You are experiencing financial problems and want to ask your landlord if you can pay your rent late. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter explain: - Why you are writing to him - Why you cannot pay the rent - When you will pay the rent.
Sample Response
Dear Sir,
Hope you and your family members are staying safe. I am writing this letter to let you know that the payment of this month’s house rent would be delayed by two months and I hereby request you to consider the same.
As you are aware of the fact that we run a small catering business and due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, our business has been shut down for the last two months leaving us almost nil operating cash. Besides that, I have to pay salaries to my kitchen workers and driver as they too have their families to feed.
Because I have a business loan from a private bank, I have to pay a mandatory monthly installment without any moratorium. I am currently going through tremendous financial pressure and I really hope that you will support me by deferring the rent expense by two months during these trying times.
Awaiting your response at the earliest.
Yours sincerely,
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Add the subject Original: Hope you Suggested revision: I hope you Why it matters: A complete formal sentence needs the subject before the verb.
- 2. Use concise wording Original: payment of this month’s house rent Suggested revision: this month’s rent payment Why it matters: This is a more natural and concise noun phrase.
- 3. Clarify the request Original: consider the same Suggested revision: allow me to pay it late Why it matters: The revision states the requested action directly instead of using a vague reference.
- 4. Use formal linking Original: Besides that Suggested revision: In addition Why it matters: This connector is more suitable for a formal letter.
- 5. Correct the structure Original: pay salaries to Suggested revision: pay the salaries of Why it matters: The noun phrase requires this structure before the employees who receive the salaries.
- 6. Use accurate collocation Original: deferring the rent expense Suggested revision: allowing me to defer the rent payment Why it matters: A payment can be deferred, while an expense is not normally described this way.
- 7. Match the salutation Original: sincerely Suggested revision: faithfully Why it matters: A letter beginning with an unnamed recipient conventionally uses this formal sign-off.
- 8. Use concise wording Original: family members Suggested revision: family Why it matters: Family already refers collectively to its members in this greeting.
- 9. Remove redundancy Original: I am writing this letter Suggested revision: I am writing Why it matters: The word letter is unnecessary because the format is already clear.
- 10. Use definite future Original: would Suggested revision: will Why it matters: The delay is presented as a definite situation rather than a hypothetical one.
- 11. Soften the request Original: I hereby request you Suggested revision: I would therefore like to ask you Why it matters: This phrasing makes the request polite and natural for a landlord.
- 12. Use concise grouping Original: workers Suggested revision: staff Why it matters: Kitchen staff is a more concise collective term for the employees.
Suggested Rewrites
- Hope you I hope you
- payment of this month’s house rent this month’s rent payment
- consider the same allow me to pay it late
- Besides that In addition
- pay salaries to pay the salaries of
- deferring the rent expense allowing me to defer the rent payment
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter states the request clearly, gives convincing financial reasons, and maintains a suitably respectful tone, with logical paragraphing and a useful range of formal language. Its main limitation is that the promised payment time is expressed only as a two-month delay, while several collocations and sentence choices sound strained. The priority is to give a precise payment date and replace awkward business-style phrasing with more natural formal English.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose, financial reasons, and requested two-month deferral address all bullet points in an appropriately formal and sufficiently developed letter.
State the exact date on which the outstanding rent will be paid rather than relying only on the phrase 'by two months.'
Coherence and Cohesion
The request and supporting reasons are arranged in a clear sequence, with effective paragraphing and generally smooth progression.
Link the loan repayment more explicitly to the cash-flow problem so the third paragraph follows even more naturally from the second.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of formal financial vocabulary, although several combinations such as 'nil operating cash' and 'deferring the rent expense' are unnatural.
Use more idiomatic phrases such as 'almost no cash flow' and 'allow me to defer the rent payment.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A variety of simple and complex sentences is used with generally strong control despite a few awkward constructions and punctuation choices.
Revise long sentences to avoid loosely attached clauses, especially the sentence describing the business shutdown and its financial effect.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are experiencing financial problems and want to ask your landlord if you can pay your rent late. Write a letter to your landlord. In your letter explain:
- Why you are writing to him
- Why you cannot pay the rent
- When you will pay the rent.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.