Here's something most students don't realize: examiners start scoring your letter the moment they read your opening line. Not after. Not once they get to your main ideas. Right there, with "Dear Sir or Madam" or whatever you've written.
The greeting and closing of an IELTS Task 1 formal letter aren't throwaway details. They count toward your Coherence and Cohesion band score, your Lexical Resource, and your overall Task Response. Get them wrong, and you're looking at the difference between a 6.5 and a 7, or between a 7 and a 7.5. On the IELTS scale, that matters.
Let me show you exactly what examiners are looking for, where most students slip up, and how to nail these two critical components so they work for you instead of against you. Use our free IELTS writing checker to evaluate your greetings and closings against actual band score criteria.
Task 1 is scored on four criteria: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy. Your greeting and closing touch all four.
A correct, formal greeting signals that you understand register. You know you're writing to someone you don't know well, possibly in a position of authority, and you're adjusting your tone accordingly. That's Coherence and Cohesion working. A well-chosen closing phrase shows vocabulary control and grammatical accuracy. A mismatched or awkward greeting-closing pair damages your Task Response score because it shows you haven't fully grasped the context of the letter.
Here's the reality: if your greeting is "Hi There" or your closing is "Yours Truly," you've already signaled to the examiner that your understanding of formality is shaky. They'll be reading the rest of your letter through that lens, looking for other informal slips. That bias hurts you across the board.
Tip: Your greeting and closing work as a pair. If you open formally, close formally. If you open with a name, your closing must match that level of formality. Mismatches confuse the examiner and suggest you weren't paying attention to the IELTS letter salutation evaluation criteria.
IELTS Task 1 letters always fall into one of two categories based on who you're writing to. Understand this distinction, and you've solved half the problem.
Scenario 1: You know the person's name. The prompt tells you something like "Write a letter to the manager of the gym, Mr. David Chen." In this case, your greeting must use that name.
Good: Dear Mr. Chen,
Avoid: Dear David, / Hi Mr. Chen, / Hello Chen,
Notice the pattern. You use the surname, not the first name. You include the title (Mr., Ms., Dr., Professor). You never jump to casual language like "Hi" even if the context feels friendly. This is formality, and it's non-negotiable for Band 7 and above.
Scenario 2: You don't know the person's name. The prompt says something vague like "Write to the relevant authority" or "Write to the customer service department." In these cases, you use the generic formal greeting.
Good: Dear Sir or Madam,
Avoid: Dear Sir, / Dear Madam, / To Whom It May Concern, / Hello,
Don't split "Sir" and "Madam" into separate greetings. Don't use "To Whom It May Concern," which is outdated American business convention and not standard in IELTS. Stay with "Dear Sir or Madam,". It's formal, it's correct, and examiners give you full marks for register when you use it.
Tip: If the prompt gives you even a hint of a name, assume you don't know their specific identity. Use "Dear Sir or Madam,". If they explicitly state a name, use it. Don't guess or improvise.
This is where most students fumble. They'll end with "Best Regards," or "Sincerely," or something they half-remember from a business email, then wonder why their band score plateaus at 6.5.
For IELTS Task 1, there are exactly four closing phrases examiners expect. Use one of these.
Option 1: "Yours faithfully," Use this when you opened with "Dear Sir or Madam,". There's a formal British English rule that if you don't know the person's name, you close with "Yours faithfully,". This is the gold standard for nameless recipients and shows you understand formal letter conventions.
Good: Dear Sir or Madam, [letter body] Yours faithfully, [Your Name]
Option 2: "Yours sincerely," Use this when you opened with a named recipient like "Dear Mr. Chen,". You know their name, so you use a different phrase. It signals you've adapted your register to the known recipient.
Good: Dear Mr. Chen, [letter body] Yours sincerely, [Your Name]
Option 3: "Kind regards," This is slightly less formal than "Yours sincerely," but still appropriate for Task 1. Use it when you have a named recipient but want a slightly warmer tone. Below Band 7, examiners might see this as not formal enough, so be cautious.
