On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item. Fortunately you have travel insurance to cover the cost of anything lost. Write a letter to the manager of your insurance company. In your letter - describe the item you lost - explain how you lost it - tell the insurance company what you would like them to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to you to make a claim for my camerainitiate the process of covering my camera which was lost during my trip to Syria last week.
My insurance policy numberinsurance contract ID is ZFI55456 which covers any lost item during travel. Last Saturday, I lost my CanonCannon ZF300 digital camera while I was travelling from Damascus to Homs byvia train. UnfortunatelyActually, I forgot to pick the camera up frompick the camera from the train seat as I had a severestrong headache that day. Two days later, I checkedI have checked the lost-and-found officelost and found section of the central train station but the staff had no record ofthey had no clue about the missingmentioned camera. So I submitted a lost-item claimsubmitted for lost item claim which was officially stamped by the Syrian Trains Authority.
I am sending this letter along with the camera invoice and the lost item claim application. I would expect full reimbursement of the invoiced amounta full payment for the invoiced amount as this coverage is clearly statedas this is clearly mentioned in the insurance agreement.
I look forward to your prompt response.Looking for prompt action,
Yours faithfully, Mr SalamonMr. Salamon
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter is purposeful, appropriately formal, and covers the lost item, circumstances, and requested reimbursement with useful specific detail. Its main limitation is uneven language control, particularly awkward insurance-related collocations and a few tense or article errors, while the closing is less conventional than the rest. Prioritise more natural formal phrasing and consistent past-time grammar so the claim reads as precise and professional throughout.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, and every required point is covered with relevant supporting detail.
Use a conventional formal closing and state the requested claim action more explicitly.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically from the claim context to the loss circumstances and requested reimbursement.
Strengthen links between the search, official claim, and enclosed documents to make the chronology even smoother.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a useful range of insurance and travel vocabulary, though several collocations sound unnatural.
Replace phrases such as covering my camera and submitted for lost item claim with standard insurance wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentences communicates the message clearly despite several tense and article errors.
Keep past events consistently in the simple past and check articles in formal noun phrases.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
On a recent holiday you lost a valuable item. Fortunately you have travel insurance to cover the cost of anything lost. Write a letter to the manager of your insurance company. In your letter
- describe the item you lost
- explain how you lost it
- tell the insurance company what you would like them to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.