Your car was hired from a company and while you were driving on holiday, you had a small accident. You will have to write a report to the company to explain it. Write a letter to the company. In your letter, you need to explain the following: - when and where you hired the car - describe how the accident happened - what kind of action you took after the accident
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I hired a Maruti Swift carCar (registration numberRegistration Number: MP07 5234) from your city-centre outlet in Bangalorefrom your city centre outlet, Bangalore, on 1212th September for four daysfor a duration of four days. I am writing to apprise you of a minor accident that involved that car. I hope you will takeI am hoping you would take the necessary actionactions regarding this. I hired this carI have hired this car for a family holiday in Mysore, but unfortunately, the carautomobile was involved in a small accident yesterday. As it was dark and in the absence of a street light, I could not notice an open and large pothole on the road on time and applied the brake suddenly. As a resultDue to this, the car behind struck minethe car behind collided with my car. Although there was no major damage, only the light on the left-hand side was broken and had a small dent. Though I have got the light and dent fixed at a Maruti authorised service station, but the small scratches are still visible. Please accept my sincere apologies. I am willing to pay any additional chargessome extra charges as compensation if required. You can send me the final bill to my address and I shall clear all dues within the next weekwithin next week. Please feel free to call me in casecall me, in case any further information is required. Thank you in advance. Yours faithfully, Preeti Ghuraiya
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter gives precise hire details, clearly explains how poor visibility and sudden braking led to a rear-end collision, and documents the repairs, remaining scratches, apology, and willingness to pay. Its strongest feature is comprehensive, responsible reporting. The main limitation is grammatical control in several complex sentences, particularly tense consistency and double conjunctions; prioritise a clean chronological account with unambiguous descriptions of the damage.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All required points are fully developed with specific rental details, a clear accident sequence, and extensive follow-up actions.
Clarify that the left light was broken and the car body was dented, and state whether the other driver or police provided any report.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from hiring details to the accident, damage, repairs, compensation, and contact arrangements.
Use separate paragraphs for rental information, the accident sequence, and actions taken to make the report easier for the company to process.
Lexical Resource
A good range of formal accident and payment vocabulary is used, despite a few awkward or imprecise combinations.
Use 'inform you', 'a large pothole', 'braked suddenly', 'authorised repair centre', and 'outstanding balance'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied structures communicate the report clearly, but tense shifts, conjunction errors, articles, and some clause constructions are not consistently controlled.
Correct forms such as 'I hired the car', 'Although the damage was minor, the left light was broken', and 'Although I had the damage repaired, scratches remain'.
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 car was hired from a company and while you were driving on holiday, you had a small accident. You will have to write a report to the company to explain it. Write a letter to the company. In your letter, you need to explain the following:
- when and where you hired the car
- describe how the accident happened
- what kind of action you took after the accident
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.