The C1 Advanced formal letter is written to someone you do not know, about something you want them to do: answer a complaint, consider an application, reconsider a decision. Register is assessed closely here, and so is whether your letter actually makes a request the reader can act on.
Before writing, decide who receives this and what you want them to do when they finish it. A letter without a requested outcome always reads as unfinished.
‘Dear Sir or Madam’ pairs with ‘Yours faithfully’; ‘Dear Mr Hall’ pairs with ‘Yours sincerely’. Decide at the start so you cannot forget at the end, when you are rushing.
‘I am writing with regard to the article published on 3 March.’ Reference, subject and purpose in one line. Everything the reader needs to place the letter is there before the detail starts.
Dates, references, what happened, in sequence. A complaint that jumps around in time is hard to act on, and clarity is part of what is being assessed.
‘I should be grateful if you would replace the item or refund the cost.’ Name the two acceptable outcomes. Vague dissatisfaction gives the reader nothing to agree to.
‘The service fell well short of what was promised’ is stronger in this genre than an angry sentence, because it sounds like someone who expects to be taken seriously.
Offer further information, state when you hope to hear, and sign off. The final paragraph should be two lines, not an apology for the length of the letter.
‘In response to’, ‘with regard to’, ‘on behalf of’, ‘look forward to hearing’. These are exactly the places a rushed letter slips, and each one is visible to the examiner at a glance.
Not thisDear Sir or Madam … Yours sincerely,
ThisDear Sir or Madam … Yours faithfully,
If you do not know the name, the close is ‘Yours faithfully’. The mismatch is the first thing a reader notices and it is entirely avoidable.
Not thisI look forward to hear from you.
ThisI look forward to hearing from you.
‘Look forward to’ ends with a preposition, so the verb after it takes -ing. It appears in almost every letter, which makes it an expensive error.
Not thisI am writing for complain about your terrible hotel.
ThisI am writing to complain about the standard of service at your hotel.
The infinitive of purpose takes ‘to’, and a measured noun phrase carries more weight in a complaint than an insult.
Not thisIf you don’t sort this out I’ll take you to court.
ThisUnless the matter can be resolved, I shall have no alternative but to refer it to the trade association.
The same message in a register the reader will act on. Threats in informal language undermine the letter and the mark.
Not thisI want you to give me my money back immediately.
ThisI should be grateful if you would refund the cost of the tickets.
The formal request pattern is ‘I should be grateful if you would…’. Bare ‘I want’ is the register of a message, not a letter.
Not thisWriting four paragraphs of complaint and never saying what you want.
ThisMaking the request in its own paragraph, before the close.
The reader has to be able to act. A letter that details a problem but asks for nothing has not completed the task.
40 original questions. The first 10 are open to everyone. Answers are checked in your browser and never sent to us, so you can share this page with a class as it is.
2Complete the sentence.
3Complete the sentence.
6Complete the sentence.
7Outline a four-paragraph plan for a letter of complaint.
One good answer
1 Purpose: what you are writing about, with the date and any reference. 2 What happened, in order, briefly and factually. 3 The effect on you, and the specific outcome you are asking for. 4 Close: an offer of further information, a hope to hear soon, and the sign-off that matches your salutation.
9Complete the sentence.
10Complete the sentence.
13Complete the sentence.
15Complete the sentence.
16Write the opening paragraph of a letter applying for a summer post at a language school.
One good answer
I am writing in response to your advertisement in the June issue of the bulletin, in which you invite applications for summer teaching assistants. I am currently completing a degree in modern languages and have two summers’ experience of running activity groups for teenagers, and I should be glad to be considered for the post.
17Complete the sentence.
19Complete the sentence.
21Complete the sentence.
23Complete the sentence.
24Complete the sentence.
27Complete the sentence.
29Complete the sentence.
30Write two sentences asking for a specific remedy, in a formal register.
One good answer
In view of the inconvenience caused, I should be grateful if you would either replace the item or refund its full cost. I enclose a copy of the receipt and would be glad to supply any further details you require.
31Complete the sentence.
33Complete the sentence.
35Complete the sentence.
37Complete the sentence.
39Your letter is finished but sounds cold and mechanical. What can you change?
One good answer
Add one human sentence that explains the effect rather than the fact: ‘As we had travelled overnight, the delay meant the first day of the trip was lost.’ Keep the register formal, but a reason the reader can picture turns a list of complaints into a case, and it costs only a line.
Note
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It depends only on the salutation. No name in the greeting means ‘Yours faithfully’; a name means ‘Yours sincerely’. Decide the pair before you write the body and you will never have to think about it again.
No. The exam is interested in the body of the letter, and layout of that kind wastes words. Begin with the salutation and get to the purpose in line one.
Anything that sounds like a legal document. ‘I hereby request that you take cognisance of the aforementioned’ is not better than ‘I should be grateful if you would look into this’. Clear formal English is the target.
It usually should. State what went wrong, then what you would like done about it. A complaint with no request leaves the reader with nothing to decide, and often leaves a prompt bullet unanswered.
Around 220 to 260 words, in four or five short paragraphs. If one paragraph is running past six lines, it is doing the work of two and should be split.