You applied for a job position advertised by a company, but the recruitment process was highly unprofessional and lacked transparency. Write a letter of complaint to the human resources department of the company. In your letter: - Describe the unprofessional conduct and lack of transparency during the recruitment process. - Explain how these issues have negatively impacted your perception of the company. - Request an explanation for the company's actions and express your concerns regarding their hiring practices.
Sample Response
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to express my strong dissatisfaction with the highly unprofessional and non-transparent recruitment process for the job position advertised by your company. The lack of professionalism and transparency has negatively impacted my perception of your organization.
The communication during the process was disorganized and inconsistent, with conflicting information regarding the application timeline and interview schedule. Furthermore, the interview panel displayed unprofessional behavior, arriving late and showing a lack of preparedness and knowledge. Additionally, the selection criteria and decision-making process lacked transparency, as no feedback or explanation was provided regarding the final decision. This has raised concerns about the fairness and integrity of your company's recruitment practices.
Therefore, I kindly request an explanation for the unprofessional conduct and lack of transparency observed. I am particularly concerned about the company's hiring practices and the fairness of the decision-making process. Moreover, I hope you will take this matter seriously and make improvements to ensure a more professional and transparent recruitment process in the future.
Thank you for your attention. I look forward to a prompt response addressing my concerns and providing the necessary explanation.
Yours faithfully,
Ricky Diamond.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural wording Original: non-transparent Suggested revision: opaque Why it matters: “Opaque” is a more idiomatic formal description of a process lacking transparency.
- 2. Remove redundancy Original: job position Suggested revision: position Why it matters: “Position” already denotes a job, so the modifier is unnecessary.
- 3. Choose a direct verb Original: negatively impacted Suggested revision: damaged Why it matters: The direct verb makes the effect on the writer’s perception more concise.
- 4. Use a direct verb Original: displayed unprofessional behavior Suggested revision: behaved unprofessionally Why it matters: The verb phrase is more concise while preserving the original meaning.
- 5. Use precise preposition Original: regarding Suggested revision: for Why it matters: “An explanation for the decision” is the more natural collocation in this context.
- 6. Specify the improvement Original: make improvements Suggested revision: improve your procedures Why it matters: This replacement identifies what the company should improve more directly.
- 7. Refer to the request Original: necessary Suggested revision: requested Why it matters: This wording links the closing clearly to the earlier request.
- 8. Remove signature period Original: Diamond. Suggested revision: Diamond Why it matters: A typed name after a complimentary close normally does not take a full stop.
- 9. Explain the changed perception Suggested revision: State specifically how this experience changed your view of the company. Why it matters: The paragraph says the perception was negatively affected without explaining the resulting view.
- 10. Add concrete recruitment detail Suggested revision: Include one specific example of the conflicting information or the panel’s lack of preparation. Why it matters: A concrete incident would develop the complaint beyond general descriptions of the process.
Suggested Rewrites
- non-transparent opaque
- job position position
- negatively impacted damaged
- displayed unprofessional behavior behaved unprofessionally
- regarding for
- make improvements improve your procedures
Why this response received Band 7.5
The complaint is purposeful, appropriately formal, and well supported by specific examples of inconsistent communication, lateness, poor preparation, and opaque selection. Its main weakness is repeated reliance on the prompt’s wording, particularly around professionalism, transparency, and hiring practices, which limits lexical freshness. Prioritise paraphrasing these recurring ideas and make the change in your perception of the company more personally and concretely developed.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly fulfils its complaint purpose, covers every bullet point, and supports the concerns with relevant recruitment examples.
Develop the changed perception of the company more concretely by explaining its effect on trust or willingness to apply again.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is logically sequenced in focused paragraphs, although several overt linking words make parts of the progression slightly mechanical.
Use fewer sentence-opening connectors and let the logical relationship between adjacent ideas carry more of the cohesion.
Lexical Resource
The formal vocabulary is accurate and effective, but repeated prompt language about professionalism, transparency, and practices limits flexibility.
Paraphrase recurring concepts with context-specific expressions such as inconsistent procedures, unclear criteria, and damaged trust.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences and subordinate structures are varied, accurate, and consistently well controlled throughout the letter.
Preserve this strong control while varying a few sentence openings to make the formal style even more fluid.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You applied for a job position advertised by a company, but the recruitment process was highly unprofessional and lacked transparency. Write a letter of complaint to the human resources department of the company. In your letter:
- Describe the unprofessional conduct and lack of transparency during the recruitment process.
- Explain how these issues have negatively impacted your perception of the company.
- Request an explanation for the company's actions and express your concerns regarding their hiring practices.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.