The office where you work does not have a cafeteria for staff. Write a letter to your manager requesting that a cafeteria be set up. In your letter: - say what you have heard from staff about the inconvenience - explain how you feel about it - give suggestions for setting up a cafeteria
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I hope I have not caught youHope I did not catch you at a busy time since I am sure that you have many other prioritiesmany other important priorities at work to take care of. But, the issue, I want to raise here, is also equally important for our office staff. The reason I am writingreason for which I am writing this letter is that our office does not have aany cafeteria for its staff where they can sit and enjoygo and sit to enjoy some snacks, drinks and food. Now, this would not really be much of an issue if they did not have to walk about 10-12 minutes to buy refreshmentsgrab something for them when they need something to eat or drink during their short breaks and thus collectively waste valuable working timemany important work hours. Besides, going out like this just to get some snacks or a cup of coffeesome snacks or get a cup of coffee is rather inconvenient for us, especially whenespecially, when the weather is poorweather condition is not favourable. Therefore, I would like to request you to set up a staff cafeteria in the large empty room inat the corner of our office, which remains unused most of the time. This would ensureThat will make sure that our staff have at least one fewerless issue to worry about when trying to be more productive and efficient at work. I hope you will consider this requestconsider the issue and arrange to set up a cafeteria soon. Thank you in advance. Yours faithfully, Andrew Jones
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter makes a clear request, explains the practical inconvenience for staff, and proposes a plausible location for a cafeteria in an appropriately respectful tone. However, the required points about what colleagues have said and the writer's own feelings are conveyed only indirectly, while verbose phrasing and punctuation weaken precision. State those two perspectives explicitly, then organise the request and supporting details into focused paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear and all three bullet points are addressed, but colleagues' reported views and the writer's personal feelings are only indirectly developed.
Explicitly report what several staff members have said and state a personal reaction before presenting a more detailed cafeteria proposal.
Coherence and Cohesion
The reasoning progresses logically from the problem to its consequences and a solution, though the single paragraph and some repetition reduce clarity.
Divide the letter into an opening request, staff feedback and personal response, practical proposal, and concise closing.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient range for discussing workplace inconvenience and productivity, but several phrases are wordy, repetitive, or unnatural.
Use concise expressions such as buy refreshments, lose productive time, and adverse weather, while avoiding repeated references to the issue.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are used with reasonable control, although sentence fragments, unnecessary commas, and awkward pronoun choices occur.
Write a complete opening sentence, remove commas that separate essential clause elements, and keep references to staff consistently plural.
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
The office where you work does not have a cafeteria for staff. Write a letter to your manager requesting that a cafeteria be set up. In your letter:
- say what you have heard from staff about the inconvenience
- explain how you feel about it
- give suggestions for setting up a cafeteria
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.