 More people fail IELTS writing because of Task 1 than Task 2, but this lesson is going to show you how simple it is to get a band 7, 8 or 9 in Task 1 by following a few simple steps. First, we're going to show you how to use the question to structure your answer and then we're going to transform a formal letter into an informal letter by making a few simple changes to keyword and you're also going to find out how I nearly got arrested in an Asian airport because I missed my flight. So without further ado, let's get into it. So the first thing we're going to do is look at the similarities and differences between a formal question and an informal question and there's one key thing that tells you exactly whether it's formal or informal. So every question starts off with kind of this question statement at the start where it gives you the scenario, it gives you the context that you're supposed to write about and then it will say write a letter or write an email to and tell you who you are writing to. Now this is very, very important because how you know something is informal is it will always say friend, write a letter to a friend, write an email to a friend. If you see the word friend, then that is an informal letter or an informal email. Anybody else, so if it's asking you to write to a business or your boss or anything else apart from friend is formal. Now a lot of students will ask at this point, well what about semi-formal? Within the IELTS context for writing Task 1 general training, there's no such thing as semi-formal and it just makes it way more complicated for the student. The key to success on the IELTS test is to keep everything as simple as possible. Friend informal, anyone else formal, just keep it simple. Then it will always give you three bullet points and this really helps us when we're writing because this is going to show us the exact structure we're going to use which I'll show you in the rest of this lesson. Then write at least 150 words so you must go over 150 words. I would recommend that you write between let's say 160 and 200. Below 160 then there might be a chance that you will be under 150 if you miscount. Anything over 200 then that really is going to eat into your time that you should be spending on Task 2. Writing around 160 to 200 is kind of the sweet spot. So you do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter or begin your email as follows, dear sir or madam, that is another indication that it is a formal letter and you should always write dear sir or madam if it is not a friend and if it is a friend, if it's informal, it will always say dear dot dot dot dot and you can add in any name, pick any name, Chris, Tim, Tom, doesn't matter what it is. So the first thing we're going to do with our formal letter is we're going to put in dear sir or madam. So we'll put that in at the top. The structure we're going to use is we're going to use four main body paragraphs. So the first paragraph will be our purpose. Why are we writing this letter? This is how we should start any letter or any email telling the reader why we are writing this thing to them and you'll be able to get that information by looking at the first sentence or the first paragraph. You recently missed a flight you think was the fault of the airline. So that is why I'm writing to them. So I am writing regarding. This is a formal way to begin any letter. You don't have to use this. This is just how I'm starting my letter. So I'm writing regarding a flight I missed with your airline. This sets the context and then because what was the problem? This is a letter of complaint. So I'm going to state the problem because I believe your staff's negligence should be addressed. So what I can do is I can just tick this first paragraph because this means that I have completed my first paragraph and I've done what I'm supposed to do, which is state the purpose. The next thing, the next paragraph that we're going to use is the first bullet point. So we take the first bullet point and then we write about that about how many words. Generally I don't like to tell students exactly how many words because then they worry about the number of words rather than the quality of the paragraph. Your first priority is to write a good paragraph, not to write a short or long paragraph. Generally for task one general, anything between 40 and 60 words is appropriate for each of them bullet point paragraphs. Anything under 40, then if you do that a few times, you might be under when you get there and that could waste a lot of time. Anything over 60, then you could be wasting time again. There's no need to really do that. So anything between 40 and 60, when you're practicing and just use a word counter when you're practicing on using software like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, just check generally how long your paragraphs are and then you'll get to know generally how many sentences are between 40 and 60 words. So explain why you believe the airline was at fault. So I checked into your business class lounge one hour before departure and the receptionist assured me that she would tell me when the aircraft was boarding. So what we're doing is just taking the first bullet point and adding detail. The best thing that you can do in this scenario is doing what I'm doing, which is writing about a real situation