You are a university student in the UK and have recently lost your university ID card. Write to the local police station. In your letter: - give details of who you are - explain what happened - ask the police to record your details so that you can apply for a new ID card
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Sherin Emma, a second-year student at the University of Liverpool and my major is economicsEconomics. I am writing to report a lost university identification cardlost identification card issued bythat I was provided by my university. I would like to explain thatI respectfully state that on 2121st December, I went to the local stadium to enjoy a music concert and stayed there fromhad been there from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm4.00 pm to 7:00 pm. After I returned to my room, at around 7:44 in the evening, I could not find my University ID. I am positive that I had it with me when I entered the stadium. I must have lostmissed it during the concert. I immediately reported the loss tonotified the occurrence to the dean at my universitythe university dean and he suggested that I should report it to the police station and obtainhave a copy of the report to apply for a new ID card. I waited two days hoping that someone might find it and return it to the university, but unfortunatelyuniversity but unfortunately it did not happen. Now I would like you to formallyofficially record the incidentincidence of my lost ID card so that I can collect a copy and apply for a new one. The ID has my name - Sherin Emma and number LUA-45874E, inscribed on it and is valid until 30th November 2023. I would be much obliged if you kindly record the loss of my IDregister my lost ID case and provide me with a copy of the reporta copy of that to help me get a new one. Yours faithfully, Sherin Emma
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter achieves its formal purpose very effectively, supplying clear personal details, a coherent account of the loss, and an explicit request for an official record. Its principal weakness is presentation and lexical naturalness: all content appears in one paragraph, and several official-sounding expressions are awkward or imprecise. The priority is to paragraph the letter by function and replace forced formal phrases with standard, concise wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response fully covers the writer's identity, the circumstances of the loss, and the request needed to obtain a replacement, using an appropriate formal tone.
Trim minor incidental details, such as the exact return time, to make the request even more direct.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence from identification to the loss and subsequent request is clear, with effective sentence-level links, but the absence of paragraph breaks weakens the overall organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for personal details, the incident, and the requested police action.
Lexical Resource
There is a wide range of suitably formal vocabulary, but expressions such as "record the incidence" and "register my lost ID case" are inaccurate or unnatural.
Use standard official collocations such as "record the incident," "file a report," and "issue a copy."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a broad range of complex structures with generally strong accuracy, despite a few awkward modifiers, unnecessary tense choices, and punctuation lapses.
Simplify the sentence describing the card's inscription and validity so each detail has a clear grammatical relationship.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are a university student in the UK and have recently lost your university ID card. Write to the local police station. In your letter:
- give details of who you are
- explain what happened
- ask the police to record your details so that you can apply for a new ID card
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.