You have taken a cruise on a holiday and have been disappointed with the experience. Write a letter to the cruise provider. In your letter, say: - what went wrong - how you felt about it - what do you want to be done about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I recently tookI have recently taken a cruise provided by your company duringon a holiday in Belarus. However, the experienceBut the experience was below an acceptable standardbelow standard. I am writing to bring this unsatisfactory experience to your attentionbring your attention to this unsatisfactory experience that I had with Rose Cruisesthe Rose Cruises on 17 March 2025on March 17, 2025. Regrettably, the boat was wornbattered and small—contrarysmall - contrary to what was advertised. It departed at least 40 minutes after the scheduled departure timelater than the scheduled time. Moreover, it was cold inside but when all the passengers boarded, the windows became drizzled due to poor ventilation, which made it impossible to enjoy the views. Furthermore, even though we were promised a private table, we could not find one and no one came forward to explain the situationexplain it! The boatplace was so crowded that we struggled to movehad a hard time moving from one place to another. Enough service persons were not present and we had to wait around 30 minutes to get our breakfast which was served cold. This was a stressful experience for both my wife and meboth me and my wife. I do not feel that it is unreasonablefeel that is unreasonable to expect a full refund of the amount paida full refund of the money paid to you following the misrepresentation of what Rose Cruises were offering. We expect, therefore, a full refund of €300a refund of the full €300. Yours faithfully, Tom Behan
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter’s strongest feature is its complete, persuasive coverage of the disappointing cruise, including specific problems, the writer’s reaction, and a precise refund request in a suitably formal tone. Its main limitation is occasional awkward wording and sentence construction, which slightly reduces naturalness despite consistently clear meaning. The highest-priority improvement is to replace imprecise phrases with idiomatic formal English and proofread complex sentences for accuracy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly fulfils its complaint purpose, develops every bullet point with specific detail, and maintains an appropriate formal tone.
Strengthen the request further by adding a clear deadline or preferred method for receiving the €300 refund.
Coherence and Cohesion
The complaints progress logically from the cruise’s physical shortcomings to service failures, emotional impact, and the requested resolution.
Use distinct paragraphs for the background, problems, and resolution, while reducing the reliance on additive linking words.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied and specific for a formal complaint, although a few choices such as 'windows became drizzled' and 'service persons' are unnatural.
Replace awkward collocations with idiomatic alternatives such as 'the windows fogged up' and 'there were too few staff members'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of sentence forms is used with generally secure control, and the remaining errors do not impede communication.
Proofread clause structure and reference words, particularly changing 'I do not feel that is unreasonable' to 'I do not feel that it is unreasonable'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have taken a cruise on a holiday and have been disappointed with the experience. Write a letter to the cruise provider. In your letter, say:
- what went wrong
- how you felt about it
- what do you want to be done about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.