that actually happened to you or a similar situation that you could adapt that you could change slightly because it is going to be much easier to write about. If you can't do that, if you have never missed the flight, you can use your imagination. You know what an airplane is. You probably know what an airport looks like and what happens in an airport. It doesn't have to be exactly correct. It just has to be on topic. Each of these paragraphs relating to each bullet point must only discuss, must only write about the thing in the bullet point, explain why you believe it was at fault. So I'm explaining it to this person. Another thing that you can think about is, will the reader, imagine a real person is actually reading this, will they understand, will they know what I am writing about? If it's a letter of complaint, will they be able to understand and deal with my complaint? And if you think about it that way, you'll be able to add in enough detail. So unfortunately, despite being told of a delay of at least half an hour, it departed on time while I was still in the lounge. So I've explained why I believe the airline was at fault. This is actually a real true story. I was in the business class lounge and they were like, yeah, there's a delay. Relax, we'll tell you when the plane is boarding and then the plane left without me. Then we can move on to the second bullet point and start a new paragraph. When you're starting a new paragraph, the best thing to do is just skip a line between each paragraph or an indent like I'm doing now. It doesn't really matter. Just ask yourself, will the examiner be able to understand where one sentence ends and the next paragraph begins? Just skip a line, keep it simple. When I went to the gate, I was shouted at by the gate staff for missing my flight. And they threatened to call the police and have me arrested. Yes, that actually happened. They made me miss my flight, blamed it on me, and then got very angry when I pointed out that it was their mistake, not mine. They removed my bag from the plane and escorted me out of the airport. I had to rebook my trip at great expense and missed an important meeting. So I'm describing the impact that this had on my journey. I'm not going to get into the formal language just yet. I think it's easier to explain the difference between formal and informal when we compare the two side by side. And that's our second bullet point taken care of. So now we have to say what you want the airline to do. So I recommend that you display accurate information on the screens in your facilities and train your team not to blame their errors on your customers. What I want them to do. So accept that everyone can make mistakes, but law enforcement officers should only be called in extreme circumstances, not because your employees cannot admit that they are wrong. So I'm going into more detail on this specific bullet point. In the comments, which country do you think would phone the police on you? Or people from that country because they are embarrassed that they made a mistake? So we're finished up with bullet point three. Now we're nearly done. All we have to do is just sign off and then we're done. How I always sign off a formal letter is yours faithfully. Just remember formal faithfully, FF, formal faithfully. And then sign your name, not a signature, just write your name normally. It doesn't have to be your name either. Don't write my name, but you know, make up a name if you want. And then we can just tick off, you know, I've done it. I've finished the letter and then move on. So now what we're going to do is write the informal letter or email. Doesn't really matter. They're both the same thing for these purposes and show you the difference in the type of language that we're going to be looking for. Because many students think that task one general training is easy. Knowing the difference between formal and informal words and using them accurately and appropriately is not easy at all. But it will be easy for you after you watch this video. So let's look at the difference between these two questions again. So you recently missed a flight, you think this was the fault of the airline. You recently agreed to meet a friend but missed the meeting, right? So what I'm going to do for the purposes of these lessons is show you that it's exactly the same person and it's exactly the same context. So the reason why I missed the meeting was because I missed my flight. Explain why you missed the meeting because I missed my flight. Describe the impact that it had on your day, exactly the same. And the third one is slightly different. Say what you want the airline to do, suggest how you can meet up in the future. I'm going to use that paragraph to show you how you can use even more informal language. So instead of dear Sir or Madam, dear Tim, literally do not spend any time whatsoever thinking about the name, pick any name, it does not matter. So instead of I am writing, what we're going to do is write I'm writing. One of the differences between formal and informal is with informal, you're going to use a lot more contractions. I am versus I'm, I would, I'd, she would, she'd. This is more informal because it's how people normally talk. We do not normally talk to each other and say, I am writing to you. You'd say I'm writing. So one of the ways that