You recently met the manager of a new company in your city. The manager later offered you a job, but you cannot accept it. Write to the manager. In your letter: - say how you feel about the job offer - explain why you cannot accept it - provide a reference for a friend who might be interested
Sample Response
Dear Mr Roger, I hope you are fineHope you are fine. I thoroughly enjoyed talking to you the other day, and I am also glad and flattered that you have offered mechosen to offer me a Supply Chain Executive position at your companya position at your company as a Supply Chain Executive. But as muchBut, as much as I like your offer, I regret that I will not be able to accept it at presentat this time, primarily because I do not really have any formal experience working inexperience of working in this particular field. In addition,Besides, I hold a senior positionam holding a senior position inat my current job, and I enjoy itI really like it, even though iteven though, it does not match the salary you offeredpay as much as you are willing to pay me. I hope you understand my positionHope you understand my position. But, I can certainly recommend a prospective candidate for this job, who I do not only know personally, but he also has the experience of working as a junior Supply Chain Associate at a small manufacturing firm. The last time I spoke to himLast time, when I talked to him, he was planning to change employersswitch his company for a better roleposition. I will ask him to contact yousend him over to you if you wish. Thank you once again for your generous offer. Yours sincerely, Freddie Marcus
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter responds politely to the offer, explains the refusal through lack of field experience and satisfaction with the current senior role, and recommends a friend with relevant supply-chain experience. Its main limitation is that the friend remains unnamed and has no contact details, making the reference less actionable, while several sentences contain awkward punctuation or structure. Prioritise giving the candidate’s name, key qualification, and a clear way to make contact.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All bullet points are addressed with relevant detail and suitable politeness, though the recommended friend is not identified or made directly contactable.
Provide the friend’s name, one or two relevant qualifications, and contact details or permission to share them.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses clearly from appreciation to refusal reasons, recommendation, and thanks, but repeated ‘But’ openings weaken flow.
Use one transition into the refusal and another into the recommendation, avoiding sentence fragments and unnecessary interruptions.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of employment vocabulary, though phrases such as ‘holding a senior position at my current job’ and ‘switch his company’ are unnatural.
Use ‘hold a senior role’, ‘change employers’, ‘relevant experience’, and ‘put you in contact with him’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied sentence structures convey the message, but punctuation, fragment, relative-clause, and correlative-conjunction errors recur.
Correct the ‘not only … but also’ structure and remove commas that split concessive clauses or main clause elements.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently met the manager of a new company in your city. The manager later offered you a job, but you cannot accept it. Write to the manager. In your letter:
- say how you feel about the job offer
- explain why you cannot accept it
- provide a reference for a friend who might be interested
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.