Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houseflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter: - Explain the reason for the noise - Apologise for the noise - Describe what action you will take
Sample Response
Dear Mr and Mrs Williams, I am writing regardingin regards to the recent complaint I received from youcomplaint I have received from you recently. My sincere apology for the inconvenience and problem caused due to my actions and I assure you that I will be more careful in the future about it. I started learning the piano recently. As you may know, I work full-time and the only free time I am able to dedicate to my classes is weekends. I have hired a piano teacher to teach me at weekendsduring the weekends and I am sorry that the noise disturbed youthe noise reached your flat. I am sorry about the inconvenience I caused youinconvenience I caused to you and Mrs WilliamsWilliamds. I did not expect my pianothe sound of my piano to be so loud and be heard in your homereach your rooms. I totally understand your position and askrequest you to accept my sincere apologies. To resolve thisAs a solution, I have decided to continue my piano lessonsI have decided that I will continue my piano classes at my tutor’s house rather than at mineat my tutor’s house instead of mine. This way, I will be ableThis way I would be able to continue practisingcontinue my practice and avoid disturbing younot disrupt you. I hope this unpleasant situation hasn’t hurt our friendship. Yours sincerely, Alfred Harris
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully explains the source of the noise, offers a sincere apology, and proposes a convincing solution, all in a considerate tone. Its main limitation is presentation and language polish: the response is not divided into functional paragraphs, and several phrases are awkward or inaccurate. The highest priority is to organise the content into clear letter paragraphs and edit collocations and sentence structures for greater precision.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response directly and fully addresses the reason, apology, and future action while maintaining an appropriately considerate tone.
Make the proposed action even more definite by stating when lessons at the tutor's house will begin.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows a logical sequence, but presenting the entire letter as one paragraph weakens its organisation.
Separate the opening, explanation and apology, solution, and closing into clear functional paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary shows good range and conveys the situation effectively, despite a few awkward collocations and one spelling error.
Use more natural phrases such as writing regarding your complaint and the sound carried into your flat, and proofread names carefully.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex and simple structures are generally well controlled, though a sentence fragment and several preposition or modality choices reduce accuracy.
Rewrite My sincere apology as a complete clause and use on weekends and will be able where those meanings are intended.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houseflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter:
- Explain the reason for the noise
- Apologise for the noise
- Describe what action you will take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.