you can think about informal writing is how you normally speak to people. I know that there is formal speaking and informal speaking, but 99% of speaking is informal. So we're going to change regarding to I'm writing to let you know regarding is very formal, let you know to inform someone. Inform is very formal, let you know more informal. Let you know I missed my flight because the airline's staff messed up. So not every single word needs to be informal because, for example, is not a formal or an informal word. It is just a normal word. It is neither formal or formal, informal, getting mixed up myself, but your staff's negligence should be addressed. That is very, very formal. Messed up is a phrasal verb, so it is a lot more informal. Phrasal verbs messed up, for example, is something that you will include more in an informal letter than you would a formal letter. So all you're doing is thinking, how can I change this slightly to make some things informal? Not every single word because if you try and do that with every single word, it's impossible and you're giving yourself an impossible task. All you're doing is looking at things and thinking, okay, I am, let's use a contraction, I'm regarding, let you know, staff's negligence should be addressed, they messed up. And if you do that enough, then your writing will become a lot more informal. And vice versa, if you are more used to thinking informally, then you could think, okay, that's an informal way of saying it, how could I say it in a more formal way? Okay, so I checked into your business class lounge one hour before departure. I checked into their business class lounge one hour before departure, basically exactly the same. Again, not every single word, not every part of the sentence needs to change, just some of it. So, and the receptionist told me, assured me, told me, told is slightly informal, I suppose, not a huge difference, but we wanna change it as much as we can. Now we're changing she would to sheet. Again, a contraction, this is more how we speak. We would not really say to someone she would, we'd say sheet. Tell me when the aircraft was boarding, we'll change that to give me a shout. Give me a shout isn't slang, it's more idiomatic language. The more idiomatic language you can use, the better. And idiomatic language does not mean idioms, it includes idioms, but idiomatic language is language that native English speakers normally use. That includes idioms, that includes phrasal verbs, that includes colloquialisms like local language, and phrases like this, give me a shout. That just means let me know. By the way that you can improve this is by listening to native English speakers and how they actually speak. This is why at IELTS Advantage we don't really recommend that people use textbooks to improve their English to a band seven, eight, or nine, or YouTube channels that are specifically aimed at lower level students. Definitely not learning English in your native language like a lot of YouTube channels do, because that doesn't expose you to real English. English that native English speakers actually use. This is what people in my local town, in London, in New York, in Sydney, this is how they actually write emails and speak to each other. The more you can demonstrate that, not in every word, not in every sentence, but the more you can do it accurately and appropriately, the higher your score is going to be. Again, not that easy, is it? I just like saying that because there's so many academic people that think that they're superior to general training in some way. It's not as easy as you think. When the aircraft was boarding, when the aircraft was boarding. So I'm literally copying bits of the formal letter into this to really emphasize, and I know I've said this a lot, that you do not need to change every single little thing. The examiner is just scanning for instances of informal language. Not, oh my God, this word is not informal. So I'm gonna start this next sentence with alas. This might sound formal because it is quite a rare word for English learners to use and to understand. The reason why I'm including this is two reasons. Number one, formal does not mean high level. Formal does not mean a big, big complicated word that very few people actually use. Don't make that mistake. The second reason is it is an informal way. It's a funny way of saying this thing didn't happen. In the end, something bad happened. Language generally that is funny is more informal. If you used this in a formal letter, people would think that you're being rude. But if you're talking to your friend in an email, they'd find it funny. That's another difference between these two contexts. So alas, even though they told me I could chill out, chill out is informal way of saying relax. That's what we do in a business class lounge. You relax. So I've changed in my head, okay, what do you do in a business class lounge? You relax. How can I say that informally? Chill out. So alas, even though they told me I could chill out for half an hour, it left on time while I was still in the lounge. That's the first pull-up point done. So when I went to the gate, I was shouted at by the gate staff for missing my flight. When I went to the gate, I was shouted at by the gate staff for missing my flight. You could change this slightly. You could maybe change shouted