For the past seven days, you were late for work due to some unavoidable issues at home. Write a letter to your manager explaining why you were late for work for several days. In your letter: - explain why you were late for the last seven days - apologise for the delay assure your manager that you will be on time from now on
Sample Response
Dear Mr Smith,Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to explain why I was late to the office duringfor the last week. First,But first, I would like to apologize to you for failing to show up at work on time during these past few days. During the last week, I needed to take my elderly mother to a clinic in the morningmorning time in order to take her for physical therapyoffer her physical therapy to treat her chronic arthritis pain as her pain has become worsewhich has become worse in recent days. To further compound the situation, my wife has been out of townout of the town for almost all of last weekalmost the whole last week for some professional training, arranged by her office, which means I alone had to take care of all kinds of household choresworks, including cooking and cleaning, at home for my whole family. So, as you can see from the explanation above, last week was very hecticmy whole last week has been very hectic which caused me to arrive late for workarrive late at my work. Please rest assuredBut, please rest assured that I will be at work on time from now on. I hope you will accept my apology and explanation for the unintentional delay. Yours faithfully, Greg Timothy
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its clear, relevant explanation of the repeated lateness, supported by an apology and assurance of future punctuality. Its impact is reduced by one-block presentation, overly long clauses, and several unnatural workplace and household expressions. The highest-priority improvement is to divide the response into clear functional paragraphs and add a brief practical arrangement showing how punctuality will be maintained.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter explains the seven days of lateness, apologises, and assures the manager that the problem will not continue. The purpose is clear and relevant, though the salutation could be more personalised for a manager.
Add a brief practical assurance, such as alternative care arrangements, to make the promise to be punctual more convincing.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is coherent and the explanation develops logically. However, several sentences are long and the one-block format after the greeting reduces readability.
Use separate paragraphs for apology, explanation, and assurance.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate and mostly formal, but some phrases are unnatural, including "morning time", "household works", and "arrive late at my work".
Use standard workplace and household phrases such as "in the morning", "household chores", and "arrive late for work".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear, and complex sentences are attempted. Accuracy is affected by article errors, prepositions, and overly long clauses.
Shorten the longest explanation sentence and check articles in phrases such as "out of town" and "household chores".
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
For the past seven days, you were late for work due to some unavoidable issues at home. Write a letter to your manager explaining why you were late for work for several days. In your letter:
- explain why you were late for the last seven days
- apologise for the delay assure your manager that you will be on time from now on
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.