You have been living in a rental apartment for the past year. Recently a new neighbour moved in and has been making a lot of noise, which disturbs you. Write a letter to the landlord. In your letter: - explain the situation - describe why it bothers you - suggest a solution
Sample Response
Dear Mr William, Hope this letter finds you in good health and spiritsspirit. I am writing toI am writing this letter to you in order to bring to your attentionbring your attention to an unpleasant issue that I have been facing lately. I would like to inform youI just wanted to let you know that one of your tenants, who has recently moved into apartment 5-D, has been making a lot of noise. In additionNot to mention, the noise becomes louder at nightduring the nighttime, especially, when I try to sleep. MoreoverBy the way, it is not only me but other tenants on the same floor who are also complaining about it. We have tried to talkAnd we tried to talk to him politely about the noise issue but the loud music and loud arguments over the phone only keep growing. I apologiseAnyway, I am sorry to seem overly criticalsound like complaining too much, but the noise is severely disrupting my sleepthe noise is bothering me severely because I cannot sleepsince I can not sleep at night. Therefore, I would greatlyhighly appreciate it if you could please ask our new neighbour to keep noise to a minimum after 8:00 p.m.not to make any noise after 8.00 at night. If that does not workBut, if that does not work, please allow me to move to another apartment on a different flooranother apartment which is on a different floor. Yours sincerely, Rick Tyson
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter clearly explains the neighbour’s noise, its impact on sleep, and two practical remedies, so the landlord can readily understand and act on the complaint. Its main weakness is an uneven register, with conversational transitions and several awkward expressions reducing the professional tone. The highest-priority improvement is to organise the content into focused paragraphs and replace informal or imprecise phrasing with concise, courteous requests.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are developed with relevant detail, and the proposed solutions are practical, though the tone is occasionally too conversational for a landlord.
Maintain a consistently polite formal register while stating the disturbance, its effect, and the requested action directly.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a sensible sequence from situation to impact and solution, but the single block of text and frequent discourse markers make progression less polished.
Use separate paragraphs for the complaint, its effects, and the two requested solutions, with fewer transitions such as “By the way” and “Anyway.”
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied for the complaint, but collocations such as “bring your attention,” “noise keeps growing,” and “bothering me severely” are awkward.
Use natural combinations such as bring this issue to your attention, the noise is getting louder, and seriously disrupting my sleep.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex sentences is generally controlled, although punctuation, clause balance, and a few constructions contain noticeable errors.
Check comma placement and parallel structures, particularly in sentences using “not only ... but also” and relative clauses.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have been living in a rental apartment for the past year. Recently a new neighbour moved in and has been making a lot of noise, which disturbs you. Write a letter to the landlord. In your letter:
- explain the situation
- describe why it bothers you
- suggest a solution
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.