You borrowed a book from a public library and the book is now damaged. Write a letter to the librarian to explain the situation. In your letter mention: - details about the book - how it was damaged - what you want to do about it
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, Two weeks ago I borrowed a book from your library. I was excited to readexcited to have read the book but very disappointed to discoververy disappointed to recently find that it was damaged. I hope you will allow meI am hoping you will allow me to purchase a new copybook of the same title as compensation. Regarding the bookIn relation to the specifics of the book, I borrowed 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', a novel'Nineteen Eighty-Four' a novel by George Orwell, on 17th July from your library using my library card BM-450124. I have been thoroughly enjoying the book and almost finished it until it got damaged. Unfortunately, onOn 25th July, three days before the due date for returning the noveldue date to return the novel, I found that it was damaged byruined due to heavy rainthe pouring rain that somehow reached the table beside the windowreached my table placed near the window. I put the book on the table and had been outside the whole time it rained. All of the books on the table became soakedabsorbed rainwater and the book I borrowed from the library is now unreadable because of the water damagedue to the damage the water caused to it. As a solution, and because I really want to express my apology for the incident, I would like your permissionI seek your permission to purchase a new book with the same title for the library. I also hope that you will not imposeI am also hoping that you would not impose any penalty for the incident. Thank you in advance and I hope to hear from you soonhear your reply soon. Yours faithfully, Erica Jong
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fulfils the task thoroughly by identifying the book, explaining the rain damage in detail and proposing a replacement, while maintaining an appropriately respectful tone. Its main limitation is overlong, repetitive development and uneven tense control, particularly around reading the book and discovering the damage. Use concise paragraphs for the book details, incident and remedy, and narrate the sequence consistently in the past tense.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The book, cause of damage and proposed remedy are all developed clearly, with an appropriate formal request to the librarian.
Keep the damage account more concise and state directly that you will replace the book or pay the library's required charge.
Coherence and Cohesion
The purpose and sequence are logical, but the one-block format and repeated references to the book and damage make the letter less fluent.
Create distinct paragraphs for identification, the accident, and the proposed resolution, removing repeated explanations.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficiently varied for apology, damage and compensation, though some collocations are awkward or repetitive.
Prefer natural phrases such as "rainwater reached the table," "water-damaged" and "offer my sincere apologies."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence forms is attempted, but tense selection, punctuation and clause construction are uneven in several places.
Narrate the event with consistent past forms, such as "I had almost finished it when it was damaged" and "I was outside while it rained."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You borrowed a book from a public library and the book is now damaged. Write a letter to the librarian to explain the situation. In your letter mention:
- details about the book
- how it was damaged
- what you want to do about it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.