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.
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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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