You have a full-time job and are also doing a part-time evening course. You now find that you cannot continue the course. Write a letter to the course tutor. In your letter: - describe the situation - explain why you cannot continue at this time - say what action you would like to take
Sample Response
Dear Mr Carter,
I am writing to inform youkindly inform you that I am unfortunately unablethat, unfortunately, I am unable to continue the on Monday and Wednesday eveningsBusiness Management evening course that I have been attending at Greenwood College.
CurrentlyAt present, I am working full-time as a marketing coordinator, and although I initially managed to balance my job and evening classesalthough I was initially able to balance my job with the evening classes, my workload has increased significantlymy workload has recently increased significantly. My company has assigned me to a new project that requires regularfrequent overtime, making it veryextremely difficult for me to attend lectures and complete assignments on time.
Given these circumstances, I regret to say that I must withdraw from the course at this timefor now. However, I would likelove to resume my studies in the future. Could you please advise me on the process for deferring my enrolment or possibly rejoining the coursepossibly joining the course again next semester?
I sincerely appreciate your understanding and guidance on this matter. I hope to continue learning under your guidanceinstruction at a later time.
Yours sincerely,
Nathan Campbell
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter fully addresses its purpose with a respectful tone, clear progression, and accurate, varied language, making the request to withdraw and return later easy to follow. Its main limitation is slight wordiness and a few less natural formal phrases; the best improvement would be to streamline repeated references to resuming the course, use more idiomatic collocations, and add one specific course detail.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter addresses all bullets very clearly: it describes the course and work situation, explains the increased workload, and asks about deferring or rejoining next semester. The tone is respectful and appropriate for a tutor.
Add one specific course detail, such as the current module or class day, to make the request even more concrete.
Coherence and Cohesion
The paragraphing is clear and the progression is logical from purpose to reason, requested action, and closing. Cohesion is controlled, with only minor wordiness in a few phrases.
Keep the strong paragraph structure but trim repeated ideas about continuing later.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and appropriate, including "withdraw", "defer", "workload", and "frequent overtime". A few phrases are slightly wordy or less natural, such as "kindly inform you" and "under your instruction".
Use simpler formal collocations where possible, such as "inform you" and "under your guidance".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is accurate and varied, with well-controlled complex sentences. Minor punctuation and style improvements would make the letter more polished.
Review comma placement around interrupting adverbs and keep formal requests concise.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have a full-time job and are also doing a part-time evening course. You now find that you cannot continue the course. Write a letter to the course tutor. In your letter:
- describe the situation
- explain why you cannot continue at this time
- say what action you would like to take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.