
State the format of GT Task 1: a letter, 150 words minimum, 20 minutes, three bullet points.
Choose formal, semi-formal or informal register from the recipient given in the prompt.
Apply the pairing rule: Dear Sir or Madam → Yours faithfully; Dear + name → Yours sincerely.
Open a letter by stating its purpose in the first sentence.
Structure a letter as one paragraph per bullet point.
Write a formal letter of complaint in 20 minutes and interpret the AI feedback on it.
Every writing box on this page marks itself
Write your answer, then press Get AI Evaluation. You get indicative bands on all four criteria within about twenty seconds, tuned for letters rather than charts. It is practice guidance, not an official score — always submit by email as well so your teacher sees the script.
0:00 – 0:15
What Task 1 Actually Is
If you have sat in on any Academic IELTS class, forget what you saw. There are no charts here, no trends, no overview. General Training Task 1 is a letter.
Feature
The fact
What you write
A letter responding to a situation you are given.
Length
At least 150 words. Under that is penalised directly.
Time
20 minutes. Task 2 is worth twice as much — do not steal its time.
They are not suggestions. They are the checklist the examiner uses for Task Achievement. Cover all three and develop each one, and you have done the job. Cover two and mention the third in a clause, and you are looking at a 5 or a 6 on that criterion no matter how good your English is.
The safest structure in the world for this task: one paragraph per bullet point. Three body paragraphs, in the order the bullets are given.
0:15 – 0:40
The Register Decision
Before you write a single word, you make one decision, and everything else follows from it: who am I writing to?
Formal
Semi-formal
Informal
Who you're writing to
Someone you don't know, or an institution. A company, a council, a manager whose name you don't have.
Someone you know by name in a professional or practical relationship. Your manager, landlord, neighbour, a colleague.
A friend or family member.
Opening
Dear Sir or Madam,
Dear Mr Sharma, / Dear Ms Karki,
Dear Anita, / Hi Anita,
Closing
Yours faithfully,
Yours sincerely,
Best wishes, / Take care, / See you soon,
Contractions
No. I am writing, not I'm writing.
Sparingly, or not at all.
Yes — and their absence sounds cold.
Phrasal verbs & idiom
Avoid. Tolerate, not put up with.
Some are fine.
Natural and expected.
Typical purposes
Complaint, application, formal request, letter to an editor.
Request to a manager, note to a landlord, arrangement with a colleague.
Thanks, invitation, news, apology, advice.
The pairing rule — learn this tonight
Dear Sir or Madam → Yours faithfully.Dear + a name → Yours sincerely.
These two pairs go together and cannot be swapped. "Dear Sir or Madam … Yours sincerely" is wrong, and examiners notice it every time. It is one of the very few things in IELTS Writing that is simply right or wrong, which makes it one of the cheapest marks on the paper to secure — and one of the most careless to lose.
Which register?
For each situation, decide formal, semi-formal or informal — and write the opening and closing you would use.
You are writing to the manager of a shop you have never dealt with, about a faulty product.
You are writing to your neighbour, Mrs Gurung, about building noise.
You are writing to a friend who lent you money.
You are applying for a job advertised in a newspaper; no contact name is given.
You are writing to a colleague you work with daily, to arrange cover for a meeting.
Formal. Dear Sir or Madam, … Yours faithfully,
Semi-formal. Dear Mrs Gurung, … Yours sincerely, — you know her name and live beside her, but this is a practical matter, not a friendly chat.
Informal. Dear Bikash, … Best wishes, — and note that a stiff, formal letter here would be wrong for the task, not merely unnecessary.
Formal. Dear Sir or Madam, … Yours faithfully,
Semi-formal, drifting towards informal. Dear Priya, … Best wishes, — a colleague you see daily sits on the boundary. Either is defensible; what is not defensible is starting one way and finishing the other.
