You have received a letter from your bank, asking you to acknowledge receipt of a new bank card. However, the card was missing from the envelope. Write a letter to the bank’s head office. In your letter: - explain why you are writing - express concern about the missing card - ask them what they intend to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,Dear Sir / Madam
I am writing in connection with a debit card missing from your bank's envelopea missing or stolen debit card from your bank. This is an urgent matter as the bank card could be misusedcould prove dangerous in the hands of the wrong person.
Just yesterday, I received a letter from your bank’s head office. It stated that my new bank card was enclosed and asked me to acknowledge receipt. However, when the envelope arrived in my mailbox, it was in a tattered state. More importantly, the debit card which was supposed to be included wasincluded, was missing. I searched thoroughly around the mailboxchecked and rechecked around the mailbox, but found nothing. I am concerned that someone has gone through my mail and possibly stolen the card.
For this reason, I requestFor this reason I request that you cancel the missingexisting debit card immediately. The debit card in question is linkedrelated to my account number 64729401 at your Bay and Bloor branch. After it has been cancelled, please arrange to send me a new one, as I need to travel overseas next week and will need to carry the new bank card with me.
Thank you in advance.Thank you kindly in advance,
Yours faithfully,
Ms Brenda Holster
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter is highly effective: it establishes the urgent purpose immediately, explains the circumstances and risk in detail, and requests clear remedial action in an appropriately formal register. Its main limitation is minor punctuation imprecision, particularly an unnecessary comma separating the subject from its verb. The highest-priority improvement is careful final proofreading so these rare slips do not interrupt an otherwise polished response.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response fully addresses the missing card, the associated security concern, and the action expected from the bank in a consistently appropriate formal tone.
Phrase the final request as a direct request for confirmation of the bank’s intended steps to mirror the third bullet even more explicitly.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information is organised in a clear progression from purpose and evidence to concern and requested action, with natural paragraphing and referencing.
For maximum concision, avoid repeating ‘debit card’ where a clear pronoun or ‘replacement card’ would maintain the reference.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is wide, precise, and well suited to a formal banking complaint, with expressions such as ‘acknowledge receipt’ and ‘in a tattered state’ used effectively.
Refine the slightly awkward phrase ‘related to my account number’ to the more natural ‘linked to my account.’
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are varied and accurately controlled, while the few punctuation slips have no effect on clarity.
Remove the comma between the relative-clause subject and verb in ‘the debit card which was supposed to be included, was missing.’
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have received a letter from your bank, asking you to acknowledge receipt of a new bank card. However, the card was missing from the envelope. Write a letter to the bank’s head office. In your letter:
- explain why you are writing
- express concern about the missing card
- ask them what they intend to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.