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, I am writing to inform you that I received an empty envelopeI was delivered an empty envelope which was supposed to containcarry my debit card issued by the Northshire branch of City Bankyour City Bank. Since I have not received any card, I can not acknowledge its acquisition. I hope you will investigateI am hoping you would investigate how this happened and issue me a new card. Also, take measuresmeasured to stop any misuse of the lost card. I have held a checking accounthave been maintaining a checking account with your Lordshire branch since 2017 and my account number is CKL-54785120145. Recently, I requested a new silver debit card and when I opened the envelope yesterday, I noticed that the card was missing.the card was missing! I am therefore concernedNow I am concerned about the whereabouts of the card. If it falls intoIf it goes to the wrong handshand, it might be misused. To stop such an incident, please cancelstop the issued card as soon as possible. I would like you to investigate the cause of this incidentthe reason for such an unexpected incident. Also, issue me a similar new card and this time allow me to collectfetch it from my branch instead of sending it by couriervia a courier. Thank you in advance and I would like to hear from you soon. Yours faithfully, Alex Ryan
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter establishes the problem immediately, explains the security concern, and requests practical action in a suitably formal manner. However, repeated information and frequent awkward word choices reduce precision, while several grammatical slips weaken the otherwise clear message. The highest priority is to use accurate banking collocations and concise, grammatically complete requests for cancellation, investigation, and replacement.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose, concern about misuse, and requested response are all clearly presented with relevant supporting details.
Keep the branch details consistent and frame the requested actions as a concise question or clearly ordered set of requests.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message follows a generally logical order, but the missing-card explanation and requested actions are repeated within one long paragraph.
Use separate paragraphs for the incident, the security concern, and the requested resolution, removing duplicated points.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for the situation and includes some less common terms, but several inaccurate collocations reduce naturalness.
Replace phrases such as acknowledge its acquisition, take measured, and stop the issued card with receive the card, take measures, and cancel the card.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response mixes simple and complex forms with generally clear meaning, although several construction and agreement errors remain noticeable.
Correct forms such as I was sent an empty envelope and take measures, and avoid sentence fragments beginning with Also.
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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.