You have seen an advertisement in an English newspaper for a job working in the City Museum shop during the holidays. You have decided to apply for the job. Write a letter to the director of the Museum. In your letter: - introduce yourself - explain what experience and special skills you have - explain why you are interested in the job
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to apply for a part-time job in your museum shop during the holidaysholiday. I am keen to take onvery keen to have a part-time job this summerduring this summer vacation, particularly in a role wherespecifically in a shop where I would be able to learn and meet people from diverse backgrounds. I am hoping that you would consider my application and give me the chance to work for you. I am a teacher in an elementary grammar school and I teach history. I am 26 years old and have completed a degree in the artshave completed my graduation from arts major. I can speak English, Sinhala and Tamil fluently. Last year, I worked in a large bookshop during my vacation and enjoyed it very much. I would like to meet new people and perform in this roleserve my position with dedication, commitment and hard work. I enjoyed going to your museum a few months ago and I spent a considerable amount of time there. I visited your museum shop with a team and I am familiar with the types of items your store sells to visitors. I think you will be consider mekind enough to consider me as a suitable candidate for this position. I look forward to hearing from you soon and to discussinglook forward to hearing from you soon and further discuss my candidacy for the job. Yours faithfully, Ama Nikole
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly applies for the position and gives a relevant professional profile, language skills, bookshop experience, and familiarity with the museum. Its main limitations are the absence of paragraphing and several awkward qualification and employment phrases, which make an otherwise suitable formal application less polished. Organise the three requested areas into focused paragraphs and express education and experience with more natural collocations.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are covered with relevant detail, and the formal register is consistently suitable.
Strengthen the interest section by linking the applicant’s history teaching and museum knowledge more directly to the shop role.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows a sensible sequence, but presenting the entire letter as one paragraph weakens the visibility of each requested point.
Use separate paragraphs for the application purpose, qualifications and experience, and reasons for interest.
Lexical Resource
The response shows useful range for an application, though phrases such as ‘completed my graduation from arts major’ and ‘serve my position’ are unnatural.
Use standard professional collocations such as ‘graduated with an arts degree’ and ‘perform the role with dedication’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Most sentences are well controlled and include varied structures, with a few errors in complementation and parallel verb forms.
Correct constructions such as ‘look forward to hearing from you and discussing’ so coordinated verbs follow the same grammatical pattern.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have seen an advertisement in an English newspaper for a job working in the City Museum shop during the holidays. You have decided to apply for the job. Write a letter to the director of the Museum. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- explain what experience and special skills you have
- explain why you are interested in the job
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.