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Informal Letters:

We will take you through the steps of writing an Informal Letter. This task should take you no more than 20 minutes.
The question will be given to you in the future. Also given with the scenario will be your tasks attached to it, which you will have to address in your letter.

In this scenario, it is easy to interpret that we are required to write an informal letter as it is being written to a friend. After this, is understanding what are the key questions which are being asked which are highlighted in bold above.

Dear Rahul,
I’m writing this letter to invite you to the surprise birthday party of Paul. It will be hosted at my house Residency Road, house no. 4.
Let me explain the matter more in depth. He has not yet acclimatized to living in a culture wholly unknown to him and he is therefore homesick often and is not in the best of moods. Having gotten to know him well since his arrival, I know that he just needs to feel more at home with his school friends. It does not help that his English is very weak.
After consulting his guardian, I have decided to host the party on 5th June 2018 from 7 pm onwards. As he loves the Harry Potter series, I have decided to make it a theme party and request you to dress as your favorite character. Also, could you please bring one item for at least 20 people to eat?
Look forward to seeing you there.
Your Friend,
Hurray Edutech

TIPS

First off, please do not memorize a letter. This will lead to an immediate deduction in marks and student whose letters look memorized will get a low score.

However, there are certain aspects of a letter that can be memorized for the purpose of the test. This includes,
• The Greeting [Dear Rahul]. Please write only the first name and nothing else as this is an informal letter.
• The Ending [Looking forward to seeing you there.] (Please note that the end will change in accordance with the scenario, you are encouraged to keep many such)
• Sign off message
• Your full name

There are some other things that you may memorize such as examples of the following

• The reason for writing: You can write the phrase “I am writing to”
• Explaining the letter in more depth. “I would like to explain the matter more in depth”
6 things that are required for writing a good essay:
• A greeting: this is an essential part of writing a letter. The greeting changes depending on the kind of letter it is. For an informal letter, the greeting must always be “Dear [first name of the person you are writing the letter to]”. Please do not forget the comma at the end of the greeting.
• Reason for writing the letter: [giving the reason for writing the letter]. In the above example, “I am writing the letter to….”
• Give background information for writing the letter: the reason for the invitation is the surprise party for Paul.
• Explain the situation in detail: over the course of the two body paragraphs explain the key requirements in detail. In the above letter, we were supposed to explain not only the details of the birthday party but the fact that Paul was homesick. As task response is an important factor in an IELTS writing test, it is essential for a student to cover all the points of the question.
• Stick to the points given in the prompters. (The three points are given below the question.)
• Have a suitable ending:

What are the criteria for getting 8+ year in your letter
• Writing on topic
• Using precise vocabulary to the topic
• Using accurate grammar
• Using a logical structure for your letter

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