You are organising a seminar for your company. Write a letter to the manager of another department inviting them to give a presentation at the seminar. In your letter: - give details of the seminar - invite them to give a presentation and say why you are inviting them - say what the presentation should be about
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to inform you that a seminar is going to take place in our company and I would like to invite you to give a presentation there. Your presence is a great honour for us.
Let me inform you that it is going to be held at weekends. It will last for two days. The seminar will start with a motivational speech at around 9. Due to fewer faculty members, it is about to organize in a conference room, which is well equipped for such events.
Furthermore, I would like you to invite me on the occasion because you have contributed a lot to making this company prosperous. In addition, you have always been an excellent motivator for freshers who have gained high positions in the company. There is no surprise that I am also one of them.
Besides, it would be great if you could deliver a speech. No one can tell better than you about the background of this company, such as how a small company has turned into a multinational one. No wonder you add some pictures of an old company with workers working hard even at their old age. This presentation will act as a motivational tonic for others.
I hope you will accept my request and I shall be eagerly waiting for your arrival.
Your Sincerely,
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use concise wording Original: going to take place Suggested revision: be held Why it matters: Be held is a concise and natural collocation for a formal seminar.
- 2. Correct time phrase Original: at weekends Suggested revision: over a weekend Why it matters: Over a weekend correctly describes one two-day event.
- 3. Clarify start time Original: at around 9 Suggested revision: at around 9 a.m. Why it matters: Adding a.m. makes the seminar's starting time unambiguous.
- 4. Correct invitation direction Original: I would like you to invite me Suggested revision: I would like to invite you Why it matters: The writer should invite the recipient, as required by the task.
- 5. State invitation purpose Original: on the occasion Suggested revision: to give the presentation Why it matters: The replacement explicitly links the invitation to the requested presentation.
- 6. Use formal phrasing Original: contributed a lot to making Suggested revision: contributed greatly to making Why it matters: Greatly is more concise and formal than a lot in this context.
- 7. Correct fixed expression Original: There Suggested revision: It Why it matters: It is no surprise is the standard grammatical expression.
- 8. Clarify pronoun reference Original: one of them Suggested revision: one of the employees you have motivated Why it matters: The explicit noun phrase removes the unclear reference of them.
- 9. Improve formal expression Original: No one can tell better than you about Suggested revision: No one is better qualified than you to describe Why it matters: The replacement expresses the recipient's expertise in a natural formal structure.
- 10. Make a polite suggestion Original: No wonder you add Suggested revision: You could add Why it matters: Could forms a grammatical and appropriately polite suggestion about presentation content.
- 11. Clarify intended meaning Original: an old company Suggested revision: the company in its early years Why it matters: The replacement clearly refers to the company's history rather than an unspecified old company.
- 12. Avoid awkward repetition Original: with workers working hard even at their old age Suggested revision: showing older employees working hard Why it matters: The replacement removes the repetition of workers and working while preserving the intended image content.
Suggested Rewrites
- going to take place be held
- at weekends over a weekend
- at around 9 at around 9 a.m.
- I would like you to invite me I would like to invite you
- on the occasion to give the presentation
- contributed a lot to making contributed greatly to making
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter is well structured around the seminar details, the reason for inviting the manager, and a clearly proposed presentation topic, with a suitably respectful overall tone. The main limitation is recurring imprecision in wording and grammar, including a contradictory invitation sentence and several unnatural business expressions. The highest-priority improvement is to proofread pronouns and sentence structures so every request communicates the intended meaning exactly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is clear and all bullet points receive relevant development, despite one contradictory request to invite the writer and some vague scheduling detail.
Specify the seminar date and time more precisely and correct the invitation wording so the recipient's role is consistently clear.
Coherence and Cohesion
Each paragraph has a clear function and the response progresses logically, though connectors such as Furthermore and Besides are somewhat formulaic.
Rely more on the logical relationship between ideas and use fewer overt linking phrases when moving between the invitation reason and presentation topic.
Lexical Resource
The response shows enough range to discuss the seminar and company history, but several choices such as faculty members, freshers, and motivational tonic are imprecise or unnatural.
Choose standard workplace vocabulary such as staff, new employees, career progression, and motivating presentation to improve precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Simple and complex sentences are used with generally clear meaning, but recurring errors in passive forms, pronouns, fixed expressions, and the closing reduce control.
Correct structures such as will be organised, I would like to invite you, and Yours sincerely, while checking each complex sentence for a clear subject and verb.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are organising a seminar for your company. Write a letter to the manager of another department inviting them to give a presentation at the seminar. In your letter:
- give details of the seminar
- invite them to give a presentation and say why you are inviting them
- say what the presentation should be about
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.