Every year, someone in the company where you work is chosen as the best employee. Your manager has asked staff members to make suggestions about who should be chosen this year. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - identify a colleague who you think should be the best employee - explain what the job of this colleague involves - give reasons why the colleague should be chosen as the best employee
Sample Response
Dear Mr George, Hope you are doing well. I am also feeling great since the time of the year is approaching for us again when we get to decide on the best employee of our company. And I think that Rebecca Graham, our Senior Marketing Manager, should be picked up as the best employee this year, simply because of the value and experience she brings to our company. Of course, we all know how Rebecca Graham works tirelessly to motivate her entire crew of salespeople to increase the sales of our company, but what most of us do not know is that she always likes to visit the clients and dealers of our company by herself in order to get the feedbacks of our customers in real-time. Besides, she also works extra hours to train and teach her subordinates who fail to achieve their monthly sales targets in this very competitive market. So, once again, considering the contribution of Rebecca Graham, I believe she deserves to be the best employee in our company. Yours sincerely, Jonathon Louis
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Add the subject Original: Hope you are doing well Suggested revision: I hope you are doing well Why it matters: A complete opening sentence needs the subject 'I'.
- 2. State the nomination directly Original: And I think that Suggested revision: I believe that Why it matters: This gives the nomination a clearer and more professional opening.
- 3. Lowercase the job title Original: Senior Marketing Manager Suggested revision: senior marketing manager Why it matters: A job title used descriptively after a name is not normally capitalised.
- 4. Use the correct selection verb Original: picked up as Suggested revision: selected as Why it matters: 'Picked up' does not mean formally chosen for an award.
- 5. Use workplace terminology Original: crew of salespeople Suggested revision: sales team Why it matters: 'Sales team' is the standard professional term for the group she manages.
- 6. Make the phrase concise Original: increase the sales of our company Suggested revision: increase company sales Why it matters: This expresses the same result more directly.
- 7. Use uncountable feedback Original: the feedbacks Suggested revision: feedback Why it matters: 'Feedback' is uncountable in this context.
- 8. Remove the unnecessary hyphen Original: in real-time Suggested revision: in real time Why it matters: The phrase is not hyphenated when it functions adverbially after the verb.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: I am also feeling great since the time of the year is approaching for us again when we get to decide on the best employee of our company. Suggested revision: I am pleased that it is time to nominate this year's best employee. Why it matters: The original sentence is wordy, awkwardly sequenced and partly irrelevant to the nomination.
- 10. Organise the nomination Suggested revision: Separate the nomination, Rebecca's job responsibilities, the evidence supporting her selection, and the conclusion into clear paragraphs. Why it matters: The single paragraph makes the three required task points less distinct.
Suggested Rewrites
- Hope you are doing well I hope you are doing well
- And I think that I believe that
- Senior Marketing Manager senior marketing manager
- picked up as selected as
- crew of salespeople sales team
- increase the sales of our company increase company sales
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter makes an unambiguous nomination, explains Rebecca's management role, and supports the choice with concrete examples of client contact, staff motivation, training, and extra hours. Its main limitation is professional polish: the response is one paragraph and includes informal or inaccurate phrases such as "picked up," "crew," and "feedbacks"; prioritise clear bullet-aligned paragraphing and concise workplace vocabulary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The nominee is clearly identified, her responsibilities are explained, and several relevant reasons convincingly support her selection.
Strengthen the recommendation by explicitly linking one achievement, such as improved sales or staff performance, to the company's best-employee criteria.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from nomination to duties and reasons, but the single-block format and one very long sentence reduce readability.
Use separate paragraphs for the nomination, job responsibilities, and supporting reasons, and divide the long client-and-staff sentence.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate workplace vocabulary, but recurring imprecise choices weaken the otherwise clear professional message.
Replace "picked up," "crew," "feedbacks," and "sales of our company" with "selected," "team," "feedback," and "company sales."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are used with generally clear meaning, although fragments, conjunction openings, noun forms, and clause length need firmer control.
Turn the opening fragment into a complete sentence and separate the extended sentence beginning "Of course" into controlled clauses.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Every year, someone in the company where you work is chosen as the best employee. Your manager has asked staff members to make suggestions about who should be chosen this year. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- identify a colleague who you think should be the best employee
- explain what the job of this colleague involves
- give reasons why the colleague should be chosen as the best employee
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.