Letter Writing: Requesting Information
Before you start writing, you should know what type of letter it is, whether formal or informal, so that you can form sentences according to the required tone and style. If you are writing a letter to a manager, employer or any person with whom you are professionally related, then this letter is formal. However, when you are to write a letter to your friend with whom you are personally related, then this letter type is informal.
Types of writing prompts:
The writing prompt can ask you do to any one of the following:
a) request information
b) explain a situation.
In this article, you will know more about how to request information.
Let’s find out with an example how to write a formal letter requesting information.
Formal Letter – requesting information
Question:
You have decided to set up a business for which you want to avail the facility of bank loan.
Write a letter to the bank manager requesting for information about the bank loan and in your letter, write the following:
- Why you are writing the letter
- What is the amount of bank loan you need
- When you are able to repay the loan
In this writing prompt, the examiner is asking you to write a letter to request the bank manager for some information. As the letter is to the bank manager, it has to be a formal letter.
Once you know what is asked of you, you should now structure your letter.
Steps to write a formal letter while requesting information:
- Identify letter – Formal
- Write salutation (Dear Sir/Mam,)
- Write purpose of letter
- Describe the first bullet point (it may be same as step 3)
- Describe the second bullet point
- Describe the third bullet point
- Write finishing statements (I look forward receiving your response at the earliest.)
- Sign-off (Yours faithfully,)
Sample Answer:
Dear Sir/Mam,
I am writing this letter to request information about availing loan from your bank for starting a business nearby my home in the next month.
As per the market research, I hope that constructing a restaurant in the proposed site would be a huge success. Since the area is a home to students studying in the regional university, it is expected that around 2000 students can be the potential customers of my business.
For setting up the restaurant, I would require to invest Rs 50 lakh which I seek as the loan amount from bank. I request you to provide me all the required information including eligibility criteria and the documents to be submitted along with the application.
Furthermore, I would like to inform that there is no other restaurant in the area which would provide a great possibility for the business to grow. And hence, I hope that I would be able to repay the loan in 3 years or earlier.
Kindly provide me the requested information as soon as possible so that the loan application can be processed at the earliest.
Yours faithfully,
Ramesh Varma
(189 words)
To improve the quality of your letter, you should include vocabulary from the glossary below.
Useful vocabulary for formal letter while requesting information
- I would like to request
- I would like to suggest if you can
- I would be grateful if you can
- I would like you to kindly
- I am entitled to request that
- I was wondering if it would be possible for you to
Now, let’s understand with an example how to write an informal letter requesting information.
Informal Letter – requesting information
Question:
You want to apply for work permit in a city abroad where you had never been to. Hence, you want to seek information about that city from a friend who is living in that city.
Write a letter to your friend to request information about the city you are planning to move to and in your letter, write the following:
- Where and when you want to work
- What type of job it is
- For how long you want to work there
This prompt is asking you to request information about a city, but is an informal letter as you are asked to write it to your friend.
Now that you know that it is an informal letter, let’s look at its structure.
Steps to write an informal letter while requesting information:
- Identify letter – Informal
- Write salutation (Dear Carol,)
- Write greeting statement (I hope you are doing well.)
- Describe the first bullet point
- Describe the second bullet point
- Describe the third bullet point
- Write finishing statements (I hope we would meet soon in the next month.)
- Sign-off (Yours truly,)
Sample Answer:
Dear Suresh,
I hope you are doing well and enjoying your life.
It’s been quite long that I couldn’t write to you as I was planning my visit to your city, London. I feel lucky enough that my company has selected me for a project in London and I would be reaching there in the next month.
My London based project is a great opportunity for me where I would be interacting with some clients for presenting business proposals and further finalizing the deals. This is a full-time job of day shift but sometimes, I may need to work in night shifts. As I am new to the city, I need some help from you if you can give some information such as the rent charges, food prices, availability of public transport, facility of banking and others. Since you are already in the city, I think you can be of great help in gaining familiarity to the city.
I would be staying in London for 2 years after which the project ends and I hope we will have great fun together in London.
