Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houselflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter: - explain the reasons for the noise - apologise - describe what action you will take
Sample Response
Dear James, I was very surprisedshocked to get your letter saying that the noise from my flat has been spoiling your evenings and causing you some distress. I am genuinely sorryreally, really sorry about that. I had no idea that you would be able to hear so much noisehear so much, so I hope you will accept my apologies. As you may have guessed, I am trying to refit my kitchen in the evenings when I get home from work. Unfortunately it is all getting longer than expected and I have been having problems with getting things to fit properly. This has meant to a lot of banging and hammering. As the kitchen is still not finished, I have decided to call in a professional builder who will finish the work in the next day or two. He’ll work only during the dayduring daytime hours, so you won’t be disturbed in the evenings again, I promise. Sorry to have caused these problems. Best wishes, Bill, Bill.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter is highly effective because it directly addresses the complaint, offers a sincere apology, explains the renovation noise, and gives a specific, reassuring solution in a warm neighbourly tone. The main limitation is a small grammatical slip in an otherwise fluent response. The highest-priority improvement is careful final proofreading to remove isolated errors while preserving the natural, concise development.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully addresses every bullet point with a clear purpose, sincere apology, relevant explanation, and convincing remedial action.
Add a brief invitation for the neighbour to contact you if any daytime disturbance remains.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress naturally from acknowledgement and apology through explanation to a specific solution, with cohesive links used unobtrusively.
Present the apology, explanation, and solution as distinct paragraphs to make the structure even easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is precise and natural throughout, with effective choices such as 'distress,' 'refit,' and 'call in a professional builder.'
Maintain this precision while checking every phrase for small slips before submitting.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is used fluently and accurately, with only an isolated construction error.
Correct 'This has meant to a lot of banging' to 'This has meant a lot of banging' during final proofreading.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your neighbours have recently written to you to complain about the noise from your houselflat. Write a letter to your neighbours. In your letter:
- explain the reasons for the noise
- apologise
- describe what action you will take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.