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 have recently attended a business conference at your hotel 'Rosewood London', and regrettably misplaced some important documents in the room I stayed in. I am hoping that you would be kind enough to notify me once you have those documents. I stayed in your hotel from 24th to 25th October in room 524. And I attended a conference at the Business Meeting Hall on 24th October. I departed the next day and just after I reached Manchester, I noticed that I have left those documents unattended in my hotel room, perhaps inside the drawer that was placed beside my bed. All of those documents are placed inside a blue folder with my name ‘Mike Buchanan’ written on top of it. In particular, these documents are extremely important to me. They contain some confidential financial information about my company, a presentation and some notes that I took during the conference. Without those documents, I would be in great trouble. I need to submit a few of these papers to my company before the end of this month. I would request you to ask your staff to conduct a thorough search in the room and then hold this folder in your possession. Please give me a call at 0161-508745124578 once you have it. I will arrange for someone to collect it for me or perhaps fly to London to receive it personally. Thank you in advance for your kind help. Yours faithfully, Mike Buchanan
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use simple past Original: I have recently attended Suggested revision: I recently attended Why it matters: The completed conference requires the simple past rather than the present perfect.
- 2. Use the right condition Original: once you have those documents Suggested revision: if you find the documents Why it matters: The manager should contact the writer only if the missing papers are located.
- 3. Correct the past tense Original: I noticed that I have left Suggested revision: I realised that I had left Why it matters: The earlier action of leaving the papers requires the past perfect after a past realisation.
- 4. Remove needless punctuation Original: 'Rosewood London', and Suggested revision: Rosewood London and Why it matters: The hotel name needs neither quotation marks nor a comma before the shared predicate.
- 5. Use the precise verb Original: regrettably misplaced Suggested revision: regrettably left Why it matters: Left accurately reflects the writer's belief that the papers remain in the room.
- 6. Be more concise Original: the room I stayed in Suggested revision: my room Why it matters: The shorter phrase is clear because the hotel stay is already established.
- 7. Make the request direct Original: I am hoping that you would Suggested revision: I hope you can Why it matters: This tense combination is more natural for a present request.
- 8. Format dates consistently Original: from 24th to 25th October Suggested revision: from 24 to 25 October Why it matters: This is a concise standard format for dates in a formal letter.
- 9. Use clear letter paragraphs Suggested revision: Separate the letter into the purpose, location and description, importance, requested action, and closing. Why it matters: The single block makes otherwise relevant information harder for the manager to scan.
- 10. Lead with the request Suggested revision: State near the start that you want staff to locate and secure the blue folder, then provide the room and date details. Why it matters: Putting the required action first would help the manager respond efficiently.
Suggested Rewrites
- I have recently attended I recently attended
- once you have those documents if you find the documents
- I noticed that I have left I realised that I had left
- 'Rosewood London', and Rosewood London and
- regrettably misplaced regrettably left
- the room I stayed in my room
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter achieves its purpose very effectively by identifying the likely location and appearance of the papers, explaining their urgency, and giving the manager clear actions in a consistently formal tone. The main limitation is imperfect tense control and a few unnecessarily heavy expressions. The highest-priority improvement is to maintain accurate past-time sequencing, especially when describing what happened before the writer reached home.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully and specifically developed, and the formal request is clear, practical, and appropriately courteous.
Trim incidental details such as the conference venue so the request remains even more focused.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced from identification of the loss to importance and requested action, with cohesive links supporting easy reading.
Avoid opening a sentence with the unnecessary linker in "And I attended" and use paragraph breaks to highlight each purpose.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and precise enough to describe the documents, their importance, and the requested search, with occasional awkward choices.
Use more natural phrases such as "left the documents behind" and "keep the folder securely" instead of heavier alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is used clearly, but tense sequencing errors recur in the account of the past events.
Use simple past and past perfect consistently, for example "attended" and "noticed that I had left" the documents.
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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.