IELTS semi formal letter band 7.5: a GT Task 1 sample and full breakdown

A semi-formal letter that scores 7.5 does not look clever. It looks controlled: the reader knows who is writing, why, what is wrong and what should happen next, and the tone never wobbles between business correspondence and a message to a friend. Below is a General Training Task 1 prompt and a 168-word letter I wrote for this article, followed by the four criterion scores that produce the 7.5 and an honest account of why two of those four are not 8.

Why the semi-formal letter is the hardest of the three GT types

Formal letters come with a safety rail: you do not know the person, so distance is correct by default. Informal letters have the opposite rail: you know the person well, so warmth is correct by default. The semi-formal letter removes both. You know the recipient's name and you have met them, but the relationship is transactional — a landlord, a course tutor, a neighbour two doors down, a colleague in another department.

That gap is where memorised scripts fail. Drilled formal openings sound like a legal notice to someone you say hello to on the stairs; relaxed ones read as asking a friend for a favour, and the request loses its weight.

The criterion that registers this first is Task Achievement. In General Training, Task 1 is assessed on Task Achievement, not Task Response — the terminology matters because the two ask for different things, which is worth separating properly in Task Achievement vs Task Response. Task Achievement covers whether the purpose is clear and consistently held, whether the tone fits the recipient, and whether every bullet has been dealt with. A letter that slides in tone is not a style problem forgiven elsewhere: it is a Task Achievement problem, and it caps the letter before the other three criteria can help.

The task I wrote for this article

No officially published IELTS model letter exists for this task type at this band, so nothing below is an official sample or taken from a past paper. I wrote both the prompt and the letter for this article, so the commentary refers to sentences you can inspect line by line.

Task 1 (General Training)

You rent a flat from a landlord you have met several times. The heating in the flat has stopped working.

Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter:

• explain what the problem is and when it started
• say how it has been affecting you
• suggest when a repair could be carried out

Write at least 150 words.

Three bullets, all three compulsory. Covering two of them well and leaving the third implied is one of the most common ways a competent letter stalls in the 6s. The examiner is not looking for your best paragraph first; they are checking coverage first.

The band 7.5 letter

The letter runs to 168 words including the greeting and sign-off, 161 in the body itself. That sits above the 150-word minimum stated in the task without drifting into padding.

Dear Mr Whitfield,

I am writing about the heating in flat 4B, which stopped working on Sunday evening. The radiators are cold even when the thermostat is turned right up, and the boiler makes a short clicking noise and then goes quiet.

It has been an awkward week. The flat is cold in the mornings, I have been working from the kitchen with a portable heater, and my electricity use has gone up noticeably. My daughter has also had a cough since the weekend, so I would rather not leave it much longer.

Would it be possible to have an engineer come on Thursday or Friday this week? I finish work at four, so any time after half past four suits me, and I can be at home all day on Saturday if that is easier for the engineer. If none of those suit you, let me know which days work and I will arrange things around them.

Thank you for looking into this.

Kind regards,

Ji-won Park

Notice what is absent. No formal lodging of a complaint. No "Hope you're well!". No subject line, no elaborate closing formula, no connective scaffolding. Each paragraph does one job and stops.

How an IELTS semi formal letter band 7.5 is actually scored

Four criteria, equally weighted. Each criterion score is a whole number. There is no such thing as a 7.5 in Task Achievement or a 7.5 in Lexical Resource — half bands appear only after four whole numbers have been averaged. This letter is scored:

Criterion	Score
Task Achievement	7
Coherence and Cohesion	8
Lexical Resource	7
Grammatical Range and Accuracy	8

7 + 8 + 7 + 8 = 30. 30 divided by 4 = 7.5. That is the whole arithmetic, and it is the only way a 7.5 is produced: four whole numbers adding up to 30, here two 7s and two 8s.

One note on method before the commentary. The criteria are described here in my own words rather than quoted from the published descriptors, so read each explanation below as an examiner's summary of what a criterion asks for, not as descriptor wording. For the fuller map of what each criterion covers, start with IELTS Writing band descriptors explained.

Task Achievement — 7, not 8. All three bullets are addressed, the purpose is unmistakable from the first line, and the tone holds steady from greeting to sign-off. That is solid 7 work. What keeps it off 8 is the second bullet: "It has been an awkward week" followed by three quick consequences is coverage, but it is thinner than the other two. The cough is mentioned and dropped; the higher electricity use is asserted with no consequence attached to it. At 8 every bullet would be extended with the same confidence, so the letter reads as three developed points rather than two and a list.

Coherence and Cohesion — 8. The paragraphing is doing real work: problem, impact, proposal, close. Information arrives in the order the reader needs it, and the links are carried by pronouns, tense and sequencing rather than bolted-on connectives — no "Firstly", no "Moreover".