0:40 – 1:00
The Shape of a Letter
The five parts
Salutation. Dear ___,
Purpose. One or two sentences saying why you are writing. In the first paragraph, not the third.
Bullet 1. One paragraph.
Bullet 2, Bullet 3. One paragraph each.
Close + sign-off. A short closing line, then the matching sign-off.
Opening lines that work
I am writing to complain about…
I am writing to request…
I am writing to apply for the position of…
I am writing to enquire about…
I am writing to apologise for…
Informal: I just wanted to say thank you for… / I've got some news…
State the purpose immediately
An examiner reading your first sentence should already know what this letter is for. A letter that spends its opening paragraph on scene-setting and only reveals its purpose halfway down is losing Task Achievement marks for a stylistic habit, not a language problem.
A worked example
Task 1 — worked example
You recently bought a piece of electrical equipment from a shop, and it has developed a fault. Write a letter to the shop's customer services manager.
In your letter:
say what you bought and when
describe the problem
say what you would like the shop to do
You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter Dear Sir or Madam. Write at least 150 words.
A band-8 response to that prompt
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to complain about an electric heater which I purchased from your Durbar Marg branch on 14 November, and to request a replacement. My order reference is 4471-B.
The heater worked without difficulty for the first three weeks. Since the beginning of December, however, it has switched itself off after approximately ten minutes of use and cannot be restarted until it has cooled for an hour or more. I have tried it on three different sockets in two rooms, so I am confident the fault lies with the appliance rather than with the wiring in my flat.
The heater is still within its twelve-month warranty, and I would therefore be grateful if you could replace it with a new unit of the same model. I would appreciate a reply within fourteen days confirming when the replacement can be delivered.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully, R. Shrestha
What makes it a band 8 — read this before you write your own
The purpose is in sentence one, and so is the request. The examiner knows what this letter wants before the end of the first line.
It is specific. A date, a branch, an order number, a described fault, a named remedy, a time frame. Compare "I bought a heater recently and it is not working well, please help me" — same three bullets, half the marks.
Register is unbroken. No contractions. "I would be grateful if you could" rather than "please can you". Dear Sir or Madam pairs with Yours faithfully.
One bullet per paragraph, in order.
Notice what is absent: no addresses, no "I hope this letter finds you well", no apology for writing. Every sentence is doing work.
1:00 – 1:30
Your Turn — 20 Minutes, Timed
Three minutes planning, fifteen writing, two checking. Start the timer inside the box. When you finish, press Get AI Evaluation, then read the feedback against the four points in the box above.
Task 1 — timed practice
You took a training course at a private institute, and you were not satisfied with it. Write a letter to the director of the institute.
In your letter:
explain which course you took and why you chose it
describe what was unsatisfactory about it
say what you would like the institute to do
You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter Dear Sir or Madam. Write at least 150 words.
Your Task 1 letter
Target: 150+ words · 20 min
Words: 0Not saved yet
20:00
Task 1 — 20 min
Language bank
Tap a phrase to reveal how and when to use it.
The standard formal opening for a complaint. Use it — originality is not rewarded in an opening line.
The most useful polite request formula in formal and semi-formal letters. Followed by the bare infinitive: …if you could replace it.
Standard formal closing line. Note: looking forward to + noun/-ing, never + infinitive.
still covered by the promise to repair or replace.
to have a right to. I believe I am entitled to a full refund.
the three remedies you can ask for. Name one specifically — do not write 'please do something'.
as soon as you reasonably can. Formal, slightly softer than 'immediately'.
An elegant formal conditional (inversion instead of if). Good evidence of range if used correctly.
Wrap-up
Wrap-Up & Homework
The three things to take away. One: the bullets are the marking scheme — cover all three, develop each. Two: the pairing rule, which is free marks. Three: be specific. Dates, references, named remedies. Vagueness is the most common reason a technically correct letter scores a 6.
Tonight: one more formal letter, timed and AI-marked. Tomorrow we drop the formality and look at what changes.