Yours truly,
Pratham
(186 words)
To improve the quality of your letter, you should include vocabulary from the glossary below.
Useful vocabulary for informal letter while requesting information
- Well, you know
- As you know,
- It would be great to see you
- I have got a
- A lovely view
- On the bright side
- It would be nice
- Prices are crazy
- It was quite good
- Hope to see you soon!
- All the best!
- Good bye!
- Take care!
- Keep in touch!
- Contraction words: It’s, It’s been, can’t, haven’t etc.
Exercise:
1. You have planned to study a distance course online from an international university. Write a letter to the university officer requesting information about the course. In your letter, write:
- Why you are writing
- Which course it is and when you plan to study
- Why you want to study this course
2. You want to spend your holidays in the country outside India where your friend resides. Write a letter to your friend and in your letter, write:
- Where and when you want to spend holidays
- Why you want to visit there
- When you are planning to visit
3. You recently purchased a product from an online store and are unsatisfied about its quality. Now, you want to avail refund for the product but are unaware of the company’s return and refund policy. Write a letter to the customer relationship officer requesting information about the refund policy and in your letter, write:
- Why you are writing
- Why you are seeking refund
- When you want refund
Comments:
The given pie chart and table provide data about the nationality of guests, their length of stay, the most chosen accomodation types and main activites during their holiday in Australia.
As an overall trend, it can be noticed that most of the visistors of Australia are Asian and European people. Additionally, guests from Europe and America prefer staying longer than other tourists.
From the chart it can be seen that European and Asian people account for almost three fourth of the visitors with 35% and 37% respectively. Citizens of US make about 18% of visitors and the rest 10% come from other nations.
According to the table, individuals from USA and Europe choose to live 2 weeks and over during their vacation (14 days, 16 days), while Asian guests and tourists from other regions prefer staying a week and more(7 days, 10 days). Moreover, tourists from Asia and United States of America prefer living in comfortable hotels (with 5 star and 4 stars) and prefer spending their main time on sightseeings. However European and customers from another regions do not mind living in camping or caravan and would like to be close to the sea by swinmming or sunbathing and surfing.
Please review, Thank you!
Do you think if you eat healthy food and stay in bed at all times, try to move as little as possible you would stay fit? No, Right!
In the same way, a person becomes overweight by a series of factors contributing to its effects, rather than just one. While the price might be a determining factor for some, for others it is the crunch of time and lack of ability to cook that leads them to choose unhealthier options. It is always easier to walk into a KFC and just order a bucket of wings (since it is readily available) than to cook by yourself, do the preparation, and then clean the dishes. Our diet is supposed to be a fair mix of proteins, fibers, carbohydrates, and fats. Eliminating anyone can cause serious repercussions leading to an imbalance of hormones and vitamins.
We can classify people here in two sets, to understand the effect of increasing the price of fattening foods. Firstly, the people who choose to go for readily available food options because they don't have time, are the people who are working in corporates, have tight deadlines, and are on a very short break. The increase in price won't affect their choice because for them time is of the essence. Secondly, comes the set who have to go to a fast food chain because they cannot afford the luxury of having or cooking organic & healthy foods. For them, the increase in price will negatively affect their budget hence impacting their ability to feed themselves.
Therefore, I do not stand with the proposition of inflating the price point of fattening foods. Rather, we should look for other options, one of which could be to decrease the membership costs of the gym or to educate people about obesity and train them to take up do-it-at-home exercises. It takes a very long time for our body to break down the fats accumulated by the fattening agents present in our food but we can train our metabolism to work faster by maintaining a healthy lifestyle. If adequately coupled with exercise, being overweight can be avoided and you can still have your favourite food at the same price.
Please review. Thank you!
https://ieltsonlinetests.com/wot/result/writing-practice-test-1-1201622
The displayed pie chart and table inform four types of tourists from different nationalities, how long they spend, accommodation types, and their activities during their holiday in Australia.