to screamed, but shouted isn't really formal or informal. If you can hear anything in the background, that's my little boy shouting and screaming in the background. Screaming, shouting, they're just neutral words really. And they threatened to call the cops. So instead of police, cops, cops is slang for police. And there are many, many, many different slang terms that you could use for the police. Rosers, Pealers, the old bill, pigs and other not so complimentary slang words. Maybe don't use like the really, really rude slang words, but if you, you know, there's an easy one there. Police, there's in every country, there are 20 different names, slang names for the police. Just pick one. And have me thrown in the slammer. Slammer is a slang term for jail. Again, there are 20 different slang terms in every country for jail. We say slammer because when the jail door closes, it slams it, boom, it makes a big noise, so slammer. They removed my bag from the plane and chucked me out of the airport. So you're not changing every single noun in this sentence. Plane, I'm sure there are slang terms for plane, airport, I'm sure there are more informal ways of saying that. But what you should not do is spend a huge amount of time trying to think of informal ways of saying everything. Chucked, so this is a verb instead of thrown, to chuck something, to throw something, this is an informal way of writing to throw. The reason why I didn't change plane or airport, but I did change chucked is because it immediately easily came to me. Remember, you only have 20 minutes or less to write your task one response. Don't spend half an hour writing your task one because you're trying to change every little thing. I know I've said it many times, but the examiner is not looking for every word to be changed. So I had to rebook my trip. I had to rebook my trip, which cost an arm and a leg. An arm and a leg is an idiom to say something cost a lot of money. Okay, so in the last bit, I've changed important meaning to our catch up. Catch up is an informal way of saying meeting or date, and that's our second paragraph and our second bullet point taken care of. We can move on. Then finally, the last bullet point suggests how you can meet up in the future. Why don't we take a rain check? A rain check is a informal way of saying postpone something to delay and meet up when you're, so not you are, you're another contraction, home for Xmas. So Xmas is just a shortened way of saying Christmas. What about Boxing Day for the Foody? Foody is a slang term for football. Boxing Day is the day after the 25th Christmas and traditionally here in the UK and Ireland, people go out and watch Foody. I'll, instead of I will, another contraction, make it up to you is an informal way of saying like resolve a problem that you have between two people, make it up to you, means you'll do something to fix a problem by getting the first round in. The first round, a round of drinks. When you go to a bar, the first round is when you buy drinks for all the people that you're with. Now, you don't have to use language like this. You might be looking at this and thinking, I don't know anything about Foody. I've never been in a bar in my life. I don't know what a round is. So you don't need to copy this exact language. All you have to do is look at the bullet point and think about the context and think, is there any informal language that I can easily, accurately and appropriately use? Now, you might look at this and think, I don't know anything about rain check or Xmas or Boxing Day or Foody or rounds in a bar. You might never have been in a bar in your life. You don't need to understand these particular words. What you need to do is look at the bullet point that you're writing about and think about informal language you do know about. So what you can do is think, okay, suggest how you can meet up with them in the future. You might know a lot about computer games and you know a lot of informal language because you play a lot of computer games online. So you could say, let's meet up in an internet cafe or let's go around to your house and we'll play computer games or you might know a lot about sports or cooking or whatever. Think about the thing that you are familiar with that you know about, that you are comfortable using informal language and then use the bullet point to inform what you're going to write about. But don't just insert lots of idioms and slang words and phrasal verbs that are not related to the bullet point. You must stick to the bullet point. And then I'll just finish off the paragraph just to make sure that I'm in between that 40 to 60 words. I'm sorry about all this. We all make mistakes, don't we? Okay, there's nothing really that informal about it. I'm just finishing off the paragraph in that way. Then we just need to finish off. I just like to put all the best, Chris. I'm not going to put pale because this is an informal letter. My friend knows my second name. All the best. You're only going to write one informal letter. So just remember this, put it at the end, then move on to task two. So I hope that you enjoyed that lesson. If you did, stop. I've got another lesson for you. Task one is worth 33% of your total writing mark. The other 66, 67% is task two. So here's a video that is going to help you improve your task two score as well.