You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: - say what the participants liked about the hotel - explain why they were unhappy about the food - suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing in connection with the day-long meeting that we organised at your hotel - "The Richmond", on 28th January 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for successfully hosting us, and also express our concern about the food quality, which we expect would be better in the future. Two days ago, I took feedback from the participants who joined the meeting. Although they liked the hotel, including its facilities and the services of your affable staff, many of them complained about the food we were served. Indeed, some of the menu items that were served during the lunch were not properly cooked, and we did not enjoy the taste and aroma of the food. Soup and bread were served cold, and that was unexpected. The lack of western food items on the menu was surprising to some of the participants. I believe you should take steps so that all the dishes are cooked properly and served in time. I also recommend that you add some western dishes to your menu. I wish you a good day and hope that you will consider my suggestions. Yours faithfully, Brian Marsh
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Punctuate the hotel name Original: hotel - "The Richmond", Suggested revision: hotel, "The Richmond", Why it matters: Commas, rather than a spaced hyphen, correctly mark the hotel name as an appositive.
- 2. Format the date formally Original: 28th Suggested revision: 28 Why it matters: The cardinal-number date format is more conventional in a formal letter.
- 3. Use the correct collocation Original: took Suggested revision: collected Why it matters: Collect feedback is the standard collocation for gathering participants' comments.
- 4. Use the meeting collocation Original: joined Suggested revision: attended Why it matters: Attend a meeting is more natural and precise than join in this retrospective account.
- 5. Remove the unnecessary article Original: during the lunch Suggested revision: during lunch Why it matters: Lunch takes no article when it refers generally to the meal period.
- 6. Capitalise the regional adjective Original: western Suggested revision: Western Why it matters: Western is capitalised when it denotes a cultural or regional cuisine.
- 7. Use the timing phrase Original: in Suggested revision: on Why it matters: On time means at the scheduled time, which is the intended meaning here.
- 8. Capitalise Western Original: western Suggested revision: Western Why it matters: Western requires a capital letter when referring to a category of cuisine.
- 9. Use the standard event term Original: day-long meeting Suggested revision: all-day meeting Why it matters: All-day meeting is the more natural phrase for an event lasting the whole working day.
- 10. Describe the service naturally Original: services of your affable staff Suggested revision: helpful service provided by your staff Why it matters: The revision expresses the positive feedback in a more natural and specific way.
- 11. Remove repeated service wording Original: menu items that were served Suggested revision: menu items Why it matters: The surrounding context already establishes that these items were served at lunch.
- 12. Add the definite article Original: Soup and bread Suggested revision: The soup and bread Why it matters: The definite article identifies the specific items served at the meeting.
Suggested Rewrites
- hotel - "The Richmond", hotel, "The Richmond",
- 28th 28
- took collected
- joined attended
- during the lunch during lunch
- western Western
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully balances positive feedback about the hotel's facilities and staff with specific concerns about undercooked dishes, cold soup and bread, and limited menu variety. Its strongest feature is the practical set of recommendations addressing cooking, timing, and additional options. The main limitation is dense single-paragraph presentation and occasional awkward collocation; the priority is to group praise, complaints, and recommendations into focused formal paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requirements are fully developed with concrete positive feedback, detailed food problems, and directly relevant improvements.
As a final refinement, suggest a quality-control check or advance menu confirmation to make the proposed solution even more actionable.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a clear praise-problem-solution progression, but all content appears in one long paragraph and some sentences repeat serving details.
Use separate paragraphs for the meeting context and positives, the food complaints, and the recommended corrective actions.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and appropriately formal, though phrases such as 'took feedback', 'during the lunch', and 'served in time' are slightly unnatural.
Use idiomatic expressions such as 'collected feedback', 'at lunch', 'served promptly', and 'menu variety'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are generally accurate and clear, with only occasional article, tense, and punctuation errors.
Refine forms such as 'we expected it to be better', 'some lunch items were undercooked', and punctuation around the hotel name and date.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- say what the participants liked about the hotel
- explain why they were unhappy about the food
- suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.