Writing an email (ESL)

This guide explains formal and informal emails, with original examples from our teachers. It also lists the slips that cost ESL students the most marks.

What the email task is

An email is a message to a specific reader for a clear purpose. You may need to request, reply, inform, invite or complain.

In IGCSE English as a Second Language, the email is one of the most common writing tasks. You get a situation and a reader, and you must reply in the right way.

It tests the two things ESL rewards most: choosing the right register (the level of formality) for the reader, and writing accurately so the meaning is never lost.

The first skill is to decide whether the email is formal or informal. An email to a friend sounds warm and relaxed.

An email to a teacher or a company sounds polite and controlled. Students who use the same register for every email lose marks.

Register, layout, openings and endings

Choose the register from the reader.

• Formal: no contractions (do not write “don’t”). Start with “Dear Mr Lee” or “Dear Sir or Madam”. End with “Yours sincerely” if you used a name, or “Yours faithfully” if you used “Sir or Madam”.
• Informal: contractions are fine. Start with “Hi Sara” or “Dear Grandma”. End with “Best wishes” or “Love”.

An email is usually shorter in layout than a letter. It often has a subject line and a greeting instead of full postal addresses.

The body still needs clear paragraphs in a logical order. Layout rules differ by board and task, so check our qualification pages.

Worked examples, written by our teachers

These are our own original examples, made for teaching.

Formal

Subject: Request to change my speaking practice

Dear Ms Chen,

I am writing to ask if I can change my speaking practice, which is planned for Thursday. My class has asked me to represent them at a sports event on the same afternoon, and I do not want to miss either one. Would Friday morning be possible instead?

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely, Aisha Rahman

Informal

Hi Deepak,

Guess what? I finally passed my cycling test! I could not have done it without all those weekends you spent teaching me not to wobble.

Come over on Saturday, and I will buy you the best nasi lemak in town. You have earned it!

Love, Mei Ling

The formal email is polite, clear and to the point. The informal one is warm and personal.

Both are accurate and easy to follow. That mix of the right register and clean English is what the task rewards.

What a strong ESL email includes

• The right register for the reader, kept the same from start to end.
• A clear purpose in the first sentence.
• A suitable greeting and a matching sign-off.
• Short paragraphs in a logical order.
• Correct tenses, spelling and sentence structure.
• Answers to every point in the task.

Common mistakes

The most common mistake is the wrong register: a chatty email where a formal one was needed, or the other way round. The second is losing marks to small errors, such as wrong tenses, missing words and spelling slips. The third is missing part of the task, so the email answers only some of the points.

The fourth is a greeting and sign-off that do not match, for example “Dear Sir or Madam” with “Yours sincerely”. Check these before you finish.

How this helps your other writing

Register control and accuracy help in every ESL task, such as letters, reports and any writing for a particular reader. Accurate writing also helps your reading, because you notice tenses and structure in texts more easily. Explore our skills guides and grammar guides, and try our practice tasks.

Next steps

Read the annotated model response for ESL email, then try the ESL email practice tasks. The skill guide writing an ESL email covers the plan. For a longer message with more layout, see how to write a formal letter or an informal letter.

Students usually get stuck in two places: they answer only half of the task points, and small grammar slips repeat in every email. In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers tick off each task point with the student and mark the same slips again and again until they disappear. See our English as a Second Language tuition, from RM70/hr.

Bring one email you wrote to a paid one-hour trial lesson. The teacher who would continue will go through it with you.

Next, visit our original practice tasks to write this form to a real brief. Our English as a Second Language tuition page explains how lessons run. When you are ready, the paid one-hour trial is the first step.