Last week you were on a flight to London. When you left the plane, you left a bag and did not remember it until you reached your hotel. Write a letter to the airline. In your letter: - explain what happened - describe the bag and its contents - say what you would like the airline to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing regardingin regards to a bag I left on my flight to Londona lost bag on a plane that I took to reach London from New York on 17th August. Unfortunately, I leftforgot my bag on the plane. When I reached the hotel, I realised I had left my bag. I hope you can helpI am hoping you would help me recover it along with its contentscontent immediately. My flight number was VG-4587F and my seat number was D-54A. Onboard, I kept the bag under my seat as all the overhead bins were fullfilled with bags and luggage. When I left the airport in London, I forgotforget to take my bag with me. It is a black leather bag, medium in size and has two pockets in the front and one in the back. It also hasAlso, it has a silver zip and a keychainand keychain on it. My bag contains some important documents, a few of my dressesa few dresses of mine and a small brown purse containingpurse which had my ID card, driving licence, and some cash. These documentsThe documents in the bag are very importantreally significant and I need to submit them to my office next week. So if you could help me find the bag, I would be really grateful. I can collect itI can come and collect it from the airport promptly. Thank you for your assistancekind attention and cooperation. Yours faithfully, Sonia Vincent
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter achieves its purpose very effectively by giving traceable flight details, a precise physical description, a useful inventory of contents and a clear request for recovery and collection. Its main limitation is local grammatical and lexical imprecision, particularly in regards to, its content and I forget; the priority is a final tense-and-collocation edit while preserving the concise, courteous formal tone.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully and purposefully developed with flight details, distinguishing bag features, important contents and a practical collection request.
Refine the requested action by asking the airline to contact you after checking the aircraft and lost-property office.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information progresses logically from the incident to identification details, contents, urgency and the requested resolution, although it is presented as one block.
Use separate paragraphs for the incident, bag description and requested action to make the letter easier for airline staff to scan.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is precise enough to identify the bag and explain urgency, with only a few collocational slips such as in regards to and its content.
Use in regard to or regarding, its contents, and left the bag behind for more natural formal phrasing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses varied structures with generally strong control, but a few tense and coordination errors remain, notably I forget in a past narrative.
Maintain past tense throughout the incident account and revise the description to it is medium-sized and has three pockets.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Last week you were on a flight to London. When you left the plane, you left a bag and did not remember it until you reached your hotel. Write a letter to the airline. In your letter:
- explain what happened
- describe the bag and its contents
- say what you would like the airline to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.