You have a full-time job and are also doing a part-time evening course. You now find that you can not continue the course. Write a letter to your tutor. In your letter: - describe the situation - explain why you cannot continue at this time - say what action you would like to take
Sample Response
Dear sir,
I am a student of “advanced business management” a part-time course in your institute. The main endeavor of writing this letter is to inform you that I am not able to continue my course in this term due to my office work assignments. Please allow me to explain it briefly.
I am doing a full-time job in ‘supreme Infosys’ in city Ludhiana but, recently my company has opened a new branch in city Jalandhar which is 210 km away from there. Due to this, they shifted some employees to the new branch and they promoted me as an “HR Manager” there. So it is quite difficult for me to travel daily such a long distance. Moreover, my new job requires more work and more time as well, therefore, I want to hold this course for next session.
I hope you will understand my situation and I wish to join it again in the next term so could you please adjust my current payment in next session if possible. If it is not practicable for you then please refund my fees as soon as possible.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Correct salutation Original: sir Suggested revision: Sir Why it matters: The title in a formal salutation requires a capital letter.
- 2. Form the course phrase Original: “advanced business management” a part-time course Suggested revision: the part-time “Advanced Business Management” course Why it matters: The revision integrates the course title grammatically and capitalizes its name.
- 3. Correct institution preposition Original: in Suggested revision: at Why it matters: “At” is the natural preposition for studying at an institution.
- 4. State purpose naturally Original: main endeavor of writing this letter Suggested revision: main purpose of this letter Why it matters: “Endeavor of writing” is an unnatural expression of the letter's purpose.
- 5. Correct time phrasing Original: continue my course in this term Suggested revision: continue the course this term Why it matters: The definite article and direct time phrase are required in this context.
- 6. Use concise reason Original: due to my office work assignments Suggested revision: because of my work commitments Why it matters: This is a more natural expression for the employment demands causing the withdrawal.
- 7. Clarify the pronoun Original: explain it briefly Suggested revision: explain the situation briefly Why it matters: The pronoun has no sufficiently clear singular antecedent.
- 8. Use natural employment phrase Original: doing a full-time job Suggested revision: working full-time Why it matters: English normally uses “work full-time” rather than “do a job” in this context.
- 9. Capitalize company name Original: supreme Suggested revision: Supreme Why it matters: A company name is a proper noun and requires an initial capital.
- 10. Correct place phrase Original: in city Ludhiana Suggested revision: in Ludhiana Why it matters: The city name does not require the word “city” in this construction.
- 11. Remove misplaced comma Original: but, recently Suggested revision: but recently Why it matters: A comma should not separate the coordinating conjunction from the following adverb.
- 12. Correct city phrase Original: in city Jalandhar Suggested revision: in Jalandhar Why it matters: The natural location phrase uses the city name directly.
Suggested Rewrites
- sir Sir
- “advanced business management” a part-time course the part-time “Advanced Business Management” course
- in at
- main endeavor of writing this letter main purpose of this letter
- continue my course in this term continue the course this term
- due to my office work assignments because of my work commitments
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response succeeds most clearly in explaining the work transfer and promotion that prevent continued attendance, while also proposing practical alternatives for the course fees. Its main limitation is recurring grammatical and collocational awkwardness, especially in longer sentences, which weakens the professional tone. The priority is to express the requested deferral and payment arrangement in shorter, more accurately punctuated formal sentences.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly describes the course and job situation, explains why attendance is no longer possible, and requests a deferral or refund.
State the preferred action more decisively by requesting a formal course deferral before presenting a refund as the alternative.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response follows a sensible sequence from purpose to explanation and requested action, and the paragraph divisions are appropriate.
Separate the final request into shorter sentences and avoid relying on long chains joined by so, if, and then.
Lexical Resource
There is an adequate range of formal vocabulary, but expressions such as main endeavor of writing and hold this course are unnatural.
Use precise educational terms such as purpose of writing, defer the course, transfer the fees, and enrol next term.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer attempts varied complex structures, but article, preposition, tense, and punctuation errors recur throughout the letter.
Improve sentence boundaries and revise patterns such as promoted me to HR Manager and adjust my payment towards the next term.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have a full-time job and are also doing a part-time evening course. You now find that you can not continue the course. Write a letter to your tutor. In your letter:
- describe the situation
- explain why you cannot continue at this time
- say what action you would like to take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.