• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

IELTS with Fiona

IELTS Made Easier

Members Academy
Log in

  • Home
  • Resources
  • Lessons
  • My courses
  • FAQs
  • About me
  • What’s New

A letter or email to colleagues

By ieltsetc on August 26, 2018 2

IELTS General Training Writing An email to colleagues

GT 28-Day Planner: Week 1

General Training Writing Task 1.

This is an example of a letter to your colleagues in the company you work for.

This kind of letter/email can be difficult because it often depends on where you work. Are you on first-name terms with all your colleagues? If you are, then a formal email would be inappropriate. But if you work for a huge company where you don’t know anyone in the other departments, it’s important to keep the tone polite and formal.

The main thing is that your tone is CONSISTENT throughout. This is a criteria for a Band 7 in Task Achievement.

So it doesn’t matter which level of formality you choose. Just keep it the same throughout.

Here I show 2 examples of the same letter (one formal, one informal).

Listen to my podcast here:

In the podcast episode I talk about using the Present Perfect in letters and how important it is for you to understand when and how we use the Present Perfect.

You can see some examples here:

‘We haven’t had a Christmas party for the past two years.

‘The company have offered to pay’.

‘I’ve asked around the office’.

You have been asked to organise a social event for your company. Write an email to your colleagues. In the email say:

  • What suggestions have been made
  • What you think about the suggestions
  • What you have decided to do.

Formal Version

Dear colleagues,

We haven’t been able to have a social event for the past two years due to our limited funds. This year, however, the company has agreed to support an end-of-year party. We’ve discussed various options as you will see below.

Firstly, we considered an office party held on the premises. The main advantage of this would be that it avoids any need for people to make special travel arrangements. On the other hand, the building doesn’t really have a space that is suitable.

We therefore looked at a meal out. There are a number of suitable restaurants and hotels close to the office. One argument against this was that sitting at table is not a very good way for us to mix and get to know people from other departments.

Finally, we discussed a day trip, for example to a local tourist spot. The main drawback of this is the cost. In addition, it’s difficult to find somewhere that caters for all of our needs and interests.

Taking all of the points into consideration, we propose an office party for all staff, to be held in the main reception area. Date and time to be confirmed.

Please let us know your opinion, preferably before the end of next week,

Thank you

Fiona       


Less formal version 

Hi everyone

As you know we haven’t had a Christmas party for the past two years because of a lack of funds. But this year, the company has said that they’ll pay for some kind of get-together. I’ve asked around the office, and this is basically what we’ve come up with.

First of all we thought about having an after-work party in the office. This would be the easiest option because everyone would already be there, though it’s not ideal because there’s not much space.

So then we looked into a meal out. There are loads of nice restaurants not too far away from the office but some people thought it probably wasn’t the best way to mingle because everyone would be sitting at a table all evening.

Finally, we considered something like a day trip to somewhere nice and local. The only problem with this would be the cost and also it’s quite difficult to find somewhere that suits all of our needs and interests.

So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided that an office party in the main reception would be the best bet. Date and time to be confirmed.

Please let us know what you think before the end of next week if possible.

Many thanks

Fiona                             

IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 letter. How to write a formal and informal letter or email to colleagues.

Learn more about informal and formal writing here.

For the full lesson about using the Present Perfect in IELTS (for both Speaking and Writing) come and join us in the Members Academy – everything you need for IELTS in just one place.

Find more help with General Training preparation here.

There’s also a full course on Writing Letters in the Members Academy.

  • How to use formal language in IELTS Task 2
  • How long will it take to increase my IELTS score?
  • How to show concession in IELTS Writing Task 2
  • How to use conditionals in IELTS Writing
  • Grammar for IELTS: How to write complex sentences

Want to know what’s new?

If you want to hear all about my new lessons, podcasts, YouTube videos, challenges and courses, get your name on my email list (oh you’ll also get my free 28-Day Planner).

Sign up for the free 28-Day Planner.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nishant Sharma says

    November 2, 2020 at 8:15 am

    Hi,
    Rather than saying Dear everyone or Dear colleagues, If I have written the letter to one person of the team and asking him to convey my message to everyone in the team, will that be wrong way to write this letter?

    Reply
    • ieltsetc says

      November 5, 2020 at 12:17 pm

      Hi Nishant. I would always try to follow the instructions exactly as they are in the question, so if it says ‘colleagues’ it want to test that you have the right form of address for a group of people. I don’t think it would be a huge problem to write to one person of a team, but it’s always better to play safe [better safe than sorry!]. Thanks for your question, Best wishes, Fiona

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Would you like to support my website?

In order to make sure you get a fantastic experience on my website I don’t use any advertising, and all the costs are paid for out of my own pocket.

If you’d like to help me keep these materials free for everyone, you are more than welcome to buy me a coffee! Many many thanks in advance.

Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee

Categories

  • Academic Writing Task 1
  • Grammar
  • GT Writing Task 1
  • IELTS Advice
  • IELTS General Training
  • IELTS Listening
  • IELTS Reading
  • IELTS Speaking
  • IELTS Vocabulary
  • IELTS Writing Task 2

Tags

Academic Reading P1 Academic Reading P2 Academic Reading P3 Agriculture Animals Buildings choosing from list Civilisation Crime education Finance gap-fill listening gap fill reading Gap Fill with answers grammar GT letters GT Reading GT Task 1 Health History ielts tips informal writing Inventions labelling a diagram Matching Headings matching people Matching Statements multiple choice listening multiple choice reading Nature pronunciation Research Speaking Tables Technology TFNG The Arts The environment The Future Transport travel Water work writing task 2 YNNG

What my students are saying:

IELTS with Fiona reviews Charmian

Charmian

From 6.6 to 8!!! Can you believe it? Thanks for everything!

Members Academy student

IELTS with Fiona
5
2020-01-13T09:09:01+00:00

Members Academy student

IELTS with Fiona reviews Charmian
From 6.6 to 8!!! Can you believe it? Thanks for everything!
https://ieltsetc.com/testimonials/charmian/
IELTS with Fiona reviews Shreyas

Shreyas

I was overwhelmed to receive my IELTS results. I got overall of 7.5 in my IELTS exam. Thank you once...

Academy Member

IELTS with Fiona
5
2020-01-13T09:06:30+00:00

Academy Member

IELTS with Fiona reviews Shreyas
I was overwhelmed to receive my IELTS results. I got overall of 7.5 in my IELTS exam. Thank you once again for all resources.
https://ieltsetc.com/testimonials/shreyas/
IELTS with Fiona reviews Sancia

Sancia

I was stuck in writing with 6.5 and with just 2 weeks of preparation from your notes I scored 7.5....

General Training 28-Day Challenge student

IELTS with Fiona
5
2020-01-13T08:43:00+00:00

General Training 28-Day Challenge student

IELTS with Fiona reviews Sancia
I was stuck in writing with 6.5 and with just 2 weeks of preparation from your notes I scored 7.5. I don't have enough words to thank you.
https://ieltsetc.com/testimonials/sancia/

Ipek

I’ve got a very busy life and IELTS Academy was time-saving for me that it involves everything about IELTS in...

Academy Member

IELTS with Fiona
5
2019-12-03T18:16:09+00:00

Academy Member

I’ve got a very busy life and IELTS Academy was time-saving for me that it involves everything about IELTS in one place. Fiona is an excellent teacher with passion and kindness to all of her students. She helped me a lot with IELTS and I improved my scores significantly in a very short time. Some days I had no spare time for studying and I listened her podcasts when I was driving to work and it also helped me a lot! I strongly recommend this course to all IELTS candidates.
https://ieltsetc.com/testimonials/ipek/
IELTS with Fiona reviews Ipek

Lily S

The Academy gave me clear guidelines, study materials and methods to lead me into a high IELTS performance. As I...

Academy Member

IELTS with Fiona
5
2019-12-03T18:12:42+00:00

Academy Member

IELTS with Fiona reviews Ipek
The Academy gave me clear guidelines, study materials and methods to lead me into a high IELTS performance. As I have a super busy career and family life, my study time is very limited. When I first decided to take an IELTS test, I even didn't know where to start. After studying with Fiona for a while, in the first IELTS test, I got Band 8! Thank you so much for your hard work and your professionalism, Fiona!!!
https://ieltsetc.com/testimonials/lily-s/
5
IELTS with Fiona

Work out your current score

IELTS Band Score Calculator

Popular Posts

  • How to use formal language in IELTS Task 2
  • How long will it take to increase my IELTS score?
  • How to show concession in IELTS Writing Task 2
  • How to use conditionals in IELTS Writing
  • Grammar for IELTS: How to write complex sentences

Recent posts

  • How to write an email to someone you don’t know
  • How to use ‘rise’ and ‘raise’
  • How to use have/get something done
  • What is ‘hedging’ in academic writing?
  • Words ending in -able or -ible

Come and see what’s going on

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Products

  • IELTS Speaking Mock Test Speaking Mock Test $45.00
  • IELTS Writing Feedback IELTS Writing and Speaking Assessment $99.00
  • Get 8 IELTS Writing Feedback Videos $200.00
  • IELTS Speaking Course syllabus Speaking Course and Mock Test $99.00
  • IELTS WRITING FEEDBACK IELTS Writing Assessment and Feedback Task 1 and Task 2 $50.00

Looking for something specific?

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Vimeo
  • YouTube
  • About me
  • Contact me
  • IELTS Band Score Calculator
  • IELTS Test 28-Day planner
  • Resources
  • My IELTS 10-minute lessons

Copyright © 2021 — IELTS Exam Training Courses • Privacy Policy • Disclaimer • All rights reserved

This site uses cookies: Find out more.