Writing effective emails – formal and informal language

Title separator

E-mail writing

Flipped

formal and informal email

LESSON OVERVIEW

This email lesson plan is prepared for B1 students and contains a lot of various exercises to make students learn about email forms, listen to some rules presented in a short video, learn some email vocabulary and practise writing emails. It looks at the structure of an email as well as distinguishes between formal and informal email style and language.

B1 / Intermediate60 minFlipped LessonUnlimited Plan

This is a Flipped Classroom lesson plan. In a nutshell, it means that the first part of the lesson needs to be done by students at home. Learn more about flipped classroom and how we implement it in these lesson plans in our post.

PRE-CLASS ACTIVITIES

Before classes, students should do two vocabulary tasks. First, they need to study a sample email and label parts of an email with correct words. Then, they move to the second task and this time they have to complete a short table. There is a list of greetings and closings usually used in emails. Students divide them into two groups: formal and informal.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES

The in-class worksheet starts with discussion points thanks to which students will talk about various aspects connected with writing and receiving emails. Next, they move to a vocabulary task. It includes words from the video that B1 students might find difficult. There are such words as brief, vague, concise, multiple, etc. Students need to match them to their meanings. Then, they watch the video and put rules connected with writing emails in order they hear them. After watching the video, students move to another short discussion about the ideas mentioned in the video.

Moreover, there is a practical part of the worksheet which starts with a short exercise on matching informal verbs to their more formal equivalents. In the next task, students practise using them by rewrite sentences using the vocabulary from the previous task.
The next exercise of this email lesson plan includes two emails (informal and formal) that contain some errors. Students need to find and correct them. Finally, using vocabulary from the whole lesson, they will write their own emails. They need to reply to the formal email from the previous task. If you don’t have time, let them do it at home, and peer-review during your next class.

WORKSHEETS

Comments

Title separator

Leave a Reply

  1. Marta

    Ok, I’ve just done it – thanks!

    1. Justa

      Thanks and welcome aboard 🙂 Now, you can explore all the premium content we’ve created 🙂

  2. Natalia

    Hi! Thank you for this worksheet – such a balanced, well-structured and level-appropriate lesson plan! 🙂 I love it that there’s a little bit of everything: vocabulary, listening, speaking, writing. It was a very useful lesson for my B1 students.

    1. Stan

      Thanks Natalia! That’s what we wanted to achieve – not to make it a writing-only lesson but still focused on developing practical writing skills 🙂

  3. Jessica Sasse

    Can I ask if the youtube videos are part of the lessons? Youtube often changes its source or removes a video and they belong to other people.. so not sure about this part.

    1. Stan

      The videos are used for listening comprehension (and sometimes vocabulary) tasks. We monitor and update links to videos and so far (3 years) we haven’t had any video gone missing permanently. If something like this happens, we’ll redesign the lesson.
      However, we don’t download the videos, make copies which you can get from us, alter the videos in anyway, we merely link to them.

  4. [email protected]

    ^-^

  5. Cris Wolves

    It would be great to have more American English lessons

  6. Cris Wolves

    There are mistakes in the lesson that need correction. For example in exercise 9 Email B, the last error doesn’t appear in the student’s sheet, and in the powerpoint version, the error is different.

    1. Stan

      Hi Cris! Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’ve fixed the issues we found and reuploaded the lesson files.

Browse other materials recommended for you

Title separator
talking about priorities
B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Prioritizing and to-do lists

Business Lifestyle

With this insightful lesson, students practise vocabulary to talk about priorities, watch an explainer video about the Eisenhower Matrix and discuss time management. They also give advice on how to organize tasks.

speaking about misunderstandings
B1 / Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

How to deal with misunderstandings

Business General

With this speaking lesson, students discuss situations that might cause misunderstandings, watch a short and funny ad and analyse tips on how to avoid miscommunication.

vocabulary for presentations
B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

As you can see in the slide (giving presentations)

Business

Step into the world of presentations with this handy lesson! Students explore vocabulary for structuring presentations, read the text of a presentation and watch a video on how to communicate ideas clearly.

B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

As per my last email…

Business

Dive into the intriguing world of emailing and talk about what annoys people the most. With this lesson, students expand their vocabulary, express irritation, and analyze real-life situations.

vocabulary to talk about higher education
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Is a degree worth it?

Business General

Engage your students in a discussion on the ins and outs of higher education. Explore education and career-related vocabulary and work on comprehension skills by watching a news report on the job market.

talk about dress code
B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Dress code: formal or casual?

Business

Get your students talking about dress code! They watch a video and read a text about office attire, and learn vocabulary to share their views on past and current dress code rules.

B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Talking about leaders

Business

Students talk about good and bad leadership, watch an explainer video and share their experiences. Let them explain why they’d rather be a good leader or have a good leader.

A2 / Pre‐Intermediate | B1 / Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Being a successful entrepreneur

Business

Students immerse in the world of entrepreneurship: they generate questions, watch an explainer video, read inspiring success stories, describe pictures and answer thought-provoking questions.

suffixes ‘-ful’ and ‘-less’
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Ready to go paperless?

Business Grammar

In this lesson, students learn some vocabulary related to document management, talk about going paperless, watch a video, and work on word building learning suffixes ‘-ful’ and ‘-less’.

Show more lessons

Questions

Title separator

Is there a minimum subscription period if I choose a monthly subscription?

No, there’s no minimum required number of subscription months. You can cancel any time you want. Basically, you can sign up and then cancel your subscription the next day, which will mean you have access for 1 month and won’t be charged again.

What currencies can I pay in for my subscription?

Our default currency is USD (American dollar), but you can also pay in EUR (euro), GBP (British pound sterling) or PLN (Polish zloty). You can change the currency you want to pay in at the Pricing page before selecting a subscription plan.

How can I edit an e-lesson plan?

You can get your own editable copy of an e-lesson plan and make changes to it. To do so, either (1) make a copy of it on your Google Drive (preferable method) or (2) download it in a Powerpoint format (but formatting might be a bit off so we can’t guarantee that it will work well).

Read more FAQ
Title separator

ESL Brains

Forgot password?
or continue with