Your neighbour has written to you to complain about the noise from your flat. Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter: - explain the reason for the noise - offer your neighbour an apology - tell them what action you will take.
Sample Response
Dear Mrs Dixon, I am writing to apologise for all the noise coming from my flat over the past few days. I am having the place rewired because I had been experiencingat the moment as I was experiencing some electrical faults that could not be fixedrepaired. The old wiring had been in place sincehad been in since the flat was built and needed replacing, soneeded replacing so I had no choice but to undertake this necessary work. I do appreciate that there has been a lot of bangingbanging going on during the day. I sincerely apologise for this and regret that you have been disturbed. I was hoping that most of the work would be done while you were at workout at work but I admit that it has continuedcontinue into the evening a few times. To get the job finished as quickly as possible, I will employ an additional electrician. Although there will inevitably still be some noise, I will ask them to be as quiet as possible and be sure to finish by 5 p.m. when I believe you usually get home. Please accept my apologies once again. Yours sincerely, Jacky Spear
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully achieves its purpose through a sincere apology, a convincing explanation of the electrical work, and practical steps to reduce further disturbance. Its clearest weakness is the lack of paragraph breaks, while one verb-form error slightly interrupts an otherwise highly controlled response. Prioritise dividing the letter into functional paragraphs so its strong content is immediately easy to follow.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response clearly explains the noise, apologises sincerely, and provides specific, credible actions in an appropriately neighbourly register.
Refine the action plan by stating explicitly that evening work will stop, making the reassurance even more definite.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a clear functional sequence and cohesive references are effective, but the entire letter is presented as one continuous paragraph.
Use separate paragraphs for the explanation, apology, and proposed action to make the progression easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, natural, and precise, particularly in describing the electrical problem and the steps being taken.
Maintain this precision while trimming slightly wordy phrasing such as “undertake this necessary work.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences and varied clause structures are used with strong control, apart from a single noticeable verb-form error.
Correct “has continue” to “has continued” and complete a final check of verb forms.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your neighbour has written to you to complain about the noise from your flat. Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter:
- explain the reason for the noise
- offer your neighbour an apology
- tell them what action you will take.
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.