You recently attended a meeting at a hotel. When you returned home, you found you had left some important papers at the hotel. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: - say where you think you left the papers - explain why they are so important - tell the manager what you want him/her to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing this letter to inform you that I have left some important papers when I checked out of your hotel about a couple of days ago. I am hoping that you would be kind enough to send those papers to my address via the postal service. I am Lucas Foster, and I stayed in room number 434 on the sixth floor of your hotel. I am assuming that I must have left the papers in one of the drawers of your TV desk in a hurry when I needed to attend an urgent meeting with some of my clients in the City Hall. The documents that I left in your hotel room are utterly important because they contain all the important terms and conditions, which I agreed upon with two of our new partners to form a new business relationship. The problem is, I can not really remember all those terms and conditions, so I need to get those documents back urgently. Therefore, I would like to request you to find those documents for me and mail them to me at your earliest convenience. Also, please do not forget to charge the mailing cost from my credit card that you already have on file. Yours faithfully, Lucas Foster
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use direct polite request Original: I am hoping that you would be kind enough to Suggested revision: I hope you can Why it matters: This is a concise and grammatically natural way to make the request politely.
- 2. Introduce yourself naturally Original: I am Lucas Foster Suggested revision: My name is Lucas Foster Why it matters: 'My name is' is the conventional form for introducing yourself in a formal letter.
- 3. Use concise room reference Original: room number 434 Suggested revision: room 434 Why it matters: Hotel rooms are conventionally identified as 'room' followed directly by the number.
- 4. Use formal emphasis Original: utterly Suggested revision: extremely Why it matters: 'Extremely important' is more natural in a formal request letter.
- 5. Avoid repeated important Original: all the important terms and conditions Suggested revision: all the terms and conditions Why it matters: The importance is already established, so repeating 'important' is unnecessary.
- 6. Use restrictive clause Original: which I agreed upon with Suggested revision: that I agreed with Why it matters: The defining clause takes 'that' without a comma, and 'agreed with' fits the partners as people.
- 7. Use precise business phrase Original: to form a new business relationship Suggested revision: to establish a new business partnership Why it matters: This describes the intended commercial arrangement more precisely.
- 8. Complete the clause Original: The problem is, Suggested revision: The problem is that Why it matters: 'That' introduces the content clause and removes the incorrect comma after 'is'.
- 9. Use concise recall phrase Original: can not really remember all those Suggested revision: cannot clearly recall all the Why it matters: This corrects 'cannot' and expresses the memory problem concisely.
- 10. Use formal recovery verb Original: get those documents back Suggested revision: recover those documents Why it matters: 'Recover' is a concise formal verb for getting lost documents back.
- 11. Use ask pattern Original: request Suggested revision: ask Why it matters: The natural pattern is 'ask someone to do something'.
- 12. State urgency clearly Original: mail them to me at your earliest convenience Suggested revision: mail them to me as soon as possible Why it matters: This matches the writer's stated urgent need for the documents.
Suggested Rewrites
- I am hoping that you would be kind enough to I hope you can
- I am Lucas Foster My name is Lucas Foster
- room number 434 room 434
- utterly extremely
- all the important terms and conditions all the terms and conditions
- which I agreed upon with that I agreed with
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully addresses the situation, identifies the likely location of the papers, explains their importance, and makes a clear, appropriately formal request. Its main weakness is presentation and language polish: the response is one continuous block, while phrases such as ‘about a couple of days ago’ and ‘charge the mailing cost from my credit card’ sound awkward. Prioritise clear paragraphing and more natural collocations while retaining the strong specific detail.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are fully covered, and the formal request is supported with specific, relevant detail.
Add a direct contact detail or request for confirmation to make the proposed recovery process fully actionable.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information progresses logically from purpose and room details to importance and requested action, with clear linking throughout.
Separate the opening, explanation, and requested action into distinct paragraphs to make the letter easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and suitably formal, including precise phrases such as ‘terms and conditions’ and ‘at your earliest convenience’, although several collocations are awkward.
Use more natural combinations such as ‘a few days ago’, ‘desk drawer’, and ‘charge the postage to my credit card’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures is generally controlled, and the few tense and punctuation errors do not impede meaning.
Use the simple past for the completed loss and review comma placement around clauses to improve accuracy.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently attended a meeting at a hotel. When you returned home, you found you had left some important papers at the hotel. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- say where you think you left the papers
- explain why they are so important
- tell the manager what you want him/her to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.