You have taken a cruise on a holiday and have been disappointed with the experience. Write a letter to the cruise provider. In your letter, say: - what went wrong - how you felt about it - what do you want to be done about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, After recently taking a holiday cruise provided by your companyAfter taking a holiday cruise recently, provided by your company, I felt that I needed to write this letter to raise several concernsbring a few things to your attention about my experience with your cruise serviceas far as my experience with your cruise service is concerned. Throughout the timeIn fact, the whole time, as long as I was on my holiday onin your cruise ship, I felt thatlike your company did not know how to run and manage professionallydid not have any idea about how to professionally run and manage a holiday cruise. InitiallyTo begin with the problem, Initially, I was told that I would be given a cabinwould get a cabin on the upper decktop floor of the ship for the priceship, for the price I was paying, so that I could enjoy the view of the ocean in the best way possible. HoweverBut, when I got on your ship, I was given a cabin on the middle deckfloor. In addition,Besides, I also noticed an unpleasant odourcould also smell some kind of bad odour that was coming from within the shipcoming out of the ship. Finally, I was served food of mediocre qualityoffered a very average quality of food throughout the weekfor the whole week of my voyage. In such a situation, I do not think that expecting a full refund from your company is unreasonable since the quality of your service was way below standard. Yours faithfully, Peter Onslow
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter communicates a clear, well-supported complaint by detailing the cabin downgrade, unpleasant odour and poor food, then requesting a full refund in an appropriately formal format. Its main weakness is a wordy and occasionally confrontational tone, together with several awkward constructions; the priority is to state the disappointment more professionally and specify why a full refund is the proportionate remedy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are developed, and the requested full refund follows from several relevant service failures.
Express the emotional impact more explicitly and state the booking promise or service standard that justifies the full refund.
Coherence and Cohesion
The complaint moves logically from the overall dissatisfaction through three problems to the requested remedy, but some opening material is unnecessarily repetitive.
Use concise paragraphs for the purpose, the service failures, their impact, and the refund request.
Lexical Resource
There is adequate range for complaint and evaluation, although phrases such as as far as my experience is concerned and average quality of food are wordy or unnatural.
Prefer precise formal language such as contrary to my booking, persistent unpleasant odour, poor-quality meals, and below the promised standard.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are generally controlled, but punctuation, capitalisation, prepositions, and several awkwardly embedded phrases remain noticeable.
Remove unnecessary commas, use on the cruise ship, and revise openings so modifiers attach clearly to the subject.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have taken a cruise on a holiday and have been disappointed with the experience. Write a letter to the cruise provider. In your letter, say:
- what went wrong
- how you felt about it
- what do you want to be done about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.