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 have recently rented a car from your Wandsworth showroom in London for two weeksfor a duration of two weeks. Unfortunately, I was involved in a minor accident while driving to Heathrow Airportairport. I am hope you will reviewhoping you would go through the report attached to this letter and process the accident report promptlyhandle the incident with professionalism as you always do. With regardregards to the car that I hired, it is a Honda Civic Hybrid sedanHybrid sedan car with the registration number GB LN58RTVnumber plate GB LN58RTV. I hired it on 2626th May and paid a week's rentand have paid a week's rent upfront. I would like to commend your company for itstheir professionalism and the service you providethe service offered as I have always relied on your service whenever I needneeded to hire a car. Unfortunately, I had an unavoidable accident involving another party while I was drivingoff to the airport to pick up my cousinto receive my cousin on 2nd June. The accident was caused by the other car's failure to stopthe other car failing to stop at the red light at the intersection I was crossingintersection I was passing through, so the other driverand as such, the second party collided withinto the driver's side of my automobile. The driver of the other car agreed to pay £800 as compensation when I informed the police. The police have recorded information regarding the accident and the other driver’s insurance details. The second party's insurance company has been informed as well. I would like to request that a replacement vehicle be providedrequest that a replacement vehicle should be offered while my current vehicle is incapacitated. Once again, I would like to commend your company's professional attitude. Yours faithfully, David Clark
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter gives a precise, professional account of the hire, accident, police report, insurance details, and compensation arrangement, fully supporting the company’s need to assess the incident. Its strongest feature is the specific chronology and documentation. The main improvement is concision: repeated praise of the company and the extra replacement request distract slightly from the required report. Prioritise a streamlined factual account and a clear list of attached evidence.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully developed with specific dates, locations, accident details, and documented post-accident actions in an appropriate formal tone.
Mention the attached police or insurance reference explicitly and keep the optional replacement request separate from the factual report.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from hire details to the collision, police and insurance action, and the final request, with strong overall clarity.
Remove repeated praise and use short paragraphs for hire information, accident circumstances, and actions taken.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise for an accident report, with occasional awkward phrases such as ‘second party’ and ‘collided into’.
Use ‘other driver’, ‘collided with’, ‘police report’, ‘insurance details’, and ‘replacement vehicle’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of structures is generally well controlled, despite minor issues with agreement, prepositions, and the request construction.
Use ‘I request that a replacement vehicle be provided’ and ensure company references remain consistently singular.
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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.