You cannot go to a company where you received a job offer. Write a letter to the HR supervisor. In your letter: - explain why you are declining the offer - express your gratitude - explain why you like your current job very much
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I would like to thank you for considering me as a suitable candidate for the position of Assistant Manager in your organisation and in fact, I was eagerly waiting for your call. However, I cannot acceptI, however, cannot accept the offer for two main reasonsdue to some specific reasons. I sincerely apologise that I am unableapologise that I would not be able to join your organisation. There are a couple of reasons why I am declining this offer: the job location and the proposed salaryone of them is the job location and the other is the proposed remuneration. I have to drop off my children at their respective schools each dayat their schools daily and sothat is why commuting a long distance to get to the officeto reach my office is inconvenient for me. I find my current job more exciting and rewarding. In my current job, I have flexible working hoursflexible timing which allows me to maintainkeep a balance between my personal and professional life. FurthermoreAlso, I am due for a promotion this year and I am expecting to move into a managerial role soonexpecting a managerial role to come my way soon. The responsibilities of this new roleThe roles and responsibilities of this new position would be very challenging and a familiarknown team with whom I have worked for a long timewith whom I have been working for a long would be an advantage. I would like to thank you again for the job offer but I would like to stay with my current organisation and I am humbly declining your offer. Wishing your superb team members all the best. Yours faithfullysincerely, Sam Johnson
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly and courteously declines the offer, expresses gratitude, and gives persuasive personal and professional reasons for remaining in the current role. Its strongest feature is the detailed explanation of work-life balance and career prospects, while the main limitation is that the entire response forms one dense paragraph. Prioritise functional paragraphing and polish a few awkward expressions to make the message more professional and readable.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose and all bullet points are fully addressed with relevant, well-developed reasons and an appropriately courteous tone.
Clarify the remuneration concern briefly so both stated reasons for declining are equally explicit.
Coherence and Cohesion
The argument progresses logically from gratitude and refusal to reasons and a courteous close, but the lack of paragraphing reduces readability.
Separate the opening, reasons for declining, advantages of the current job, and closing into distinct functional paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, especially when discussing employment, promotion, and work-life balance, though some combinations are awkward.
Replace expressions such as flexible timing, a known team, and humbly declining with more natural professional phrasing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a wide range of complex structures with generally strong control, despite a few awkward or incomplete constructions.
Revise the sentence about the future role and team, and complete time expressions such as for a long time.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You cannot go to a company where you received a job offer. Write a letter to the HR supervisor. In your letter:
- explain why you are declining the offer
- express your gratitude
- explain why you like your current job very much
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.