You recently attended a training course for your work. Your employer has asked you for your feedback on the training course. Write a letter to your employer. In your letter: - remind your employer - what the course was about - explain why the course was useful to you in your work - suggest why the course may not be suitable for some of your other colleagues
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing this letter to provide some feedback on the recent training course that I attended and successfully completed. I hope this feedback will be useful to you.
The course, titled "Effective Project Management Strategies" - focused on key methodologies such as Agile and Scrum, risk assessment, and time management techniques to enhance workplace efficiency.
I found the training highly beneficial, particularly in improving my ability to manage multiple projects effectively. The practical exercises helped me develop a more structured approach to task delegation and deadline management, which I have already begun applying in my role. Additionally, the insights on risk mitigation have given me greater confidence in handling unexpected challenges.
However, I believe this course may not be suitable for all employees, particularly those in non-managerial roles. Since the content was largely tailored for project leaders, team members without decision-making responsibilities might struggle to find direct applications for the techniques taught. A more role-specific training programme might be more beneficial for them.
I appreciate the opportunity to attend this training and look forward to implementing my new skills in the workplace.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Winslow
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Address employer directly Original: Dear Sir or Madam Suggested revision: Dear [Employer's Name] Why it matters: A named salutation is more natural when writing to a known employer.
- 2. Remove redundant wording Original: writing this letter to provide Suggested revision: writing to provide Why it matters: The medium is already clear, so “this letter” is unnecessary.
- 3. Fix title punctuation Original: Strategies" - focused Suggested revision: Strategies", focused Why it matters: The inserted title should close with a comma rather than a spaced hyphen.
- 4. Improve word pairing Original: particularly in improving Suggested revision: particularly useful for improving Why it matters: “Useful for improving” expresses the benefit more naturally.
- 5. Use precise preposition Original: on Suggested revision: into Why it matters: The standard collocation is “insights into” a subject.
- 6. Avoid repeated comparison Original: A more role-specific training programme might be more beneficial Suggested revision: A role-specific training programme might be better suited Why it matters: The replacement removes the repeated “more” and links suitability to the employees concerned.
- 7. Make reminder specific Suggested revision: Add when the course took place so the employer can identify the training event immediately. Why it matters: The opening refers only to a recent course and could fulfil the reminder more specifically.
- 8. Give workplace example Suggested revision: Briefly identify one current project or task where the new delegation or risk-management approach has already helped. Why it matters: A concrete application would make the stated workplace benefit more fully developed.
Suggested Rewrites
- Dear Sir or Madam Dear [Employer's Name]
- writing this letter to provide writing to provide
- Strategies" - focused Strategies", focused
- particularly in improving particularly useful for improving
- on into
- A more role-specific training programme might be more beneficial A role-specific training programme might be better suited
Why this response received Band 8.5
The letter fully addresses the feedback request in a professional tone, with especially strong development of how the course supports current work and why it may not suit non-managerial colleagues. Organisation, vocabulary, and sentence control are consistently polished, leaving only minor refinement in the opening reminder and punctuation around the course title. The best next step is to make that reminder slightly more specific while preserving the concise, purposeful structure.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, every bullet point is fully developed, and the formal, constructive tone is consistently appropriate for an employer.
Make the reminder marginally more explicit by referring to when the course occurred or to the employer’s request for feedback.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are sequenced naturally in focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader without drawing attention to themselves.
For even tighter flow, connect the course-description paragraph directly to the practical benefits developed in the following paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is precise, flexible, and well matched to workplace training, with natural expressions for project management, risk, and role suitability.
Maintain this precision while avoiding any unnecessary repetition of training, course, and beneficial in nearby sentences.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately, with only a minor punctuation issue around the parenthetical course title.
Replace the spaced hyphen after the course title with a comma or em dash and keep the rest of the sentence unchanged.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently attended a training course for your work. Your employer has asked you for your feedback on the training course. Write a letter to your employer. In your letter:
- remind your employer
- what the course was about
- explain why the course was useful to you in your work
- suggest why the course may not be suitable for some of your other colleagues
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.