You and your colleagues have recently attended a foreign language training course organized by your company. Now you all want to do some more language training. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - say how you and your colleagues felt about the course - explain why you all want to do more language training - suggest when and where the training could take place
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,
First, I would like to thank you for arranging a French language training course last month which I and a couple of my colleagues have recently finished. Needless to say, we all feel very ecstatic and empowered to have had this awesome opportunity to learn this important language. We believe it will make us way more confident about our communication skills and abilities, both personally and professionally. To tell you something about this course - it was designed very thoughtfully, especially, for beginners like us. The course instructions were very clear and simple, and it became very interesting from time to time as the course also aimed to teach us the French culture in some entertaining manners. Anyway, while this short language course was good enough for us to learn the basics of the French language, some more training is needed to communicate more professionally with French-speaking people and companies more effectively. We can get this training in our second meeting room which is left unused pretty much all the time. We would like to have another professional French language trainer along with the previous trainer for this. We are ready to start this training anytime in September. Yours sincerely, Elmina Flora
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix pronoun order Original: which I and a couple of my colleagues have recently finished Suggested revision: which a couple of my colleagues and I recently completed Why it matters: Other people conventionally precede ‘I’, and the simple past fits the stated time last month.
- 2. Avoid redundant intensifier Original: very ecstatic Suggested revision: delighted Why it matters: ‘Ecstatic’ is already extreme, so ‘very’ is redundant and overly emphatic.
- 3. Use professional register Original: awesome Suggested revision: valuable Why it matters: ‘Awesome’ is too informal for a letter to a manager.
- 4. Name the language Original: this important language Suggested revision: French Why it matters: Using the language’s name is clearer and avoids a subjective description.
- 5. Use formal intensifier Original: way Suggested revision: much Why it matters: ‘Way more’ is conversational and unsuitable for this professional context.
- 6. Remove repetition Original: communication skills and abilities Suggested revision: communication skills Why it matters: ‘Skills’ and ‘abilities’ repeat the same idea here.
- 7. Use direct formal wording Original: To tell you something about this course Suggested revision: Regarding the course Why it matters: The original phrase is conversational and unnecessarily wordy for a manager.
- 8. Remove incorrect comma Original: especially, for beginners Suggested revision: especially for beginners Why it matters: No comma should separate ‘especially’ from the phrase it modifies.
- 9. Clarify course quality Original: became very interesting from time to time Suggested revision: was particularly engaging Why it matters: The original wording awkwardly suggests that the course was interesting only intermittently.
- 10. Remove unnecessary article Original: the French culture Suggested revision: French culture Why it matters: The general concept ‘French culture’ does not take the definite article here.
- 11. Fix manner phrase Original: some entertaining manners Suggested revision: an entertaining way Why it matters: The countable plural ‘manners’ does not express method naturally in this construction.
- 12. Use formal transition Original: Anyway, while Suggested revision: Although Why it matters: ‘Anyway’ is conversational, while ‘although’ introduces the contrast directly.
Suggested Rewrites
- which I and a couple of my colleagues have recently finished which a couple of my colleagues and I recently completed
- very ecstatic delighted
- awesome valuable
- this important language French
- way much
- communication skills and abilities communication skills
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter fully addresses the colleagues’ reaction, the need for further training, and a practical September venue, with useful supporting detail and a positive purpose. Its main weakness is register and presentation: phrases such as ‘awesome’, ‘way more’, and ‘pretty much’ are too casual for a manager, while the single long body paragraph reduces clarity. Prioritise formal wording and separate paragraphs for reaction, rationale, and arrangements.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
All bullet points are clearly covered with relevant detail, but repeated informal expressions make the tone less appropriate for a letter to a manager.
Keep the enthusiasm while using a consistently professional register and make the request for approval explicit near the beginning or end.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response follows a logical sequence from reaction to reasons and arrangements, but the single long body paragraph obscures that structure.
Create distinct paragraphs for feedback on the first course, reasons for continuing, and the proposed time and venue.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and communicates the ideas clearly, though informal, exaggerated, and awkward choices recur in a professional context.
Replace ‘very ecstatic’, ‘awesome’, ‘way more’, and ‘pretty much’ with measured formal wording such as ‘enthusiastic’, ‘valuable’, and ‘considerably’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex sentences is used successfully, but errors in pronoun order, punctuation, reference, and phrasing occur with some regularity.
Refine forms such as ‘my colleagues and I’, remove misplaced commas, and avoid loose constructions such as ‘in some entertaining manners’.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You and your colleagues have recently attended a foreign language training course organized by your company. Now you all want to do some more language training. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- say how you and your colleagues felt about the course
- explain why you all want to do more language training
- suggest when and where the training could take place
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.