Your employer has recently allowed some employees to work remotely from home. You would also like to work from home. Write a letter to the HR manager for permission to work from home for the next six months. In your letter: - mention why you are writing - explain why you would like to work from home - say how this can benefit you and the company
Sample Response
Dear Mr Brook,
I am writingwriting this letter to seek your permission to use the work-from-home arrangementto avail the “work from home” facility for the next six months starting on 1 Februarystarting from the beginning of the next month. I hope you will considerI am hoping that you would consider my request and permit me to work from home.
I considerAnd I am dubbing this a valuable arrangementa “great opportunity” because it would definitely help me save a lot of time currently spent commutingtime that is wasted commuting to and from the office, especially whenespecially, when I live quite far from the officea bit too far from my office due to some family reasons. Moreover, less time in trafficless time in road traffic could also mean less stress, and when Iwe have more time to complete my workfinish our work and less stress, I can be more productivewe are usually more productive at work.
This arrangement would benefit both the company and mebenefit both me and the office as I would be able to work more hours per week to meet deadlinesfinish the deadlines.
I am hoping that you would agree to let me work from home for the next six months starting on 1 Februarystarting from 1st February.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
John Blair
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly states the six-month request, explains the commuting problem, and links remote work to lower stress and greater productivity, so its purpose is persuasive and complete. The main weakness is occasional awkward or overly conversational wording, especially ‘dubbing this’ and ‘finish the deadlines’, alongside some repetition of the request. Prioritise a more consistently professional register and sharper, concrete explanation of how output and availability would benefit the company.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are developed, and the tone is generally suitable despite a few informal or vague details.
Make the company benefit more concrete by explaining how saved commuting time would improve availability, output, or deadline delivery.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter is logically sequenced and sensibly paragraphed, although the request is repeated and the second paragraph contains an overextended sentence.
State the request once, then use one focused paragraph for personal reasons and another for benefits to the employer.
Lexical Resource
A good range of language conveys the request and benefits, but several collocations are awkward or too conversational for an HR manager.
Replace phrases such as ‘avail the facility’, ‘dubbing this’, and ‘finish the deadlines’ with natural professional alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex structures are generally well controlled, with occasional punctuation, article, and clause-level lapses that do not impede meaning.
Refine the long cause-and-effect sentence and remove unnecessary commas, especially after ‘especially’ and around subordinate clauses.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your employer has recently allowed some employees to work remotely from home. You would also like to work from home. Write a letter to the HR manager for permission to work from home for the next six months. In your letter:
- mention why you are writing
- explain why you would like to work from home
- say how this can benefit you and the company
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.