You need to take leave from your work for over one month for personal reasons. Write a letter to your boss. In your letter: - Explain the reason for the leave and the length of leave you need - Explain how you will keep up-to-date while you’re away - Suggest how your work could be covered while you are away
Sample Response
Dear Ms Smith, I’m writing to request annual leaveask for annual leave. I’d like to take annualmy leave for 5 days, between the 15th and 20th of November, in line withwhich is in accordance with the company’s annual leave policy. I would delegateI’ve delegated my responsibilities for the current project to Helen Addams and John Doe. They have worked closely with mehave been collaborating with me and have a clearthorough understanding of mythe role. I would also prepareprovide a playbook for my teamto my team members so that everyone is aware of their assigned tasksthe tasks they are responsible for and their deadlinesthe deadlines they have to meet. During my absence, I would remainbe available by phone and email to answer any questions or provide any assistance that might be requiredprovide any assistance that was required. I would also be glad to discuss any additional arrangementsplans to ensure that my workload is covered. Please let me know if you need any further information. Thank you for your consideration of my request. Best regards, [Your Name]Best regards,
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter is clear, concise, and professionally worded, with sensible arrangements for delegating work and remaining contactable. However, it does not give a personal reason, requests only five days despite the requirement for more than a month, and does not clearly explain how the writer will stay up to date. The priority is to address those missing and contradictory task details explicitly before refining style.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and work-cover arrangements are clear, but major task requirements are omitted or contradicted.
State a personal reason, request a period longer than one month, and explain a specific method for staying updated.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows a sensible sequence, but presenting the entire letter as one paragraph weakens its organisation.
Separate the request, update arrangements, work coverage, and closing into distinct functional paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is appropriately professional and includes precise workplace terms with generally natural collocations.
Add more specific language for the personal circumstances and the process of monitoring project developments.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses a good range of controlled sentence forms, with only minor inconsistency in tense and modality.
Keep the proposed arrangements in a consistent future or conditional frame, especially around assistance that may be required.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You need to take leave from your work for over one month for personal reasons. Write a letter to your boss. In your letter:
- Explain the reason for the leave and the length of leave you need
- Explain how you will keep up-to-date while you’re away
- Suggest how your work could be covered while you are away
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.