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,…
