Writing Task 1 letter – is the order important?

Have you ever thought about the order of information in your GT Writing Task 1 letter? Have you ever wondered if there’s a specific order in which you should write all the information that the task statement requires? Here is what you need to know:

The GT Writing Task 1 statement usually asks you to write a letter to someone, including the reason why you are writing and some bullet points with information for you to include in your letter.

For example, the task statement can be:

You are travelling next month to stay with a host family you do not know as part of a student exchange program.

Write a letter to the family to introduce yourself. In your letter,
– say when and how you will be arriving
– tell the family a little about yourself
– ask about the weather to pack suitable clothes

A student asked a very good question: what will happen if you write about the bullet points, but NOT in the same order they appear in the task statement? Will your score go down if, for example, you first write about yourself (2nd bullet point), then about when you will be arriving (1st bullet point) and then ask about the weather (3rd bullet point)?

The answer is – your score will not suffer if you write in a different order from the task statement. If your letter is long enough (at least 150 words), has no spelling errors, is grammatically correct and written using the appropriate tone and vocabulary, you don’t have anything to worry about.

One thing to keep in mind though is that often there is logic to the order of bullet points, and following that logic may be easier than re-arranging it. This means that if you write in the same order of bullet points, your letter will turn out coherent and there will be a logical progression. However, if you can write a good logical letter with all the information in a different order from that of bullet points’ – that would be absolutely fine.

You can find more writing tips in our new book, ‘IELTS Success Formula’ – go here to learn more.