You are a member of an organization which meets regularly at a particular restaurant. The most recent meal you had there was not satisfactory. Write a letter to the restaurant. In your letter: - explain why you are writing - describe what went wrong with the meal and service - Suggest what the manager should do to ensure that you and your group return to the restaurant
Sample Response
Dear sir,
I am writing this letter to show my dissatisfaction with food quality and service which I received from your restaurant recently. Last weekend on 18 November I visited your hotel with my 10 NGO members.
As you know we always came there for our organization meetings and I am quite happy with all the services that you provided in the last many years. however, at that time I disappointed with it. Firstly the food which you offered us that was neither hot or not afresh. Secondly, when I complained to the server about it then he retorted me kitchen had closed now. So that overall experience was not too satisfied.
I would like to suggest If you want to gain goodwill then you should provide fresh and hot food to your customers. Moreover, you should also train your worker how to treat with consumers otherwise no one will be interested to come there again and again.
I hope you are considering this matter and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Manpreet Kaur.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Capitalise the salutation Original: sir Suggested revision: Sir Why it matters: The formal salutation requires a capital letter for the title.
- 2. Use a formal verb Original: show Suggested revision: express Why it matters: This collocation sounds more natural and formal in a complaint letter.
- 3. Clarify the noun phrase Original: food quality and service which I received Suggested revision: the quality of the food and service I received Why it matters: The revised phrase correctly identifies the aspects of the restaurant being criticised.
- 4. Name the correct venue Original: hotel Suggested revision: restaurant Why it matters: The task concerns a restaurant, so referring to it as a hotel creates an inconsistency.
- 5. Use present perfect Original: we always came there Suggested revision: we have always come there Why it matters: The present perfect is needed for visits continuing over a period up to the present.
- 6. Capitalise the connector Original: however Suggested revision: However Why it matters: This linking adverb begins a new sentence and therefore needs a capital letter.
- 7. Add the linking verb Original: I disappointed Suggested revision: I was disappointed Why it matters: The passive adjective requires the verb 'was'.
- 8. Add connector punctuation Original: Firstly the food Suggested revision: Firstly, the food Why it matters: A comma is required after the introductory linking adverb.
- 9. Repair the relative clause Original: which you offered us that was Suggested revision: that you served us was Why it matters: The original uses two competing relative structures in the same clause.
- 10. Use the correct pair Original: neither hot or not afresh Suggested revision: neither hot nor fresh Why it matters: The correlative structure is 'neither...nor', and 'afresh' is not an adjective for food.
- 11. Remove the faulty linker Original: complained to the server about it then Suggested revision: complained to the server, Why it matters: The comma correctly closes the dependent clause before the main clause begins.
- 12. Fix reported speech Original: he retorted me kitchen Suggested revision: he replied that the kitchen Why it matters: 'Reply' takes a that-clause here, whereas 'retort' cannot be followed by a person object in this structure.
Suggested Rewrites
- sir Sir
- show express
- food quality and service which I received the quality of the food and service I received
- hotel restaurant
- we always came there we have always come there
- however However
Why this response received Band 6.0
The letter has a clear purpose, follows an appropriate complaint structure, and addresses the food, service, and proposed remedies. Its main weakness is persistent grammatical and collocational inaccuracy, which makes several descriptions awkward and occasionally slows understanding. The highest priority is to build accurate sentence patterns for recounting the incident and requesting action while retaining the current logical paragraphing.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear and all three bullet points are addressed, though the complaint and proposed response are only briefly developed.
Add precise details about the unsatisfactory meal and make the requested managerial action more specific and tactfully phrased.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is arranged logically by purpose, problem, and solution, with clear paragraphing and basic progression.
Use cohesive devices more naturally and connect the account of the meal and service without mechanical sequencing.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for a formal complaint and includes some less common choices, but several collocations and word forms are inaccurate.
Replace awkward phrases such as descriptions of the food, the server's response, and customer treatment with natural complaint vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter attempts both simple and complex structures, but frequent errors in tense, articles, agreement, and clause construction reduce control.
Prioritise accurate past-tense clauses and complete sentence structures when describing what happened and how staff responded.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are a member of an organization which meets regularly at a particular restaurant. The most recent meal you had there was not satisfactory. Write a letter to the restaurant. In your letter:
- explain why you are writing
- describe what went wrong with the meal and service
- Suggest what the manager should do to ensure that you and your group return to the restaurant
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.