You work for an international company and would like to spend six months working in its head office in another country. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - explain why you want to work in the company’s head office for six months - say how your work could be done while you are away - ask for his/her help in arranging it
Sample Response
Dear Mr. Kage,
I’m writing this letter to express my intent to work in North Carolina where our company is headquartered, for the coming six months from the first week of March till slightly over the first week of September.
As this is known to you that our company has recently brought the new project management software, Planisware, and for which, our employees in our home branch need to be trained for. As a senior project manager, I needit is incumbent upon me to know the intricaciesminutest mechanism of this software, whichthis software that I can only learn at our head office. Comprehensive software trainingAn exhaustive software training delivered by world-class trainersby some of the world-class trainers is scheduled in North Carolina, which I believe willshall be highly beneficial to the growthastounding for the growth of our company. I’ve spoken with Germaine, whoGermaine who agreed to manage my responsibilities; therefore,responsibilities, hence my absence wouldn’t disrupt operationsjeopardize the organization during that periodin the interim.
Kindly reply to this emailacknowledge the mail to confirm your approvalas your ratification and arrange for my temporary placementmy transfer.
Yours sincerely,sincerely. Prakhar Panchbhaiya
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter has a clear purpose and provides a convincing professional reason for the proposed placement, while also identifying someone who can cover the writer’s duties. Its main limitation is the frequent use of awkward, overly elaborate wording and sentence structures, which makes the request sound less natural and occasionally obscures meaning. The priority is to express the arrangements and request in simpler, more idiomatic business English.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are addressed, and the training rationale is developed with relevant detail.
Make the final request more courteous and specify how the manager could help arrange the placement.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from the proposed dates to the reason, work cover, and request, although the central paragraph carries too many ideas.
Separate the training justification from the work-cover arrangement to create a more balanced and easily followed structure.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a broad professional vocabulary, but several ambitious choices are unnatural or imprecise in this context.
Replace expressions such as “minutest mechanism,” “astounding for the growth,” and “ratification” with clear, idiomatic workplace language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures is attempted, but recurring construction and punctuation errors reduce accuracy and fluency.
Revise faulty structures such as “As this is known to you that” and avoid joining independent clauses with only a comma and a linking adverb.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You work for an international company and would like to spend six months working in its head office in another country. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- explain why you want to work in the company’s head office for six months
- say how your work could be done while you are away
- ask for his/her help in arranging it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.