You recently attended a meeting at a hotel. When you returned home, you found you had left some important papers at the hotel. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter: - say where you think you left the papers - explain why they are so important - tell the manager what you want him/her to do
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing this letter to inform you that I have left some important papers when I checked out of your hotel about a couple of days ago. I hopeI am hoping that you would be kind enough to send those papers to my address via the postal service. My name is Lucas FosterI am Lucas Foster, and I stayed in room number 434 on the sixth floor of your hotel. I am assuming that I must have left the papers in one of the drawers of your TV desk in a hurry when I needed to attend an urgent meeting with some of my clients in the City Hall. The documents that I left in your hotel room are extremelyutterly important because they contain the terms and conditionsall the important terms and conditions, which I agreed onupon with two of our new partners to form a new business relationship. The problem is that I cannotThe problem is, I can not really remember all those terms and conditions, so I need to get those documents back urgently. Therefore, I would like to request you to find those documents for me and mail them to me at your earliest convenience. Also, please do not forget to charge the mailing cost tofrom my credit card that you already have on file. Yours faithfully, Lucas Foster
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter achieves its purpose very effectively by identifying the likely location of the papers, explaining their urgency, and giving the manager clear instructions in an appropriately formal tone. Its main weakness is occasional wordiness and awkward phrasing, including unnecessary repetition of 'important' and 'documents.' Prioritize tighter, more natural wording to make an already clear request more polished and professional.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All bullet points are fully developed with specific, relevant details, and the formal request is consistently appropriate for a hotel manager.
Refine the opening so the timing and circumstances of leaving the papers are stated more directly and precisely.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a clear sequence from the situation and location to the importance of the papers and the requested action.
Use paragraph breaks to make the three main functions of the letter even easier to identify at a glance.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied and specific for the situation, though repetition and a few awkward combinations reduce precision.
Avoid repeated wording such as 'important papers' and 'important terms and conditions' by using concise alternatives like 'confidential documents' and 'agreed terms'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are used with good control, while a few tense, article, and phrasing problems remain noticeable but non-impeding.
Improve accuracy in time references and constructions, for example by writing 'when I checked out a couple of days ago' rather than 'when I checked out ... about a couple of days ago'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently attended a meeting at a hotel. When you returned home, you found you had left some important papers at the hotel. Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter:
- say where you think you left the papers
- explain why they are so important
- tell the manager what you want him/her to do
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.