The road in front of your house was damaged a long time ago and nothing has been done about it. Write a letter to the municipal authority. In your letter: - introduce yourself - explain the condition of the road - suggest what the authority should do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Cory Gardner, a local resident of Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, writing on behalf of the local residentsresidents of the area to inform you ofto notify you about a dilapidated road which is causing serious inconvenienceunbearable misery for us. I work at a local school and teach mathematics to young students. This is the first time I am writing to the municipal authorityoffice to complain about something. Park Street, the only road we use to enter and leave the communityget off and in, from the community, was damaged around three months ago when we had a week of heavy raina heavy downpour for a week. The road hasThe roads have many potholesholes, and crumbling sectionscrumbly places, and are in an unusable conditionbelow usable condition with an uneven surfaceuneven flagstones. We expectantly waited for a month when a team of engineers inspected the road in July. However, nothingBut nothing has been done so far to alleviate our suffering. I request that youI would request you to send a team to assessprobe the condition of the road and take immediate action to have it repaired. We have already hadWe already have had some minor accidents in the past months and would like you to prevent a major one. Yours faithfully, Cory Gardner
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its direct fulfilment of the complaint purpose, with relevant detail about the damaged road, previous inaction, accidents, and the requested repair. Its main limitation is imprecise phrasing and several awkward collocations that make parts of the description less natural; the highest priority is to use clearer, idiomatic expressions when describing access, road damage, and the earlier inspection.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The writer introduces himself, describes the road and its consequences clearly, and makes an appropriately urgent, specific request.
Strengthen the request further by stating a practical response deadline or asking when the repair work will begin.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas progress logically from the writer’s identity and the cause of the damage to official inaction and the requested solution.
Divide the introduction, road-condition details, and requested action into separate paragraphs to make the progression more visible.
Lexical Resource
There is a broad range of relevant vocabulary, but several unnatural combinations reduce precision and idiomatic control.
Replace awkward phrases such as “get off and in,” “crumbly places,” and “below usable condition” with clear, conventional wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied complex structures with generally good control, and the remaining errors rarely impede meaning.
Maintain singular reference to “the road” and revise awkward time clauses so the inspection sequence is grammatically clear.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
The road in front of your house was damaged a long time ago and nothing has been done about it. Write a letter to the municipal authority. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- explain the condition of the road
- suggest what the authority should do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.