For the past year, you have been a member of a local club. Now you want to discontinue your membership. Write a letter to the club secretary. In your letter: - state what type of membership you have and how you have paid for this - give details on how you have benefited from the club - explain why you want to leave
Sample Response
Dear Mr Anderson, I am writing to inform you that I have decided to cancel my membership ofdiscontinue my membership with the 'In-Shape Fitness and Sports Club' effective 1 September 2025effective from 1st September 2025. I haveowned a basic membership and have benefited greatly from itreceived numerous advantages from it. Now I am requesting that you cancel my membershipseeking your cooperation to cancel my membership. I joined your club on 2nd July 2022 as a basic member and thoroughly enjoyed my membership of such a wonderful clubassociation with such a wonderful club with excellentastounding instructors who are highly skilled and friendly. I have always paid my monthly membership feemonthly fee using my Visa creditCredit card issued by NIFC Bank. My primary objective in joining the clubobjective to join the club was to improve my tennis skills. I have always enjoyed watching tennis matchescompetitions and wanted to play this sport. But I wanted to learn from an expert and your club was an excellent placethe excellent one to fulfil my dream. FurthermoreOn top of that, your staff members were very welcoming and the instructors have improved my skills to such an extent thatto an extent that I won the intercity tournament held in January 2023. I think it would not have been possible if I had not joined the club. Unfortunately, my company has recently asked me to relocate to a different city. Even though I would have loved to come to the club, I, unfortunately, cannot do it due to the distance. Please send confirmation of my membership cancellationYou can send me a confirmation letter of my membership cancellation to [email address]. All my payments are up to date and I will pay my membership fee through August 2025up to August 2025. Yours sincerely, John White
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter communicates its cancellation request clearly, covers each required point with specific supporting detail, and maintains an appropriately courteous tone. Its main weakness is a cluster of unnatural collocations and a date history that conflicts with the stated one-year membership context. The highest priority is to use more natural formal phrasing and ensure all background details remain consistent with the task.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are fully addressed, and the benefits and reason for leaving are well developed in an appropriate formal tone.
Keep contextual details consistent with the prompt, especially the membership duration implied by the joining and cancellation dates.
Coherence and Cohesion
The information follows a logical sequence from membership details through benefits to the reason for cancellation, with clear linking throughout.
Separate the main topics into distinct paragraphs and reduce repeated transitions such as unfortunately to make progression more polished.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a good range of relevant vocabulary, although phrases such as owned a basic membership and the excellent one sound unnatural.
Prioritise precise, idiomatic collocations such as held a basic membership and was an excellent choice.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A varied range of complex sentences is generally controlled well, with only occasional awkward constructions that do not impede meaning.
Refine article choice, verb forms, and clause phrasing in sentences such as the description of choosing the club.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
For the past year, you have been a member of a local club. Now you want to discontinue your membership. Write a letter to the club secretary. In your letter:
- state what type of membership you have and how you have paid for this
- give details on how you have benefited from the club
- explain why you want to leave
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.