One of your colleagues was in charge of organising an annual executive conference, and he/she has been successful in doing it. You want to congratulate your colleague on that. Write a letter to this colleague. In your letter: - congratulate your colleague for successfully organising the event - mention what you liked about it the most - say how much you would like him/her to organise other events as well
Sample Response
Dear Mr Watson,
I am writing to you to congratulate you on the efforts that you did to make the yearly executive conference successful. Getting the responsibility of an event manager was a milestone in your career. It was a commendable job and made us feel proud to work with you.
On the face of it, you have the gift of gab, and certainly, you are a born communicator, and I really enjoyed the small talk of you with the chief guest who had been to London. Besides, the technical glitch was out of the question, and the speaker did not feel any difficulty while operating the overhead projector, mics and to name but a few. On top of that, a motivational speech delivered by you before the lunch break re-energises all the personnel to listen for another half an hour.
In addition, I would recommend your name for organising any event in future. You handled every situation effectively. Your planning and its execution in the nick of time made you like more. Now, our company is going to organise a new year party. If a planner like you take responsibility, no one will be able to stop it from making successful. I hope you will also assist other personnel to be like you.
I hope to meet you soon.
Yours Sincerely,
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use the right collocation Original: did Suggested revision: made Why it matters: English uses ‘make an effort’, so ‘made’ is the correct verb.
- 2. Use the event term Original: yearly Suggested revision: annual Why it matters: ‘Annual’ is the more natural word for a formally recurring conference.
- 3. Correct the noun phrase Original: Getting the responsibility of an event manager Suggested revision: Taking responsibility as the event manager Why it matters: ‘Take responsibility as’ expresses assuming this role accurately.
- 4. Name the person Original: It was a commendable job Suggested revision: You did a commendable job Why it matters: The revised subject and verb correctly describe the colleague’s performance.
- 5. Use a logical transition Original: On the face of it Suggested revision: In particular Why it matters: The original linker suggests a superficial appearance rather than introducing a specific highlight.
- 6. Use suitable register Original: you have the gift of gab Suggested revision: you have excellent communication skills Why it matters: The replacement conveys praise more clearly in a workplace letter.
- 7. Correct the noun phrase Original: the small talk of you with Suggested revision: your conversation with Why it matters: The possessive structure ‘your conversation with’ is grammatically natural.
- 8. Express the meaning clearly Original: the technical glitch was out of the question Suggested revision: there were no technical glitches Why it matters: ‘Out of the question’ means impossible or unacceptable and does not describe the absence of problems.
- 9. Use natural collocation Original: did not feel any difficulty Suggested revision: had no difficulty Why it matters: English normally uses ‘have difficulty’ when describing ease of operating equipment.
- 10. Repair the list Original: the overhead projector, mics and to name but a few Suggested revision: the overhead projector and microphones Why it matters: The unfinished list marker makes the coordination ungrammatical.
- 11. Keep past tense Original: energises Suggested revision: energised Why it matters: The conference is described as a completed past event.
- 12. Name the audience accurately Original: personnel Suggested revision: attendees Why it matters: ‘Attendees’ refers more precisely to everyone listening at the conference.
Suggested Rewrites
- did made
- yearly annual
- Getting the responsibility of an event manager Taking responsibility as the event manager
- It was a commendable job You did a commendable job
- On the face of it In particular
- you have the gift of gab you have excellent communication skills
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response fully addresses the congratulatory purpose, gives specific examples of what was appreciated, and strongly supports the colleague organising future events. Its organisation is easy to follow, but frequent awkward collocations, overused idioms, and grammatical errors reduce precision and naturalness. The highest priority is to replace forced expressions with direct language and check sentence structure carefully.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly fulfils its purpose and develops all three requested points with relevant examples.
Keep the praise focused and ensure every supporting detail directly reinforces the colleague's success.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has clear paragraphing and logical progression, though some connectors are formulaic and a few long sentences are cumbersome.
Reduce mechanical linking phrases and divide overloaded sentences into cleaner units.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and ambitious, but frequent unnatural collocations and forced idioms limit precision.
Prefer accurate, natural phrases over expressions such as misapplied idioms or unnecessarily elaborate wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer attempts varied complex structures, but agreement, complementation, and sentence-construction errors recur throughout.
Check subject-verb agreement and revise awkward verb patterns so complex sentences remain grammatically complete.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
One of your colleagues was in charge of organising an annual executive conference, and he/she has been successful in doing it. You want to congratulate your colleague on that. Write a letter to this colleague. In your letter:
- congratulate your colleague for successfully organising the event
- mention what you liked about it the most
- say how much you would like him/her to organise other events as well
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.