Templates
Write Email frames for PTE Core
Write Email gives you nine minutes, a situation, three points to cover and a 50 to 120 word limit. It is scored on seven traits, and the first two, content and form, can zero the rest. These frames are built so that most of your words are the prompt's points, not padding.
Pearson scores content 0 for memorised material that does not address the prompt, and a content score of 0 makes the whole response 0. An email that opens with three sentences of general politeness and reaches the first bullet point at word sixty has spent half its budget on nothing. Use the frames below as openers only; the words that follow each one must come from the prompt.
The shape of a scoring email
The prompt gives a situation (your neighbour's dog barks at night; your manager asked for feedback on a new rota; a shop sent the wrong size) and three bullet points you must cover. A response that scores well does five things in about 90 to 110 words: greets the right person in the right register, states why you are writing in one sentence, covers each bullet point in its own short paragraph or sentence, asks for or offers something specific, and signs off. The task's email-conventions trait is scored separately from content, so the greeting and sign-off are not decoration; they are points.
| Part | Words | Job |
|---|---|---|
| Greeting | 2–4 | Match the register: Dear Mr Okafor / Hi Sam |
| Purpose | 12–18 | Why you are writing, naming the situation from the prompt |
| Point 1, 2, 3 | 15–25 each | One fact or request per bullet, in order |
| Action | 10–15 | What you want to happen next, or what you will do |
| Sign-off | 3–5 | Kind regards / Best wishes + a name |
Frames
Opening the email
- Formal, to a stranger or an organisation: "I am writing about ___, which ___." The second blank is the specific problem or occasion from the prompt.
- Formal, to someone you know: "Thank you for ___. I wanted to let you know that ___."
- Informal, to a friend or colleague: "Hope you're well. I'm getting in touch because ___."
Covering each bullet point
- Describing a problem: "Since ___, ___ has ___." (Since Monday, the heating has stopped working in the evenings.)
- Explaining an effect: "This means that ___, which ___."
- Making a request: "Could you ___ by ___?" or "I would be grateful if you could ___."
- Offering or suggesting: "One option would be to ___; another is ___." or "I'd be happy to ___ if that helps."
Closing
- "Please let me know if ___ by ___."
- "Thanks in advance for ___."
- "Looking forward to hearing from you."
Notice that none of these is a full sentence until you add the prompt. That is the point. A frame that can be written without reading the prompt is a template, and it will cost you.
A filled example
You rent a flat. The heating has stopped working. Write an email to your landlord. Say what the problem is, explain how it is affecting you, and ask what you would like them to do.
Dear Ms Reyes,
I am writing about the heating in Flat 3B, which stopped working on Monday evening.
Since then, the radiators have stayed cold even when the thermostat is set to 22 degrees, and the boiler shows an error light. The flat is now around 14 degrees in the mornings, which is difficult for my daughter, who has a chest infection, and we are using an electric heater that is adding to our bills.
Could you arrange for an engineer to visit this week? I am at home every day after 4 p.m. and can be reached on this address or on 416 555 0199.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Kind regards,
Daniel Mwangi
Count the content. Of 104 words, about 85 are specific to the prompt: the flat number, the day, the thermostat setting, the error light, the temperature, the daughter, the electric heater, the engineer, the time of day, the phone number. The frames supply the remaining twenty, and they are the twenty that make it read as an email rather than a list. Every bullet point is covered in order, the request is concrete and has a deadline, and the register matches a landlord you address by surname.
Choosing the register
PTE Core prompts tell you who the reader is. A manager, landlord, council, company or school gets "Dear" with a title and surname (or "Dear Sir or Madam" if no name is given), full forms rather than contractions, and "Kind regards". A friend, flatmate or colleague you know well gets "Hi" with a first name, contractions, and "Best" or "Thanks". The email-conventions trait rewards getting this right and the organisation trait rewards paragraphs that follow the bullets. Mixing registers, "Hi Mr Okafor" or "Dear Sam, I'd be grateful if you could", is a small but reliable loss.
Nine minutes, allocated
- One minute: read the prompt twice and decide the register and the three points. Write the three points as three words on the notepad.
- Six minutes: write. Opening frame, one paragraph per point, action, sign-off. Do not stop to polish.
- Two minutes: count words (the screen shows a count), check that each bullet has its own sentence, fix spelling. Spelling is a separate trait and the scorer does not forgive typos.
The mistakes that cost the most
- Under 50 or over 120 words. Form is scored and the limits are hard. Aim for 90 to 110 so an edit cannot push you out of range.
- A missing bullet point. Content is scored against all three. Two excellent paragraphs and no third point is a partial content score at best.
- Template padding. "I hope this email finds you well. I am writing to you today to express my concern regarding a matter of great importance" is 24 words of nothing and raises the template signature the scorer looks for.
- No specific request. "Please solve this" is weaker than "Could you send an engineer before Friday?" The action sentence is where the prompt's third bullet usually lives.
- No greeting or sign-off. Email conventions are a scored trait. Two seconds of typing each.
Practise the task with a timer on the Write Email page; the scorer there reports content, form and the five language traits separately so you can see which one is costing you.