Your neighbour keeps a pet in the garden, which causes some problems for you. You have decided to write to this neighbour about the problems. Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter: - say who you are and why you are writing this letter - explain the problems - suggest how to solve the problems
Sample Response
Dear Blake,
I am Barry Sanders, your neighbour of house 25, writing this letter to talk about the dog that you keep in your garden. I own a dog, and you can understand that I love pets. But your dog is causing some problems for us. And I waited for more than a few weeks before writing this letter.
Your dog "Tom" is a nice pet, and when you are around, he creates little commotion to disturb anybody. But you travel a lot and confer the responsibility to your friend Hadden to take care of the dog when you are away. However, I do not think that Hadden is doing a decent job. Tom is often left alone with no adequate food and water, resulting in her excessive barking, which disturbs me and almost everyone around the neighbourhood. Hadden does not even come to see the dog and refill the food and drink pots every day. As a result, Tom barks even more in the early morning when the food or drink pot is empty.
Therefore, I would like to suggest that you ask Hadden to come and look after Tom every day and make sure he is taken care of properly. This will be helpful for your pet as well as us. Please give me a call when you get back from your vacation. We will discuss this further.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Sanders
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Correct address phrase Original: your neighbour of house 25 Suggested revision: your neighbour at number 25 Why it matters: This preposition and address expression identify the writer's house naturally.
- 2. Correct verb collocation Original: confer Suggested revision: give Why it matters: The original verb does not collocate naturally with transferring this responsibility.
- 3. Correct negative phrase Original: with no adequate food and water Suggested revision: without adequate food or water Why it matters: After a negative expression, “or” correctly links the two missing provisions.
- 4. Keep pronouns consistent Original: her Suggested revision: his Why it matters: The dog is referred to as “he” elsewhere, so the possessive pronoun must agree.
- 5. Use natural preposition Original: around Suggested revision: in Why it matters: This is the natural prepositional phrase for people living locally.
- 6. Use natural noun Original: food and drink pots Suggested revision: food and water bowls Why it matters: “Bowls” and “water” are the usual terms for a dog's feeding containers.
- 7. Sentence rewrite Original: And I waited for more than a few weeks before writing this letter. Suggested revision: I waited for several weeks before writing to you. Why it matters: The revision removes the abrupt sentence-opening conjunction and expresses the duration concisely.
- 8. Sentence rewrite Original: Your dog "Tom" is a nice pet, and when you are around, he creates little commotion to disturb anybody. Suggested revision: Your dog "Tom" is a nice pet, and when you are around, he causes little disturbance. Why it matters: The original purpose construction incorrectly suggests that the commotion is intended to disturb people.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: This will be helpful for your pet as well as us. Suggested revision: This will help both your pet and us. Why it matters: The revised parallel structure states who benefits more directly and naturally.
Suggested Rewrites
- your neighbour of house 25 your neighbour at number 25
- confer give
- with no adequate food and water without adequate food or water
- her his
- around in
- food and drink pots food and water bowls
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter responds fully and tactfully, with a clear explanation of the barking problem and a practical request that benefits both the dog and the neighbours. Its main weakness is linguistic polish: several expressions are unnatural, and shifting between “her” and “he” for Tom distracts from an otherwise coherent message. Prioritise consistent reference and more idiomatic phrasing so the detailed content reads as smoothly as it is organised.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully addressed with relevant detail, a clear purpose, and an appropriately courteous tone for a neighbour.
State the desired outcome even more directly by asking for reliable daily care whenever the neighbour is away.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced into clear functional paragraphs, and cohesive links guide the reader effectively through problem and solution.
Reduce the repeated sentence-initial use of “But”, “However”, and “As a result” to make the progression more seamless.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary shows good range and conveys the situation clearly, although several choices such as “confer the responsibility” and “drink pots” are unnatural.
Use more idiomatic combinations such as “entrust the care” and “water bowl” to improve precision and naturalness.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are generally well controlled, but pronoun inconsistency and several awkward constructions remain noticeable.
Keep references to Tom consistently masculine and revise clauses such as “no adequate food and water” into fully natural grammatical forms.
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
Your neighbour keeps a pet in the garden, which causes some problems for you. You have decided to write to this neighbour about the problems. Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter:
- say who you are and why you are writing this letter
- explain the problems
- suggest how to solve the problems
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.