You have borrowed something from your friend and it has got damaged. Write a letter to a friend. In your letter: - apologize for damaging the product/stuff - explain what happened - say how are you going to fix the issue
Sample Response
Dear Joseph, I hopeDear Joseph, Hope you are doing great and doing wellenjoying your life. First, thank youFirst of all, let me thank you for allowing me to use your digital blood pressure monitor, which I borrowed from you about a week ago Deletein order to use it to monitor the blood pressure of my grandfather. I also need to apologizeBut, I must apologize to you now because the device you gave methe device, you gave me, was accidentally damagedhas been damaged accidentally. Let me explain to you what happenedwhat actually happened. After using your machine for a few days, I noticed that it was not working properly. I checkedSo, I checked the battery and found out that the batteries were weakthe batteries were getting weak. Naturally, I wanted to replace the old batteries with new oneswith the new ones, and that’s when the machine slipped out of my handgot slipped out of my hand and fell on the concrete floor. Luckily, the machine was still running, but its displaydisplay monitor had had a few cracksreceived a few cracks on it. Please give me a few daysSo, just give me a few days as I am going to take your machine to a local electronics repair shopa local electronic device repair shop so that I can get it fixed by replacing its display monitor before returning it to you. I hope it willwould not be a big inconvenience to you. Warm wishes, Jessica
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter fully addresses the apology, accident, and repair plan in a friendly, understandable way, and its detailed explanation makes the purpose clear. Its main limitation is presentation and naturalness: the entire message is compressed into one paragraph and several phrases are awkward, so the priority is to separate the three communicative stages and use simpler forms such as “slipped out of my hand” and “get it repaired.”
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter covers all three bullets: apology, explanation, and repair plan. The friendly purpose is clear, though the apology could accept responsibility more warmly.
Add a short direct apology before the explanation and keep the repair promise concise.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence is logical, but the whole letter is one paragraph and the closing is not separated. This weakens letter organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for apology, what happened, and how you will fix it.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate, with some precise topic words, but several phrases sound unnatural or repetitive.
Use simpler natural phrases such as “slipped out of my hand” and “get it repaired”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear and there are some complex clauses. Comma, article, and verb-pattern errors are noticeable but mostly non-blocking.
Check commas around relative clauses and verb forms after “get”.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have borrowed something from your friend and it has got damaged. Write a letter to a friend. In your letter:
- apologize for damaging the product/stuff
- explain what happened
- say how are you going to fix the issue
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.