Lexical Resource — 7, not 8. The vocabulary is accurate, natural and appropriate to the recipient, with a few precise touches: "turned right up", "goes quiet", "arrange things around them". But the range is functional rather than flexible. "Work" appears in two different senses within a few lines, "engineer" is repeated where a rephrase was available, and the language describing the fault stays basic — cold, clicking, quiet. Nothing is mishandled, which is why it clears 7 comfortably; it also never shows the wider, more precise range that 8 asks for.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — 8. Sentence forms vary without strain: a relative clause in the opening, a three-part compound in the second paragraph, a polite interrogative and a conditional in the third. Errors are absent rather than merely minor.

Then comes the conversion, where people misread their own results. Overall Writing is calculated as (Task 1 + Task 2 × 2) ÷ 3, rounded. This 7.5 alongside a 7 in Task 2 gives (7.5 + 14) ÷ 3 = 7.17, which rounds to 7. The same 7.5 alongside a 7.5 in Task 2 gives (7.5 + 15) ÷ 3 = 7.5. Task 2 carries double weight, so a strong letter protects a Writing score rather than rescuing one — a trade-off worth reading alongside how to get band 7 in IELTS Writing.

The tone line, in actual sentences

Abstract advice about "appropriate register" changes nothing. Here is the same opening sentence written three ways, to the same landlord.

Too formal: "I am writing to formally register my dissatisfaction with the current condition of the heating apparatus at the aforementioned premises." You have met this man; he fixed the shower in March. The vocabulary is not wrong, but the distance is — Task Achievement records that as a failure to match the reader.

Too informal: "Hi Dave, quick one — the heating's died again, any chance you can get someone round?" A perfectly good real-life message. In the exam it reads as a text, and the request loses its weight.

On the line: "I am writing about the heating in flat 4B, which stopped working on Sunday evening." Plain, complete, dated, neutral in temperature.

The test I apply when marking: could this sentence be read aloud to the recipient's face without either party flinching? Semi-formal is the register of someone being clear and courteous with a person they know slightly — contractions kept out, but no word reached for that you would not use speaking to them. The neighbouring registers are easier to hear once all three sit side by side: compare this letter with the distance held in the GT Task 1 band 7 formal complaint letter and the warmth allowed in the GT Task 1 informal letter band 7 sample. Three letters, three settings on one dial.

Four rules that are not rules

"Yours faithfully" and "Yours sincerely." This pairing is British letter-writing convention — faithfully when you have not named the recipient, sincerely when you have. It is a convention, not an IELTS rule, and no criterion hands out points for the formula itself. What is assessed is whether the closing sits comfortably with the letter around it, and "Kind regards" does in a letter to a landlord you know by name.

A required greeting for semi-formal letters. There is no rule that a semi-formal letter must open with a surname. "Dear Mr Whitfield" and "Dear David" are both defensible for a landlord you have met several times; what matters is that everything after the greeting behaves consistently with the choice. A surname opening followed by "any chance you could sort it" is the failure — not the surname.

A subject line. A subject line is not required, and I would not claim it earns anything. It is a normal feature of business correspondence and does no harm, particularly if your first line does not state your purpose. Here the opening sentence does that job, so a heading would repeat it.

Length. The task says at least 150 words, and that minimum is real: an under-length letter cannot cover three bullets properly, so Task Achievement absorbs the damage first. The other direction is not free either: a 300-word letter about a boiler is itself a tone error, and longer letters give errors more room to surface. For this task type, 160 to 200 words is a sensible working target.

For the official description of the test format, ielts.org is the place to check rather than any coaching site, including this one.

Now write your own answer to the prompt above, then audit it in the order I used: purpose and bullet coverage first, structure second, vocabulary third, grammar last. Most letters that feel nearly-7.5 are losing their points at the first check, not the last.

FAQ

How does a letter score 7.5 if criteria are whole numbers?

By averaging. This letter is 7, 8, 7, 8 — that is 30, and 30 ÷ 4 = 7.5. No single criterion was ever a 7.5.

Why is semi-formal the hardest of the three GT letter types?

Because it has no default. Formal letters are safe at a distance and informal letters are safe when warm; a semi-formal recipient is someone you know slightly, and both memorised extremes land wrong.

Which criterion does a tone slip hit?

Task Achievement — the Task 1 criterion, not Task Response. It caps the letter before the other three can help.

Is "Yours faithfully" required?

No. It is British letter convention, not an IELTS rule. What matters is that the closing suits the letter; "Kind regards" suits a landlord you know by name.

How many words should the letter be?

At least 150 by the task instruction, and 160 to 200 in practice. Under-length costs Task Achievement first; a 300-word letter about a boiler is its own tone error.

Related reading

• GT Task 1 band 7 formal complaint letter — the same treatment at the formal end of the dial
• GT Task 1 informal letter band 7 sample — and at the informal end
• Task Achievement vs Task Response — the criterion that marks every GT letter
• How to get band 7 in IELTS Writing — the four criteria as conditions to meet

Official test format information is on ielts.org.