Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houseflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter: - explain the reasons for the noise - apologise - describe what action you will take
Sample Response
Dear Mr and Mrs Williams, I hope you are doing wellgreat. DeleteIt is a shame that we do not know each other very well and I would like to apologise for the noiseapologise for that. I am writing this letter in response to your letter you sent mecomplaint letter that you sent me yesterday about the noise from my flat. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and ask for your understandinghumbly ask for your forgiveness. Because we were concerned about home safetyWith concern about home safety, my wife and I decided to install a few smoke detectors in our flat, especially after we saw a devastating fire in our neighbourhood recentlylately. We bought the devices from an online store and installed and testedstarted to install and test the devicesgadgets last Sunday. To ensure that the sound of the fire alarmsalarm is loud enough and everyone in the house would notice it, we tested the devices for about 15 minutes. Although the testing took place at midday last Sunday, my wife and I are terribly sorry that your child’s nap was interrupted. I really regret the disturbanceevent and request your forgiveness. Please accept this box of chocolate as a token of my deepest regret for the inconvenience. We will inform you before any future testing and keep it as brief as possibleWe will be more careful next time. Yours sincerely, Paul Lesner
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter clearly explains the smoke-detector testing, acknowledges the disturbance, and maintains generally controlled grammar, so its central message is easy to understand. Its main weakness is that the promised future action remains vague, while repeated apologies, overly strong wording, and the single-block presentation reduce effectiveness; prioritise stating concrete preventative steps and organising the response into focused paragraphs with direct, natural neighbourly language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter responds to the complaint, explains the smoke-detector testing, apologises, and says the writer will be more careful. However, the promised future action is too vague and part of the opening apologises for not knowing the neighbours rather than the noise.
State exactly what you will do next time, such as warning neighbours before testing alarms and keeping noisy work to agreed hours.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message is understandable and mostly logical, but it includes some irrelevant opening material and repeats apology language. The single-block format also makes the letter less clear.
Use three paragraphs: response and apology, reason for the noise, and specific future action.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is generally suitable, but some phrases are awkward or too strong, such as "humbly ask for your forgiveness" and "I really regret the event". Word choice sometimes sounds unnatural.
Use direct neighbourly language: "I am sorry for the disturbance" and "I will let you know before any future testing".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is mostly controlled and meaning is clear. There are minor issues with article choice, punctuation, and awkward prepositional phrases.
Simplify the long explanation sentence and check phrases beginning with "with concern about" or "as a token of".
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houseflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter:
- explain the reasons for the noise
- apologise
- describe what action you will take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.