Formality means choosing a greeting, a sign-off and a level of wording that suits the person reading. A friend, a teacher, a principal and a company manager each expect something slightly different. The wrong level makes the email feel careless, even when the content is correct.
This lesson follows covering all the requested points and belongs to the email communication module.
How do you decide the right level?
Ask two questions before you write. Who is the reader, and how well do you know them?
A friend or cousin gets an informal email. A teacher, principal, librarian or manager gets a formal or polite one.
The task usually tells you who the reader is. If it does not, choose the polite option, because politeness is rarely marked down.
What changes between informal and formal?
| Feature | Informal (friend) | Formal (teacher, principal, organisation) |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | Hi Farah, / Dear Farah, | Dear Mr Tan, / Dear Sir or Madam, |
| Opening line | I hope you are well. | I am writing to ask about… |
| Contractions | can’t, I’m, we’ll | cannot, I am, we will |
| Requests | Can you send me…? | Could you please send me…? |
| Closing line | See you soon. | I look forward to your reply. |
| Sign-off | Love, / Best wishes, / Take care, | Yours sincerely, / Yours faithfully, |
Worked example
Task written for this page: “You want to borrow the school hall for a club meeting. Write an email to the principal, Mrs Lim. Say what the club does, when you need the hall and how many students will come.”
Step 1, the reader: a principal, so formal.
Step 2, greeting: “Dear Mrs Lim,” because we know the name.
Step 3, opening line with purpose: “I am writing to ask whether our Chess Club may use the school hall next month.”
Step 4, content in polite language: “We meet to practise and to organise small tournaments. We would need the hall on Friday 12 March from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. About thirty students will attend.”
Step 5, closing line and sign-off: “I would be grateful for your reply. Yours sincerely, Hakim Ismail”
Read as a whole:
Dear Mrs Lim,
I am writing to ask whether our Chess Club may use the school hall next month. We meet to practise and to organise small tournaments. We would need the hall on Friday 12 March from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., and about thirty students will attend.
I would be grateful for your reply.
Yours sincerely, Hakim Ismail
There are no contractions, no slang and no exclamation marks. The request is polite and the sign-off matches the greeting.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to start formally and finish casually, or the other way round.
Mistaken draft: “Dear Mrs Lim, I’m writing ‘cause we wanna use the hall. Cheers, Hakim”
The greeting is formal, but the sentence uses “‘cause” and “wanna”, and “Cheers” is a casual sign-off. The reader sees a student who has not thought about who is reading.
The correction is to read the whole email once for tone only. Replace “‘cause” with “because”, “wanna” with “would like to”, and “Cheers” with “Yours sincerely”.
Check yourself
1. Which sign-off goes with “Dear Sir or Madam”?
Show answer
Yours faithfully. It goes with a greeting where the name is unknown.
2. Rewrite for a formal reader: “Hi, can you tell me when the library opens? Thanks.”
Show answer
“Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to ask when the library opens. Could you please let me know the opening hours? Thank you for your help. Yours faithfully, (name)”
3. Is “Hi Dr Wong” suitable for a doctor you have never met? Why or why not?
Show answer
No. “Hi” is informal. “Dear Dr Wong” is the suitable greeting for a formal email to someone you have not met.
Where this leads next
With the tone settled, move on to explaining a reason rather than listing events. Then try the email communication practice set. The writing revision compare view lets you put an informal and a formal draft side by side.
Tone is easier to hear with a listener. A teacher in our online one-to-one English as a Second Language tuition can read your email back to you and mark where the voice changes.