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A Formal/Semi-Formal Letter / Email Formal Expressions

The document provides templates and examples for various types of writing including formal/informal letters and emails, reviews, reports, articles, and opinion essays. It introduces the purpose and structure for each type of writing. Key details are organized using headings and subheadings. Templates include introductions, body paragraphs addressing key points, and conclusions. Transitional phrases are also provided to link ideas between paragraphs.

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Carmen Castro
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51 views5 pages

A Formal/Semi-Formal Letter / Email Formal Expressions

The document provides templates and examples for various types of writing including formal/informal letters and emails, reviews, reports, articles, and opinion essays. It introduces the purpose and structure for each type of writing. Key details are organized using headings and subheadings. Templates include introductions, body paragraphs addressing key points, and conclusions. Transitional phrases are also provided to link ideas between paragraphs.

Uploaded by

Carmen Castro
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A FORMAL/SEMI-FORMAL LETTER / EMAIL  formal expressions

Opening salutation

- Dear Sir or Madam / Dear Mr Rylands or Ms / Dear Martin

Reason for writing

- I am writing to… / I am writing in response to… / I am writing in connection with

Referring to previous contact

- Thank you for your letter or email / With regard to your letter dated / Further to your
letter dated.

Give bad/good news

- I would be delighted to… / We would be happy to… / Unfortunately…

Refer to future contact

- I look forward to hearing from you / If you have any further questions please do not
hesitate to contact me / If you require any further information, please do not hesitate
to contact me.

Closing salutation

- Yours faithfully / Yours sincerely – Best regards / Best wishes

A LESS FORMAL LETTER / EMAIL  less formal or informal expressions

Opening salutation

- Hi Maria…

Give reason for writing

- Just to let you know that… / I’m emailing you to…

Apologise

- I really sorry but… / I’m afraid that…

Offer/Request

- Would you like to…? / Can I…? / Could you…? / Would you mind if…?

Recommend and suggest


- You should/ought to… / Why don’t you…? / How about…?

Give good news/bad news

- I’m so happy because… / The good/bad news is that… / Unfortunately…

Say when and where/Given details

- There is/are… / It’s at/starts at… / You can get there by…

Thank

- Thanks for… / I’m really grateful for…

End

- Look forward to seeing you. / See you soon. / Bye for now. / All the best/Best wishes.

A REVIEW

Introducing your review

- The aim/purpose of this review is to… / My favourite…is… / The first thing you notice
is…

Introduce your subject for review

Describing positive feature

- One thing I really like about is… / It’s worth seeing because… / A really good part is
when…

Review some of the positive points

Describing weaknesses

- One problem is… / It isn’t very… / One thing that could be improved is… / It also
needs more…

Mention some weaker points

Final comments

- Overall, I (strongly) recommend… / It’s certainly a good… / (Nevertheless) it’s much


better than…

Conclude with your overall opinion


A SHORT STORY

Background and atmosphere

- It was raining with flashes of lighting outside… / The house was quite and I sat all
alone… / It all began on a day when I had been… / We were very tired and had been
travelling all day…

Contrasting time and events

- After… / As soon as I… / By the time… / At the same time… / While I was… -ing, they
were… / Meanwhile… / A second later…

The climax / ending

- Just then… / In the end… / Eventually… / Finally, I realized… / That was the last time
I’d ever…

A REPORT

Always include a title to explain the purpose. You could also say who the report is for:

To: The Principal of the school

Form: Carmen Castro

Subject: Ideas for the school “eco-week”

Sub-headings are a good idea and help the reader: INTRODUCTION, CONCLUSION…

Introducing the report / Starting the purpose

- The following reports outlines… / The aim of this report is to… / The report is based
on…

Introducing ideas

- The first/Another idea is to… / One possibility is to… / Our final idea/plan/suggestion
is to…

Give examples to help explain

Proposing and suggesting

- We should/could… / We would like to… / If possible we… / It might be a good idea


to… / One suggestion is to…

Giving reasons / Recommending


- As result of…we think… / This is a good idea because… / We recommend this
because…

Contrasting and alternatives

- On the one hand…on the other… / One problem is… / However… / In contrast…

Contrast and add information where necessary

Generalising

- In general… / On the whole…

Concluding and summing up

- In conclusion… / To sum up… / Our final recommendation is that…

Don’t forget to summaries. You might also want to say what needs to happen as a result of the report.

AN ARTICLE

- Give it a title

- Introduce the subject by restating the question

- Use clear paragraphs for each part of your article

- Include a question to keep in contact with reader

- Don’t forget a conclusion. Sometimes you can include a message to the reader

AN OPINION ESSAY

Introduction

- Some people claim/believe/say… / It is sometimes said that… / The question is… / We


often read/hear that…

Starting your opinion

- In my opinion… / As I see it,… / From my point of view…

Making extra points

- What’s more… / In addition… / Furthermore…

Introducing a contradictory point


- Although/Even though… / Despite+noun/gerund/Despite the fact that… / However…

Contrasting views for and against

- On the one hand/side…on the other / While it’s true that… / You could also argue
that… / Nevertheless,… / However,… / One advantatge/ Another disadvantage is that…
/ Even though…

General expressions

- First, … secondly, … thirdly… / In addition… / Finally…

Concluding

- On balance… / I feel/believe that… / In my opinion… / Summarising… / To sum up,… in


conclusion,…

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