You travelled by plane last week and your suitcase was lost. You have still heard nothing from the airline company. Write to the airline. In your letter: - explain what happened - describe your suitcase and say what was in it - ask what the airline is going to do about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writingwriting this letter to inquire about my lost suitcase. I took a flight by the Saudia Airline from Singapore to London last week and the flight number was SK2547. Unfortunately, when I arrived at London City Airportreached the London City Airport, I could not find my suitcase anywhere. I am hoping you would discover the suitcase and inform me once found. The suitcase is black, medium-sizedmedium in size and made of genuinepure leather. A small scratch is visible on itsthe left side and it has three zipszippers. The handle is brown and made of metal. It contains some important documents, a fountain pen, a diary, and some clothessome clothing items. The business documents inside the suitcase are essential to meindispensable for me. Although I have registered the lost item ten days ago, I have yet to receive an updateI am yet to hear any update from the airline. I am disappointed with the customer service and hope that you willwould help me locate the suitcase as soon as possiblelocate the suitcase urgently. Please update me onabout the whereabouts of the suitcase and explain the next stepsand oblige thereby. I look forward to receiving your prompt responsehearing from you soon. Yours faithfully, Ayub Ali
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly explains the flight and missing-bag incident, provides several distinctive suitcase features and important contents, and requests urgent action after a lengthy delay. Its strongest feature is the practical identification detail, while the main limitation is dense single-paragraph presentation and some awkward formal expressions. The priority is to ask for a specific tracing update, expected resolution date, and compensation procedure while organising the incident, description, and request separately.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requirements are fully addressed with flight information, a detailed suitcase description, valuable contents, and a clear request for urgent tracing and contact.
Ask the airline to provide a tracing reference, investigation status, delivery timeframe, and compensation process if the bag cannot be found.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from the loss to the bag description and follow-up request, but one long paragraph reduces readability.
Use separate paragraphs for flight and loss details, the suitcase and contents, the previous report, and the action requested.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied and precise for luggage features and complaint handling, though several formal phrases are unnatural.
Replace 'registered the lost item', 'discover the suitcase', and 'oblige thereby' with 'reported the loss', 'locate the suitcase', and a direct polite request.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of structures communicates the complaint clearly, but tense, modal, article, and preposition errors recur.
Use accurate forms such as 'flew with Saudia', 'reported the loss ten days ago', and 'I hope you will locate it and contact me'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You travelled by plane last week and your suitcase was lost. You have still heard nothing from the airline company. Write to the airline. In your letter:
- explain what happened
- describe your suitcase and say what was in it
- ask what the airline is going to do about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.