You are organising a seminar for your company. Write a letter to the manager of another department inviting them to give a presentation at the seminar. In your letter: - give details of the seminar - invite them to give a presentation and say why you are inviting them - say what the presentation should be about
Sample Response
Dear Mr Larry,
I hope I have not caught you at a busy and critical time. Anyway, the reason, for which, I am writing this letter to you is that I am going to organize a seminar on “how to maintain a strict quality assurance policy” after a week, and I would very much like you and your team members from “procurement department” to give a presentation.
After all, we all in our company know how successful your department has been over the years in procuring the best quality raw materials for our company, and your inputs on how to maintain the best temperatures at our warehouses, where we stock our products, and how to pack them properly, especially during the rainy seasons, would certainly benefit our “production department” and company immensely. In essence, your experience and thoughts in the seminar would go a long way to help us deliver the best quality products to our customers.
By the way, the seminar will be conducted from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm on Tuesday, which is 11th of December, and we surely would appreciate it if you oblige us with your valuable presence there in that seminar.
Yours sincerely,
Chaminda Charles
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural phrasing Original: caught you at a busy and critical time Suggested revision: contacted you at a busy time Why it matters: The proposed wording is more natural and concise for a professional letter.
- 2. Remove casual linker Original: Anyway, Suggested revision: Delete Why it matters: This conversational transition weakens the professional opening and is unnecessary.
- 3. Remove internal commas Original: the reason, for which, Suggested revision: the reason for which Why it matters: The prepositional phrase should not be separated from its noun by commas.
- 4. Correct time phrase Original: after a week Suggested revision: next week Why it matters: Use “next week” for an event occurring one week from now.
- 5. Add definite article Original: “procurement department” Suggested revision: the procurement department Why it matters: A named company department normally takes the definite article here.
- 6. Fix subject agreement Original: we all in our company know Suggested revision: everyone in our company knows Why it matters: This revision creates a natural subject and the required singular verb agreement.
- 7. Use uncountable noun Original: inputs Suggested revision: input Why it matters: “Input” is normally uncountable when it means advice or expertise.
- 8. Choose precise adjective Original: best temperatures Suggested revision: optimal temperatures Why it matters: “Optimal” more precisely describes the most suitable storage temperatures.
- 9. Use correct preposition Original: at our warehouses Suggested revision: in our warehouses Why it matters: Products and storage conditions are located inside the warehouses.
- 10. Use singular season Original: rainy seasons Suggested revision: rainy season Why it matters: The general annual period is conventionally expressed in the singular here.
- 11. Remove unnecessary quotes Original: “production department” Suggested revision: production department Why it matters: Quotation marks are unnecessary around an ordinary department name.
- 12. Improve formal wording Original: your experience and thoughts in the seminar Suggested revision: your experience and insights at the seminar Why it matters: “Insights” and “at” produce a more precise professional collocation.
Suggested Rewrites
- caught you at a busy and critical time contacted you at a busy time
- Anyway, Delete
- the reason, for which, the reason for which
- after a week next week
- “procurement department” the procurement department
- we all in our company know everyone in our company knows
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter communicates the invitation clearly and gives relevant reasons why the procurement team’s expertise would benefit the seminar, with useful detail about the proposed presentation. Its main weakness is an uneven professional register combined with some long, heavily punctuated sentences; the highest-priority improvement is to state the seminar arrangements more directly and recast the invitation in concise formal language with clearer sentence boundaries.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
All requested functions are covered, including the seminar details, the invitation, the reason for choosing the department, and the proposed presentation content.
Give the arrangements more precisely, especially the venue and an unambiguous date, while removing casual framing such as ‘Anyway’ and ‘By the way’.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is organised into purposeful paragraphs and progresses logically, although key logistical details arrive late and the central explanation is overextended.
Present the date, time, venue, and invitation together before developing the reasons and suggested content in a separate paragraph.
Lexical Resource
The response uses varied and relevant workplace vocabulary, including language about procurement, quality assurance, warehousing, and production, despite some awkward collocations.
Replace imprecise phrases such as ‘best temperatures’, ‘your inputs’, and ‘presence there in that seminar’ with natural professional alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is attempted, but excessive commas and several awkward constructions reduce accuracy and fluency.
Split the longest sentences and correct forms such as ‘in a week’, ‘the 11th of December’, and ‘if you could oblige us’.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are organising a seminar for your company. Write a letter to the manager of another department inviting them to give a presentation at the seminar. In your letter:
- give details of the seminar
- invite them to give a presentation and say why you are inviting them
- say what the presentation should be about
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.