Write a letter to your college administration department complaining about the college facility. In your letter include: - what the problem is - how this problem has affected you - what the college should do to fix this problem
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am a science major in your college and very proud to be a member of this prestigious institution. However, I am writing to notify you of twosome problems we, the residential students, have been facing for the past few weeksare facing for the last few weeks. I hope you willI am hoping that you would take steps to solve those problems as soonearly as possible. The first problem is thatIn relation to the specifics of the first problem, the only photocopy machine Deletethat we have in our college has been out of order for over a monthis out of order for over a month. We often need to travel to the nearest market whenever we need to make copiesfor any photocopy requirement and this wastes valuable study timeit kills our valuable time. Moreover, our college canteen no longer serves healthy foodno longer maintains a healthy diet and due to this, I had severe stomach pain last weekI have had severe stomach pain last week. I had to visit a doctor and the test results indicated food poisoningtest report outlines food poisoning. This same fate waited for some other students who ate in the canteen last week. I hope you can imagine the difficulty we are going through. I would really appreciate it if you could intervene and solve the problems that are seriouslyharshly affecting us. I hope you would take steps to resolve these issuessolve our misery. Yours faithfully, Robert Buckley
Why this response received Band 6.5
The complaint is clear, formal, and convincingly explains how the broken photocopier and unsafe canteen have affected students. The main weakness is that the requested action remains vague: asking the college to "solve the problems" does not specify repairing or replacing the machine and investigating food safety, while several tense and collocation errors reduce polish. State concrete remedies for each facility and proofread time references and verb forms.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The problems and their effects are developed clearly in a suitable formal tone, but the requested solutions are only stated in general terms.
Ask explicitly for the photocopier to be repaired or replaced and for the canteen's hygiene and food preparation to be investigated.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a clear sequence from purpose to two problems and a closing request, though the single-block presentation and repeated appeals weaken organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for the photocopier, the canteen, and the requested remedies, removing the repeated general request at the end.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary communicates the complaint clearly and shows some range, but several collocations such as "test report outlines food poisoning" and "solve our misery" are unnatural.
Choose precise formal phrases such as "the test confirmed food poisoning" and "resolve these serious issues."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentences remains clear, but recurring tense and preposition errors reduce accuracy.
Use the present perfect for continuing situations and the simple past for finished events, as in "has been out of order" and "I had severe pain last week."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Write a letter to your college administration department complaining about the college facility. In your letter include:
- what the problem is
- how this problem has affected you
- what the college should do to fix this problem
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.