You bought a faulty electrical appliance in your local electronics store. Write a letter to the store manager. In your letter include the following: - Explain why you are writing - Explain what is wrong with your appliance - Suggest what you would like the store manager to do It is not necessary to use any addresses.
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,Dear Sir/Madam
I am writing to express my dissatisfaction with a tape recorder that I purchased from your store.
I bought itI purchased the tape recorder on 15 August 2014August 15th, 2014, just two weeks ago. After using it a couple of timesusing it for a couple of times, the play button camebroke off.
I was very surprised to see a new improved model with 2 years warranty, breaking so soon and for no apparent reason.
I immediately contacted your store and spoke to the shift manager. He refused to replaceswap the faulty item and suggested that I getsuggested me to get it repaired.
You can imagine how upset I was when I heardlearnt that from him.
I insist on havinginsist to have the faultydamaged tape recorder replaced. Otherwise, I will be forced to stop payment to your storestop the payment to your store. I have been buying products from your store for more than ten10 years and thereforeand therefore, I am very unhappy with this whole unpleasantuncomfortable situation.
I am very disappointed with both the product and the service provided by your storethe product and the service your store provided.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Diogo
Why this response received Band 6.5
The complaint is purposeful, detailed, and appropriately formal, with the fault, prior contact, and requested replacement all made clear. The main limitation is a recurring pattern of unnatural verb choices and collocations that reduces precision, so the highest-priority improvement is to revise formal complaint phrases and verb patterns while keeping the strong factual development and direct request.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully explains the complaint, describes the fault, and requests a replacement in a suitably formal and firm manner.
Refine the proposed consequence so it remains credible and professional while preserving the clear request for resolution.
Coherence and Cohesion
The complaint develops in a logical sequence, though the many one-sentence paragraphs create some unnecessary fragmentation.
Combine related details about the fault and the store's response into fuller, more cohesive paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
There is a good range of formal complaint vocabulary, but several awkward collocations reduce naturalness and precision.
Replace phrases such as uncomfortable situation and using it for a couple of times with more idiomatic formal expressions.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied sentence forms with generally clear control, although errors recur in verb complementation, articles, and modifier structure.
Practise accurate patterns after suggest and insist, and revise complex sentences to ensure every modifier has a clear grammatical attachment.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You bought a faulty electrical appliance in your local electronics store. Write a letter to the store manager. In your letter include the following:
- Explain why you are writing
- Explain what is wrong with your appliance
- Suggest what you would like the store manager to do
It is not necessary to use any addresses.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.