You recently joined a gym in a new neighbourhood and noticed that people do not wipe down the machines and leave dirty towels on benches in the changing rooms. Write to the gym manager. In your letter: - explain who you are - describe the problem exactly - make suggestions to improve the gym
Sample Response
Dear Mr Fuller, I am Neil Ryan, a lawyer by profession, have recently moved into this neighbourhood and joined your gym. So far, I have liked almost everythingpretty much everything about your gym, including its spacious layoutlarge space and the state-of-the-art exercise equipmentstate of the art exercising equipment. I also likeBesides, I also like the fact that the gym has effective safety measuressome great safety measures in place to ensure its users' safety and securityensure enough safety and security for its users. However, when it comes to maintaining hygiene, the gym certainly could use some improvements. In fact, I have seen that most people visiting your gymmost people, visiting your gym, do not wipe downdo not bother to wipe down the machines after using them. Besides, some of them often leave dirty towelsleave dirty towels often on benches and floors in the changing roomsthe benches and the floor in the change rooms, which conflicts withdoes not quite go well with the core message of promoting health and fitness associated with a gymby a place called “gym”. In view of this hygiene problemSo, in view of this hygiene problem, I would like to suggest you provide hygiene guidelinesa hygiene guideline for all the users of your gym and instruct your gym staffwhile instructing your gym staff to be more proactive in keeping the gym and its equipment tidy and spotlessly clean. Thank you for considering these suggestionsThanks for your consideration. Yours sincerely, Neil Ryan
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly identifies the new member, describes both hygiene problems precisely and offers practical action through user guidelines and more proactive staff. Its strongest feature is its direct, constructive tone, while its main weakness is that all ideas are compressed into one paragraph and the opening contains a grammatical break. Prioritise paragraphing the praise, complaint and solutions separately, then proofread sentence joins and repeated wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully addressed with specific observations and constructive suggestions in a suitably polite complaint.
Strengthen the proposed action further by asking for labelled cleaning stations, towel bins, or reminder notices beside the machines.
Coherence and Cohesion
The praise, hygiene concerns, and recommendations progress logically, but presenting the full letter as one paragraph weakens its organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, exact problems, and requested improvements.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of relevant language for facilities, hygiene, and management, though repetition and a few awkward collocations remain.
Reduce repetition in phrases such as “safety measures” and “enough safety,” and prefer “exercise equipment” to “exercising equipment.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex structures are generally controlled, but the opening has a faulty sentence join and some comma placement is inaccurate.
Write “I am Neil Ryan, a lawyer who has recently moved” and avoid unnecessary commas around defining phrases such as “people visiting your gym.”
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently joined a gym in a new neighbourhood and noticed that people do not wipe down the machines and leave dirty towels on benches in the changing rooms. Write to the gym manager. In your letter:
- explain who you are
- describe the problem exactly
- make suggestions to improve the gym
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.