Good: Dear Ms. Rodriguez, [letter body] Kind regards, [Your Name]
Option 4: "Best wishes," This is the most casual acceptable option. Only use it if the letter is semi-formal or you've built real rapport with the recipient in the body. For Band 7 targeting, stick with Options 1 and 2.
Avoid: Best regards, / Thanks, / See you soon, / Cheers, / Take care, / All the best,
None of those work in formal IELTS Task 1. They're too casual, too American, or too vague. Examiners flag them as register errors, which damages your Coherence and Cohesion score.
The physical layout of your closing demonstrates knowledge of formal letter conventions and affects your band score. Your closing phrase should be followed by a line break, then your typed name. This represents where a signature would go in a real letter.
Correct format:
Yours sincerely,
[blank line]
John Smith
Avoid:
Yours sincerely, John Smith
That space signals that you understand the structure and conventions of professional correspondence. On exam day, you can't actually sign, but you include your typed name. The space still shows you know the proper format, which examiners reward in the Grammatical Range and Accuracy criterion.
Let's connect this to band descriptors so you see what's at stake.
Band 5-6: Greeting and closing exist but the formality is inconsistent. A student might use "Dear Sir or Madam," then close with "See you soon,". Or open formally but close informally. The letter reads like the writer isn't sure what formality level they're aiming for. Register awareness is patchy, which directly lowers Coherence and Cohesion.
Band 7: Greeting and closing are consistently formal and matched. If the recipient is unnamed, the student uses "Dear Sir or Madam," and "Yours faithfully,". If named, they use "Dear Mr./Ms. [Name]," and "Yours sincerely,". Formality stays consistent throughout. Lexical Resource and Coherence and Cohesion both improve because register is locked in from the start.
Band 8: Same as Band 7 but with zero errors. The student demonstrates secure understanding that greeting and closing aren't just decorative. They're functional parts of register and task achievement. The overall letter feels polished and naturally formal, never forced or uncertain.
Here's what matters: you can't reach Band 7 with a weak greeting and closing. The examiner will assume you don't understand formality, and that assumption colors their reading of every other line you write. It's not just about those two sentences. It's about the credibility they assign you for the remaining 150-180 words.
Mistake 1: Mismatching greeting and closing. You open with "Dear Sir or Madam," but close with "Yours sincerely," (which pairs with named recipients). Or the reverse. This creates confusion for the examiner. They mark you down on Coherence and Cohesion because the letter feels structurally disjointed.
Mistake 2: Wrong punctuation. You write "Dear Sir or Madam;" (semicolon) or "Dear Mr. Khan." (full stop) instead of a comma. In British formal letters, both greeting and closing end with commas. This is a Grammatical Range and Accuracy error that examiners absolutely catch.
Avoid: Dear Sir or Madam; / Dear Mr. Khan. / Yours sincerely; / Yours faithfully.
Good: Dear Sir or Madam, / Dear Mr. Khan, / Yours sincerely, / Yours faithfully,
Mistake 3: Inventing a closing phrase. "Respectfully yours," or "With kind regards," or "Warm regards," sound professional but they're not standard IELTS phrases. Examiners are marking against a rubric, and your invented phrase isn't on it. Stick to the four options listed above.
Mistake 4: Forgetting your name. You write "Yours sincerely," and nothing else. The letter feels incomplete. It signals you're rushing or you don't understand formal conventions. Always include your name in typed form below the closing phrase.
Before you hand in your Task 1 letter, spend 60 seconds on this checklist.
If all five are true, you're good. Move on to checking your paragraph structure and vocabulary. If you're unsure about your letter's overall register or tone balance, our IELTS writing checker can flag formality issues you might have missed in seconds.
A lot of students think greeting and closing are just ceremonial, but they're not. When you nail the format, you've already signaled to the examiner that you understand the context. That sets a positive tone for the entire letter.
When you combine correct greetings and closings with strong paragraph structure and accurate data descriptions, you move toward the Band 7 and Band 8 range. If you also need to work on other elements of your formal letter, check our guide to band score guides for detailed breakdowns of each scoring criterion.
Get instant feedback on your greeting, closing, formality, and band score. See exactly where your letter stands on all four IELTS writing criteria with our AI-powered IELTS writing evaluator.
Check My Essay Free