You use trains to reach the office but the timetable of the train has been changed recently. Also, the train you take to work no longer stops at your station. Write a letter to the railway authority about it. In your letter: - introduce yourself - what problems have been created due to the changes - what you would suggest them to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I would like to draw your attention to the fact thatdraw your kind attention that, the train schedule in my area has recently been changed and due to this, many commutersoffice goers like me are experiencing serious disruptionare suffering. I hope you will restoreI am hoping you would keep the previous timetable and introduce more frequent trains for the convenience of the residents. I am a banker and I work as an assistant manager at the City Bank. I regularly commute to my office by trainusing your train. Sadly, the train I used to take to reach the officereach office no longer stops at our station. As a result,station and as a result, we need to travel a few extra miles to reach the City Centre Station which is overcrowded in the morning rush hourmorning hours. I am often late for worklate to reach my office and object tohave objections about the revised train timetable. With the introduction of the new train schedule, commutingdaily commuting for employees like me has become extremelyutterly difficult which ultimately makes your service unreliable. Unfortunately, because of this problem, many commuters are late for worklate for their work which is affecting their productivity. Consequently, they are very dissatisfied with your serviceupset about your service. As a solution to this problem, I would recommend that you revertrecommend you to revert to the previous schedule and arrange more trains during peak hoursduring the peak hours. If it is not possible, then at least add more carriages to increase capacityincrease the space. It will be a great relief if you can resolve this problem as soon as possible. Thank you for giving your attention to this mattergiving the matter your attention and I hope to hear your reply soon. Yours faithfully, Campbell Scott
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully addresses the situation, introduces the commuter clearly, explains concrete consequences of the changed service, and proposes several practical remedies in a suitably formal tone. Its main weakness is presentation: the response is lengthy and unparagraphled, while a few awkward collocations reduce polish; prioritise grouping the introduction, problems, and requested actions into concise paragraphs and refining the formal request language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all bullet points are fully developed, and the proposed timetable, frequency, and capacity solutions are practical and relevant.
Make the request still more focused by identifying the station and preferred stopping time, then trim repeated comments about commuter dissatisfaction.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence from purpose to personal impact, wider consequences, and solutions is logical, but the single-block format and repetition reduce clarity.
Use separate paragraphs for self-introduction, problems caused, and requested remedies, and remove duplicated statements about lateness and inconvenience.
Lexical Resource
A good range of transport and complaint vocabulary conveys the problem precisely, with only occasional unnatural collocations.
Prefer draw your attention to, late for work, and concerns about the revised timetable rather than the less natural existing phrases.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied complex structures with generally sound control, despite occasional article, punctuation, and clause-linking errors.
Check comma placement and relative clauses in long sentences, especially where consequences are linked with which.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You use trains to reach the office but the timetable of the train has been changed recently. Also, the train you take to work no longer stops at your station. Write a letter to the railway authority about it. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- what problems have been created due to the changes
- what you would suggest them to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.