Personal letter
Connect, recount and advise through audience-aware writing.
Write for the situation
Audience
someone the writer knows
Purpose
Connect, recount and advise
Register and tone
Personal and appropriately informal
Avoid
A list of facts without connection to the recipient
Conventions that help the reader
A personal greeting; awareness of the recipient; organised news or advice; a personal ending. These are adaptable guidance: task, audience and purpose decide the choices.
A flexible route through the text
- 1Greeting and connection
- 2News or experience
- 3Advice and reflection
- 4Personal close
Language to develop
Choose precise verbs and examples. Connect reasons and consequences, qualify claims when necessary and vary sentence forms without forcing unfamiliar language.
Planning question
How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Model extract · Social organization
This original teaching extract shows selected choices. It is shorter than a complete Paper 1 response and is not an IB-marked exemplar.
Dear Sam,
I was glad to hear from you. Starting somewhere new can be exhausting, especially when everyone else seems to know the unwritten rules. My mentor helped by inviting me to one activity, not by expecting me to join everything at once. I would ask your coordinator whether there is someone who can show you around. You do not need to tell that person your whole life story. Begin with one question or a shared interest, and see where the conversation goes.
Take care,
Alex
Read as a writer
Find evidence of the intended reader, purpose and register. Identify a convention that makes the text usable.
Explore the content
Underline an example, reason or practical detail. Explain what it contributes, then develop the next paragraph yourself.
Connect it to each core theme
Identities
You have taken part in a multilingual welcome project and your experience changed how you think about language, culture and belonging.
Write a personal letter for someone the writer knows. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how language choices shape belonging.
Planning focus: How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Plan this taskExperiences
You have taken part in a student exchange programme and your experience changed how you think about travel, transitions and learning through experience.
Write a personal letter for someone the writer knows. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: what students gain from an unfamiliar experience.
Planning focus: How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Plan this taskHuman ingenuity
You have taken part in an AI-supported language-learning app and your experience changed how you think about innovation, media and technology.
Write a personal letter for someone the writer knows. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how technology helps learners and where its limits lie.
Planning focus: How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Plan this taskSocial organization
You have taken part in a school peer-mentoring programme and your experience changed how you think about education, community and participation.
Write a personal letter for someone the writer knows. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how a community can support newcomers.
Planning focus: How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Plan this taskSharing the planet
You have taken part in a student-led food-waste project and your experience changed how you think about environment, responsibility and shared resources.
Write a personal letter for someone the writer knows. Describe a significant moment, explain your response and reflect on what you learned.
Theme connection: how individuals and institutions can reduce waste.
Planning focus: How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Plan this taskTeach, practise and refine
- Read a real example of this text type and identify its readership and purpose.
- Annotate the model extract, then discuss how a different audience would change its wording.
- Select a theme task. Plan all required actions before writing; develop examples rather than listing them.
- Draft independently, review audience and task coverage, then revise one paragraph.
Teacher language
How does your advice grow out of what you know about the reader?
Support without fixing every sentence
Offer an audience–purpose planning grid, a few useful connectors and oral rehearsal. Then remove the paragraph openings and ask for independent wording. Extend by developing an alternative viewpoint or a justified qualification.
Self-check
- Have I addressed every instruction?
- Do the reader, purpose, tone and conventions match?
- Does each main idea have a developed example or explanation?
- Have I checked verb forms, reference, spelling and punctuation?