English Practice & Support

For the PET Writing Exam, question 7 requires the student to write a letter, containing about 100 words.

Once the opening greeting has been written, the first part of this document needs to have a social comment.

'How are you? I hope you are well. I was happy to read your letter.'

The question tells you what you need to talk about.

That is done after the social comment has been written.

The final part is to close the letter with another social comment.

'Write back soon. I will be looking forward to your letter.'

The most practical closing greeting is 'Best wishes,'

Lets look at an example:

Lets start with the opening greeting:

'Dear friend,'

Then to add a social comment:

'How are you? I hope you are well. I was happy to read your letter.'

Now for the main part of the letter, using the information given in the question.

The first part of the answer is:

'You're right, I do enjoy going to the cinema, and the last film I saw was the new James Bond film called Spectre.'

Then the second part of the answer:

'I really enjoyed it BECAUSE it was full of action. James Bond had to drive fast cars and fight with dangerous villains. It was set in interesting places all over the world, and of course James won all the fights.'

Notice that it is very important to explain what you say by using 'BECAUSE'.

Finally another social comment:

'Tell me about yourself. Do you like going to the cinema? Write back soon. I will be looking forward to your letter.'

The final thing is the closing greeting:

'Best wishes,'

Putting it all together:

Dear friend,

How are you? I hope you are well. I was happy to read your letter. You're right I do enjoy going to the cinema, and the last film I saw was the new James Bond film called Spectre. I really enjoyed it because it was full of action. James Bond had to drive fast cars and fight with dangerous villains. It was set in interesting places all over the world, and of course James won all the fights. Tell me about yourself. Do you like going to the cinema? Write back soon. I will be looking forward to your letter.

Best wishes,

Good presentation can improve your mark, so the individual parts should be separated by leaving a line between them:

Dear friend,

How are you? I hope you are well. I was happy to read your letter.

You're right I do enjoy going to the cinema, and the last film I saw was the new James Bond film called Spectre. I really enjoyed it because it was full of action. James Bond had to drive fast cars and fight with dangerous villains. It was set in interesting places all over the world, and of course James won all the fights.

Tell me about yourself. Do you like going to the cinema? Write back soon. I will be looking forward to your letter.

Best wishes,

Notice that the opening greeting and the closing greeting finish with a comma .

This document contains 104 words.