You live in an area where the local council has made some changes to regulations. You believe these changes are not good for the residents. Write a letter to a councillor. In your letter: - introduce yourself - describe the problem - say what you think the council should do about the situation
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Alicia Vikander, a resident of Asperö in the Gothenburg arearesident of the Asperö, Gothenburg area and a university lecturer, writing to express my disapproval of the recent increase in holding taxholding tax increase. The sudden increaseincrement is not well receivedcordially accepted by local residentsby the people and as a representative of those residentsrepresentative of these people, I ask youyou are requested to reconsider it. Increasing the holding tax to 25% from next Junefrom the next June would cause considerable angercreate some rage among local residentsordinary citizens. People in our area are already paying an 18% holding tax, which is 2-3% higher than the national average, and making it 25% would only cause dissatisfaction among local residentsbring dissatisfaction to the local citizens. As a law-abiding resident, I have always complied withhonoured the regulation, butregulation but I, as well as many others, also strongly oppose the decisionfeel strongly about the decision. As a solution, I would like you to invite some members of the community to discuss the changes - a way to show that you are always respectful of people's decisions and make the holding tax less than 20%. I sincerely thank you for your consideration and judgement. Yours faithfully, Alicia Vikander
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter has a clear purpose, covers the writer's identity, explains the proposed tax increase with relevant figures, and gives two practical requests in an appropriately formal manner. Its main limitation is presentation and idiomatic control: the entire message is one block and phrases such as "cordially accepted" and "create some rage" sound unnatural; prioritise clear paragraphing and neutral council-letter vocabulary.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully addressed with a clear complaint, relevant tax details, and practical requests in a suitably formal register.
Make the requested outcome even sharper by presenting community consultation and a tax ceiling below 20% as two clearly separated actions.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas progress logically from introduction to problem and solution, but the letter is presented as one dense paragraph.
Separate the introduction, impact of the increase, and requested council action into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a reasonable range of formal vocabulary, though several collocations are unnatural or overly emotive.
Replace phrases such as "sudden increment," "cordially accepted," and "create some rage" with neutral administrative language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex sentences is generally controlled, but article, punctuation, modifier, and coordination problems appear in several places.
Proofread long sentences for clear clause boundaries and use forms such as "from next June" and "honoured the regulations."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You live in an area where the local council has made some changes to regulations. You believe these changes are not good for the residents. Write a letter to a councillor. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- describe the problem
- say what you think the council should do about the situation
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.