Some construction work is being done on the street where you live for the last couple of days. The noise from the work is loud and it disturbs you. Write a letter to your local council complaining about the noise. In your letter: - introduce yourself - explain how the noise is causing problems to you - suggest solutions to the problem
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing this letter to formally lodge a complaint about the disruptiveuncomfortable, and sometimes unbearable, noise coming fromwhich keeps coming from the ongoing roadworksongoing road construction works in the area adjacent to my housein the adjacent areas to my house.
By way of introductionTo introduce myself a little, my name is Nicholas Fauci, and I live on Lindsay Street, near Fairmont Shopping Centrenext to Fairmont Shopping Centre in the Hampshire area. The road repair workworks, I am talking about, has been going on for almost one week with the use of heavy vehicles and construction tools, sometimes from morning until late at nightfrom morning to late night, sometimes. Naturally, the continuous sounds, generated by heavy machinery and tools, are causing a lot of trouble for many residents in our neighbourhood. Some people in our area are already complaining about a bad headache. The school-going children are also struggling to concentrate on their studies. Not to mention, of course, the trouble with sleeping has also become a major concern for many residents in our locality because of the noises. As a solution to this ongoing problem, I would like to request you to employ additional manpower to finish the construction works as soon as possible and save us from the trouble of these unbearable noises.
Yours faithfully, Nicholas Fauci
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter establishes a clear formal complaint and gives relevant detail about the neighbourhood disruption, with generally effective vocabulary. Its main weakness is that the personal impact and proposed remedy are less fully developed than the broader effects on other residents, while the single long body paragraph and several awkward structures reduce control. Prioritise explaining your own circumstances directly and separating each bullet point into a focused paragraph.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and register are clear, and all three bullet points are addressed with relevant supporting detail.
Explain how the noise affects you personally and develop the proposed solution beyond simply finishing the work sooner.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a sensible sequence, but most of the letter is compressed into one long body paragraph.
Use separate body paragraphs for your circumstances, the effects of the noise, and the requested action.
Lexical Resource
A sufficiently varied range conveys the complaint effectively, though some combinations such as 'uncomfortable noise' and 'continuous sounds' are awkward.
Choose more natural collocations, such as 'disruptive noise' and 'constant noise', while retaining the formal vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied complex structures, but agreement errors and intrusive commas reduce grammatical accuracy.
Check subject-verb agreement and avoid separating subjects, relative clauses, or adverbials with unnecessary commas.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Some construction work is being done on the street where you live for the last couple of days. The noise from the work is loud and it disturbs you. Write a letter to your local council complaining about the noise. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- explain how the noise is causing problems to you
- suggest solutions to the problem
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.