Formal Letter Writing : tips

How to Write Formal Letters

Help with formal and business letter writing. A summary of writing rules including outlines for cover letters and letters of enquiry, and abbreviations used in letters.

Jump to:

• Layout of a formal letter
• Formal letter writing rules
• Content of a formal letter
• Abbreviations used in letter writing
• Outline for a covering letter
• Outline for a letter of enquiry

writing formal letters-

A LESSON ON FORMAL LETTERS FOR ADVANCED LEARNERS.

Presentation: How to write informal emails.

Excellent presentation by Diego Suárez on how to write informal emails.

B2( WRITING): HOW TO WRITE ARTICLES

DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT HERE.

B1-B2: Complaint letters

Read this PowerPoint about how to write formal and informal letters of complaint

Holiday complaint letters.

Complaining about a Holiday ( sample letter- level advanced)

Poor standard of a service.

Letter of complaint about the poor standard of a service.

B2 ( Writing strategies): Portfolio 1- Topic and supporting sentences

Writing strategies writing paragraphs from Elena Gómez

 Practice

WRITING: SEMI-FORMAL REQUEST SAMPLE LETTER

To do the exercise click here.

B2 ( Writing) : linking words and phrases

Download pdf here.

B2 ( EMAIL WRITING): ACADEMIC AND BUSINESS ABREVIATIONS

COMMON ABBREVIATIONS IN BUSINESS ENGLISH
HIGHER EDUCATION: ABBREVIATIONS AND TITLES

FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE: INFORMAL INVITATIONS

B2 (WRITING) : Connectors and Punctuation)

Please, revise punctuation rules:

http://cursodeingles-elena.blogspot.com.es/2012/02/connectors-and-punctuation.html

B2( Writing): For and Against Essays Keys + HOMEWORK TASK

Exercise 4 p, 65

1,2,5 writer's opinion
2,4,6 balanced consideration

Exercise 6. p. 66

Synonymous words or phrases

HOMEWORK

NOW DO THE FOLLOWING TASK: 

" Advantages and disadvantages of package holidays"

Write your for and against essay ( 225 words). 
( Remember to use a wide variety of vocabulary about types of holiday, write well-developed paragraphs and justify your points. Try to use different connectors).

B2 ( Vocabulary practice): using idioms of failure and success + comparison

The aim of this post is to practise idioms of failure and success (face2face advanced handouts)and use the language to express similarities and differences and comparison previously learnt in this blog entry.

You have to answer both tasks in this blog entry. Submit your answer as a comment.

• Vocabulary Extra: Upper Intermediate 3 (PDF - Unit 3: Education and training)
• Keys 

TASKS

Task 1. Write a short text on the following topic:
- Talk about your language learning experiences during the past 2 years: how you passed your tests, good and bad results, etc. (use idioms of failure and success).

Task 2. Read the following prompt on educational programs and do the task below.

Context:
Today, more and more colleges and universities are offering not only individual courses but entire degree programs online. Some educators worry that online programs do not provide the same quality as an on-campus education and that in an online program, students can get others to do their work.
  
Task: Compare both types of educational programs: individual courses vs. degree programs online. ( Use expressions to talk about similarities and differences, and different ways of comparing). 

Remember to submit your answers. Click on post a comment.

Mind mapping to start writing/speaking

What is mind mapping?

Mind mapping examples
1. Shakespeare
2. Suffixing rules

3.HOW ICT CAN ACCOMMODATE LEARNING STYLES

To learn more click here.
mind-map tools

B2 ( Grammar): Participle clauses advanced

Present and Past participle clauses are often used in detailed descriptions.Here are 2 links with explanation and follow-up exercises.
Explanation 1.

Explaining -ing (present) and -ed (past) participle clauses.

Explanation 2.
Present participle clauses ( explanation + activities at the bottom of the page)
Past participle clauses (explanation+ activities at the bottom of the page)

B2 ( film-based lesson): Home exchange and holidays

Topic: holidays, leisure, home exchange holidays.

1. What is a home exchange holiday? 
2. Would you be willing to do one? 
3. State briefly the pros and cons of home exchanges and submit your answers on the blog. 

 Download the worksheet below, based on the film 'The Holiday' starring Kate Winslet and Cameron Díaz and follow the instructions to do the activities.

WORKSHEETS

•  The Holiday worksheet A1 , B2. Download lesson plan, worksheet and keys here.
• Home exchange advert sample. Download here. The Holiday 'Home exchange email activity'

VIDEO- 

B2 ( Business writing): making appointments, requests and more

BUSINESS REQUESTS VIDEO LESSON. How to draft a business email according to register, style ,language, etc.

• USEFUL STOCK PHRASES FOR YOUR BUSINESS EMAILS: When you’re initiating email contact with someone new • When you’ve answered someone’s question • When you’re asking the recipient to take some action • When you need a response (but not necessarily any action taking) • When you’ve heard nothing back and want to chase up a reply.

ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS FOR FORMAL AND INFORMAL WRITING –B2-C1

• BUSINESS ENGLISH : MAKING APPOINTMENTS: Asking for an appointment,suggesting a time, Agreeing to an appointment, Saying a time is not convenient, Cancelling an appointment, Apologising, Asking for confirmation, Writing to someone you don't know

B2 ( Writing) : letters of complaints

To know more, visit this link and read the power point.

B2 ( Speaking) : 5ºA monologues practice- drafting an outline

Remember the previous post on how to deliver a monologue on language learning and your learning experiencies? Well, here we have some of them. 

So, many thanks for emailing me your monologues.  So far we've got 3 here.  Hopefully, I'll be receiving some more during the week and updating this post, so if you're interested in submitting your own, please do it in the comment section below and start numbering from 4 onwards.
Deadline for submitting the monologues: 24 October.

Follow the 3 last steps to finish the task: 
1. Listen to your classmates' speaking tasks.
2. Choose a classmate's speaking and draft its outline.
3. Let's share the results in class.

YOUR MONOLOGUES

Monologue 1 http://vocaroo.com/i/s038TBqGCdGw
Monologue 2 http://vocaroo.com/i/s1mZfv8EiE5x
Monologue 3 http://vocaroo.com/i/s0H2IyqWZgcS


¡¡Colaborando se aprende mejor!!

B1- Writing: opinion and for and against essays---activity samples

Here's a document with IELTS activity samples.
Download here.

B1- B2 ( Writing formal letters): a CV and cover letter

How to write a successful CV

How to write a covering letter
How to write a standard European CV