Overall, most of the visitors to Australia are from Asia and Europe. While the smallest portion of visitors come from other countries. Additionally, guests from Europe stay longer than other tourists. On the other hand, Asian tourists who make up the majority, stay the shortest in Australia.
To begin with, the biggest proportion of tourists who come to Australia are Asians who make up 37% of the total tourists, followed by Europe with 35%. While guests from the US have 18% which is higher than the proportion from other countries with only 10%.
However, according to the table, the largest population of tourists which is dominated by Asians only stays for 7 days, while American and European tourists choose to stay about 14 days and 16 days, and the rest of the tourists from other countries prefer to stay about 10 days.
Moreover, Asian and American tourists like to stay in 5-star and 4-star hotels which give them a comfortable rest during the holiday, and prefer to spend their main time sightseeing. Meanwhile, Europeans and the rest of the tourists enjoy the holiday in a caravan or camp. Different from Asians and Americans, Europeans prefer to spend their main time swimming or sunbathing and the rest of the tourist prefer to surf to spend their holiday.
The pie chart illustrates the percentage of tourist from all over the world who travelled to Australia for vacation and the tale descries the average number of days they spent, their accommodation and main activities they enjoyed.
The US and Europe had the largest percentage of people who travelled by 37% and 35% respectively, followed by Asia which was 18% and few people from other regions made 10% of the total percentage.
Asian tourists while on vacation in Australia, enjoyed sight seeing and stayed an average of 7 days in a 5 star hotel. The Europeans preferred camping , they engaged in swimming and sunbathing and stayed at least 16 days on the trip. The Americans resided in a 4 star hotel in Australia for about 14 days and their most enjoyed activity was sight seeing. Travelers from other various areas, stayed in Australia for a minimum of 10 days, and enjoyed surfing.
The pie chart and the graph give information about the percentage of tourists from different parts of the world and their lifestyle choices during their stay at a particular holiday resort in Australia.
The pie chart indicates that more than two-thirds of the total visitors belong to Asia and Europe. Furthermore, 18% of the visitors are from America while 10% are from the rest of the world.
On the other hand, the graph shows that European tourists spend on average 16 days on vacation while American visitors spend two weeks. however Asian people spend the least amount of time (in comparison) only 7 days. While Asian and American tourists prefer to stay in 5-star and 4-star hotels respectively, Europeans and tourists from other parts of the globe chose camping or caravan modes of accommodation.
Talking about the main activity during the stay, American and Asian visitors spent most of their time sightseeing. In contrast, European tourists preferred swimming and sunbathing. Tourists from other regions choose to surf in their time.
Please review my essay
https://ieltsonlinetests.com/wot/result/writing-practice-test-1-1165982
Day by day peoples are more getting a excess weight ,it can cause dangerous problems to their health.One group of people advices to surge the cost of products which can contribute to overweighting for solving this issue.I totally disagree with this statement ,because if either they increase the prices it can not completely tackle this obstacle.
First of all, humans buy this products which can damage to their health beacuse they are cheaper than expensive and safe food.All cheap food is producing from genetically modified organism, this technology contribute to sell with low price.For instance, prevailing part of all peoples which have extra fat from lower class with small income of money.So if we rase prices in a necessary products .Then, this people literally can not buy other food products to eat.
Indeed, we must look precily to producing companies and restrict the current food law to do our food less hazardful. High class persons proportion of overweight significantly low because they buy expensive food with natural origin without hazard additions.Therefore, all agroindustry must follow sever rules and this rules absolutely wii be solve this dangerous illness.For example, in countries with good nature and without harmful chemicals in the food growing and processing process.Only few proportion of people suffer from extra weight.So we must see deeply in this problem to successfully rid from it.
In conclusion,in my view increasing the price of fattening foods is not the best solution ,but if we change whole our agroindustry laws and restrictions.Definitely , we can solve a overweight issue forever and fairly to all peoples.
your writing is amazing.
https://ieltsonlinetests.com/wot/result/writing-practice-test-1-1162138
Can someone please review my essay? I really need some feedback. My test is next week.
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