You recently visited a tourist attraction and you were very pleased with the help given to you by the staff. Write a letter to the head of staff at the tourist attraction. In your letter: - give details of the circumstances of your visit - describe the help given to you by the staff - say what you want the head staff to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am Pham Van Duc, a tourist from Vietnam, recently been to your Illusion 3D Art Museum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and had been overwhelmed both with the collection and courteous staff. I am writing to express my appreciation for the wonderful experience that I had during my visit to your museumMuseum. I took a week-long holidayvacation to Kuala Lumpur with my wife and daughter in August and learned about your museumMuseum from TripAdvisorDelete, a useful website for tourists. After we arrived at your museumreached your Museum, the receptionist explained what we couldcan expect once inside and what we couldcan do to enjoy our time. She was very friendly and helpfulcooperative. Once we got inside, another staff member greeted us and then escorted us to different worth enjoying 3D collections. My daughter thoroughly enjoyedhad thoroughly enjoyed her time and we took several photographspictures to capture the moment. The staff member stayed with usHe was with us until the end of our visituntil the last moment and was very courteoushad been quite cordial. I would like to thank you for a great museum with a fabulous selection and on top of that, gracious staff members who have a genuine smile and a positive mentality to let visitors enjoy their time. Please convey my thanksregards and best wishes to them. Yours faithfully, Pham Van Duc
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully explains the family visit, gives specific examples of assistance from the receptionist and guide, and clearly asks the head of staff to pass on appreciation. Its strongest feature is the warm, detailed recognition of staff service, while the main limitation is frequent awkward grammar and phrasing within one dense paragraph. The priority is to organise the circumstances, help received, and requested recognition separately while simplifying tense choices.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are clearly developed with relevant visit details, specific staff actions, and an appropriate request to convey thanks.
Make the requested action more concrete by asking the manager to identify and formally commend the receptionist and guide.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses from the visit context to staff assistance and appreciation, but the single-paragraph format makes the sequence feel dense.
Use separate paragraphs for the circumstances, the receptionist's and guide's help, and the requested recognition.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied enough to express appreciation and describe service, though several choices are unnatural or overly elaborate.
Replace phrases such as 'worth enjoying 3D collections', 'positive mentality', and 'until the last moment' with simple, precise service language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of structures is attempted, but missing auxiliaries, inconsistent tenses, agreement, and clause construction create frequent errors.
Use consistent past tense and complete structures such as 'I recently visited', 'the receptionist explained what to expect', and 'my daughter thoroughly enjoyed the visit'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently visited a tourist attraction and you were very pleased with the help given to you by the staff. Write a letter to the head of staff at the tourist attraction. In your letter:
- give details of the circumstances of your visit
- describe the help given to you by the staff
- say what you want the head staff to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.