You travelled by a long-distance bus recently and your suitcase was damaged. Write a letter to the bus company. In your letter: - inform the bus company of when and to where you travelled - describe your suitcase and what happened to it - explain why the company should pay for a new suitcase
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Ethan Deen a regular commuter of your bus. Recently I took your bus to reach Boston and to my surprise, your staff's mishandling of my luggage caused severe damage to it. I am writing to claim compensation for the property damage while travelling on a bus from your company. I travelled from Washington, D.C. to Boston on bus #301 on April 21, 2025. The bus left the Greyhound Station at 9:30 am. Before the trip, I handed over my luggage to the conductor, who helped me to place my suitcase in the luggage compartment, which was almost empty at that time. After I arrived at the Boston Bus Station, the person in charge opened the compartment and I noticed that my brand new Gucci suitcase was smashed under the pressure of the weight of several other luggage. My suitcase was firm and very beautiful with its modern design. However, it obviously hasn’t been designed to resist such a weight on it. I am very depressed because I can no longer use this suitcase. Its handle bent and two wheels got detached. Since the damage was caused by the careless actions of your employee, I would like to claim my compensation of $250, which was the original price of my suitcase. Please, deliver a cheque to the address, written above. Faithfully yours, Ethan Deen
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Set off the description Original: Ethan Deen a regular Suggested revision: Ethan Deen, a regular Why it matters: A comma is needed before the appositive description of the writer.
- 2. Correct the transport phrase Original: commuter of your bus Suggested revision: passenger on your buses Why it matters: A person is a passenger on a bus, not a commuter of one.
- 3. Name the damaged property Original: claim compensation for the property damage Suggested revision: claim compensation for the damage to my suitcase Why it matters: This identifies the subject of the complaint more precisely.
- 4. Use a concise journey phrase Original: while travelling on a bus from your company Suggested revision: during a journey with your company Why it matters: This is a more natural and concise description of the travel context.
- 5. Use the bare infinitive Original: helped me to place Suggested revision: helped me place Why it matters: 'Helped' can be followed directly by the bare infinitive in this structure.
- 6. Hyphenate the compound adjective Original: brand new Gucci suitcase Suggested revision: brand-new Gucci suitcase Why it matters: 'Brand-new' is hyphenated before the noun it modifies.
- 7. Use concise damage wording Original: smashed under the pressure of the weight of Suggested revision: crushed under the weight of Why it matters: The original stacks redundant nouns and prepositions.
- 8. Count the luggage correctly Original: several other luggage Suggested revision: several other pieces of luggage Why it matters: 'Luggage' is uncountable and requires a unit phrase after 'several'.
- 9. Keep the past account Original: hasn’t been designed Suggested revision: was not designed Why it matters: The simple past fits the account of how the suitcase responded during the journey.
- 10. Use the correct collocation Original: resist such a weight on it Suggested revision: withstand such weight Why it matters: Objects withstand weight rather than resist a weight on them.
- 11. Use proportionate emotion Original: depressed Suggested revision: upset Why it matters: 'Depressed' is inappropriately strong for describing frustration over damaged luggage.
- 12. Use the passive form Original: Its handle bent Suggested revision: Its handle was bent Why it matters: The handle received the damage, so the passive form is required.
Suggested Rewrites
- Ethan Deen a regular Ethan Deen, a regular
- commuter of your bus passenger on your buses
- claim compensation for the property damage claim compensation for the damage to my suitcase
- while travelling on a bus from your company during a journey with your company
- helped me to place helped me place
- brand new Gucci suitcase brand-new Gucci suitcase
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter gives a detailed journey record, clearly describes the suitcase and damage, and persuasively links the compensation request to staff mishandling. Its main weakness is language and layout: all information appears in one block, while expressions such as "several other luggage," "claim my compensation," and "deliver a cheque" sound inaccurate; prioritise separate journey, damage, and remedy paragraphs with natural formal complaint wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
Every bullet point is fully addressed with the route, date, bus number, suitcase description, damage details, responsibility, and replacement value.
Make the remedy precisely match the task by requesting either a new equivalent suitcase or reimbursement of the stated purchase price.
Coherence and Cohesion
The account moves chronologically from the journey to discovery of the damage and the compensation claim, but the single paragraph limits readability.
Divide the letter into journey details, condition and damage, and requested compensation, trimming repeated references to the suitcase.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of complaint and travel vocabulary, though several collocations and uncountable-noun forms are inaccurate.
Use phrases such as "a regular passenger," "other pieces of luggage," "request reimbursement," and "send a cheque."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied sentence structures convey the sequence clearly, but article, agreement, tense, participle, and punctuation errors recur.
Correct forms such as "its handle was bent," "two wheels were detached," and remove unnecessary commas around short modifiers.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You travelled by a long-distance bus recently and your suitcase was damaged. Write a letter to the bus company. In your letter:
- inform the bus company of when and to where you travelled
- describe your suitcase and what happened to it
- explain why the company should pay for a new suitcase
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.