You saw an advertisement for a tennis course in England but you have some problems and can’t stay for the whole course. Write a letter to the course director. In your letter: - explain your interest in the course - describe your problems - find out whether a refund is possible if you leave early
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Stephen Gore, writing to inquire about some detailsinquire some details about the tennis course that you offerconduct. I would specifically like to know your refund policy for people who cannot complete the whole course. I recently sawhave recently noticed your advertisement in a daily newspaper and as a keen tennis playerpassionate learner of this sport, I would like to enrol inget enrolled in this three-month-long program. As the course is intended for intermediate tennis playersthe intermediate players of tennis, it would be a good fit for me. However, there are some issues that I would like to resolve before enrolling in the coursegetting enrolled in this course. First, I am concerned about the course timing.First, the timing of the course. According to the your advertisementadvert of yours, it is from 4:00 to 6:00 in the evening. However, I cannot attendjoin it before 5:30 pm. Is there any option to adjust the timing or date? I believeguess that would be necessary for learners who have full-time jobs. AdditionallyBesides, I will probably travel to Sydney, Australia during my course schedule and willwould stay there for almost two months. Considering this, can I get a refund in case I do not complete the whole course? What is the refund policy? Finally, I would request you to email the document checklistchecklists to join the course. Thank you in advance. A prompt response would be highly appreciated. Yours faithfully, Stephen Gore
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter has a clear formal purpose and develops all three requirements with convincing detail: the writer explains his interest and level, sets out both timing and travel problems, and asks directly about an early-departure refund. Its main weakness is presentation and some awkward phrasing, so the priority is to divide the request into logical paragraphs and replace expressions such as inquire some details, advert of yours and document checklists with natural formal wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly explains the writer’s interest, develops two genuine attendance problems, and directly requests information about a refund in a consistently appropriate formal tone.
Keep the final request focused on the advertised course by asking about refund conditions or supporting evidence rather than adding the unrelated document-checklist query.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content follows a clear purpose-to-interest-to-problems-to-refund sequence, but it is presented as one long paragraph and sometimes uses mechanical transitions.
Use separate paragraphs for interest, scheduling and travel constraints, and the refund request.
Lexical Resource
A flexible range of formal and course-related vocabulary conveys the request precisely overall, despite several awkward collocations.
Replace inquire some details, advert of yours and document checklists with inquire about the course, your advertisement and list of required documents.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex sentences are generally well controlled, with only occasional errors in prepositions, fragments and modal consistency.
Correct forms such as inquire about, the course runs from, and I will stay there, and turn First, the timing of the course into a complete sentence.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You saw an advertisement for a tennis course in England but you have some problems and can’t stay for the whole course. Write a letter to the course director. In your letter:
- explain your interest in the course
- describe your problems
- find out whether a refund is possible if you leave early
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.