Section II, Part A1--Interpersonal Writing: E-mail Reply

For this task you have to write a formal response to an email, you will be given:

  • an email,
  • the reason why you received this email,
  • you have 15 minutes total to read and respond
    • For the response you have to:
    • Use a formal tone
    • Maintain the exchange
    • Answer all the questions.
    • Ask for more information about things mentioned or relevant to the topic.

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Scoring your email

Your score will be based on your performance on the task, this can be separated into 2 categories:

  • What were you able to do

    • The exchange was maintained?
    • Did all the questions where answered and elaborated?
    • There was a question relating to the topic?
    • The formal tone used?

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How you were able to do it

  • The response is fully comprehensible?

  • Did the use of the language showed sophistication?

  • Is the response organized?

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If you can answer with yes, it’s likely your score will be high, but there are some things you should keep in mind:

  • A response with sophisticated language can fail to maintain an exchange.

  • Maintaining an exchange doesn’t mean the reply is comprehensible.

    This thing can cause you to earn a low score.

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    One of the best ways to see how you will be evaluated will be to put yourself in the shoes of the recipient, and ask yourself:

    • Does it answer all the concerns?
    • Is the tone appropriate?

If the answers are again yes, you are on the path to scoring a 5.

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STRATEGIES FOR TASK 1: EMAIL REPLY

You can take this guideline to budget your time according to your own skills

  • Read instructions and email

    • 2 to 3 minutes
    • Identify who sent the email and why.
    • Underline the questions to answer.
    • Make notes on what you can ask for more details or cultural references.
  • Writing the reply

    • 8 to 10 minutes
    • Use the formal register.
    • Make use of the structure (greeting, opening, body, closing, goodbye).
    • Vary your vocabulary
    • Keep your ideas simple and clear.
    • Do not try to force the use of different tenses.
    • Draw a line over your mistakes and keep writing.
  • After you finish

    • 2 to 5 minutes

    • Make sure you:

    • Addressed all the elements.

    • Used a variety of vocabulary.

    • Made your ideas clear and concise.

    • Used correct orthography, punctuation, and paragraphing.

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WRITING YOUR EMAIL

The structure of an email is really important, a good email should be conformed by:

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  • Greeting: Should be appropriate for formal correspondence, for example

    • “Estimado(a) señor(a).“
    • “Buenos días, señor(a).“

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  • Opening: One or two sentences where you acknowledge receiving the message and convey feelings or emotions generated from reading the message, and you make a general comment, some examples of simple openings are:

    • “Le agradezco mucho por su mensaje.“
    • “Espero que todo esté bien con usted.“

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  • Body: This is the content of your response, answer the questions and elaborate, be creative but make sure the ideas are formal and include a question relevant to the context.

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  • Closing: one or two sentences in which you express gratitude, reiterate some information from the body and express interest in hearing back from this person, some examples are:

    • “Muchas gracias por su amable atención.“
    • “Quedo a la espera de su respuesta.“
    • “Quedo a su disposición para facilitarle cualquier otra información.“

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  • Goodbye: should be tone appropriate, for example:

    • “Le saluda cordialmente“
    • “Atentamente“
    • “Respetuosamente“

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To ensure you are using formal language pay attention to the organization of thoughts, this is where you can use transitions, some recommended transitions are:

  • To introduce an idea:

    • “Para Empezar“
    • “En primer Lugar“

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  • To add ideas

    • “Además“
    • “También“

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  • To contrast ideas
    • “En cambio“
    • “No obstante“
    • “Por otro lado“
    • “Sin embargo“

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  • To change topic
    • “Con respecto a“
    • “En cuanto a“

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  • To show effect
    • “Como resultado“
    • “Debido a lo anterior“
    • “Entonces“
    • “Por consiguiente“
    • “Por eso“
    • “Por esa razón“

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  • To give examples
    • “Por ejemplo“
    • “En particular“

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  • To finalize
    • “Finalmente“
    • “Para concluir“

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You can easily use 4 to 5 of these in a simple response, this can help you organize thoughts and sound more sophisticated.

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