IELTS GT Task 1 Tone and Register Tips (2026)

IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 asks you to write a letter of at least 150 words about an everyday situation. Examiners judge whether your language fits the reader and the purpose. A clear request that sounds like a text message to a company manager can lose marks for register, even when every bullet is covered.

Tone is not decoration. It shapes greetings, purpose statements, requests and closings. Decide the relationship first, then keep that choice steady through all three bullet paragraphs. This guide is the umbrella for formal, semi-formal and informal GT letters.

Formal letters go to organisations or people you do not know personally: store managers, councils, hiring managers, bank staff. Semi-formal letters often go to someone you know in a role, such as a landlord, tutor or neighbour you meet politely. Informal letters go to friends and close family.

Purpose alone does not fix tone. You can apologise formally to a manager and informally to a friend. Invitation, advice and enquiry letters also shift with the reader. Choose the register from relationship first, then adjust politeness to the seriousness of the situation.

The first paragraph should introduce why you are writing. Formal openings often begin with I am writing to... Informal openings can greet the person and then state the purpose in the next sentence. Do not waste words on addresses, dates or subject lines; they are not required in the exam.

Keep the purpose sentence short, then let each bullet have its own paragraph. Mixing the whole story into the opening makes coverage harder to see and often leads to uneven development.

Contractions such as I'm, you'll and can't are natural in informal letters and sometimes acceptable in warm semi-formal notes. In strongly formal letters to unknown organisations, prefer full forms: I am, you will, cannot. Slang, emojis and text abbreviations do not belong in any GT letter.

Request strength should match seriousness. A missing parcel needs a clear remedy; a casual invite needs a friendly suggestion. Formal firmness is polite and specific, not aggressive. Threats and insults never help Task Achievement.

A common mistake is opening formally and then sliding into casual language in the final request. Another is using Dear Sir or Madam with Love from or Best wishes alone. Greeting and closing are a pair: match them to the same register.

When you invent details for the three bullets, keep names, dates and facts consistent, and keep the voice consistent too. If the letter is formal, every bullet paragraph should sound professional. If it is informal, stay warm without becoming a chat message.

In the final two minutes, scan greeting, purpose line, one request sentence and the closing. Ask whether you would really speak to this person that way. Then confirm that each bullet still has enough detail.

Practise rewriting the same three bullets for a friend and for a manager. The content plan can stay similar; the register must change. That contrast builds control faster than memorising one model letter.