You recently took a part-time job working for a local company. After a few weeks, you realised there were some problems with the job. Write a letter to the manager of the company. In your letter: - explain why you took the job - describe the problems that you experienced - suggest what could be done about them
Sample Response
Dear Mr Lim,Dear Mr Lim, I have been working forwith your company for almost five weeks as a part-time call centre agent. I am writing this letter to raise concerns aboutraise my concerns regarding some of the problems that I have encountered at workI encountered during my work at your company. I hope that you willI am expecting that you would arrange practical solutions for these problemstake measures to resolve them. I took the job as I believed it would enhance my communication and public speaking skills and increase my confidence in socialising with other people in addition to supporting my studiesin an addendum to supporting my studies. During the first week, everything went fine. However, from my second weekBut from my second week, I started facing some seriousunavoidable issues. My computer has been shutting down automaticallyautomatically shuts down and it has interrupted my communicationit interrupts my communication with customers. This has happened almost every dayIt happened almost every day. After I raised the problem to the technician in charge, he tried to fix it but he was not successfulbut without success. What concerns me mostWhat I hate most is that the technician has blamed methe guy is blaming me for not using the computer properly! In addition, I was supposed to be picked up and dropped off every workingoffice day, but this has not been happeningthis is not happening. I am confident thatconfident enough that the computer problem is not at all my fault, and happens due to the use of unlicensedpirated software. I am concerned because my overall performance has already been affected by these problemsaffected by it. It would be easier if a new computer wereis provided to me or if you could ensure that the repair is completed properlyor made sure the fix is done properly. Also please try to arrange my transportation, at least to drop me off at the end of the office. I am hoping for your immediate response on this matter. Respectfully yours, Christine Hazel
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter successfully covers its purpose by explaining the job choice, detailing both workplace problems, and requesting practical remedies, so the message remains clear and relevant. Its main weaknesses are the dense one-paragraph structure and some emotional or unnatural wording. The highest priority is to separate the issues and requests into clear paragraphs while expressing the complaint in precise, professional, evidence-based language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter explains why the job was taken, describes two workplace problems, and asks for a replacement computer and transport support. It is relevant and complete, but the complaint about blame and software is too emotional and should be more carefully framed.
Keep the two main problems, but make the requested actions specific and phrase accusations about the technician and software in a professional, evidence-based way.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response has a logical sequence from background to problems to solutions, but it is presented as one dense paragraph with no visual separation between the task bullets.
Use separate paragraphs for the job background, computer problem, transport problem, and requested solutions.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is generally adequate for a complaint letter, but some choices are inaccurate, informal, or unnatural, such as addendum, guy, every office day, and pirated software.
Replace informal or inaccurate wording with professional workplace vocabulary such as in addition to, technician, every working day, and unlicensed software.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The meaning remains clear, but tense consistency, articles, conditional forms, and parallel structure need work, especially in the problem and solution sentences.
Use present perfect for ongoing problems and make each request sentence grammatically complete with a clear subject and verb.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently took a part-time job working for a local company. After a few weeks, you realised there were some problems with the job. Write a letter to the manager of the company. In your letter:
- explain why you took the job
- describe the problems that you experienced
- suggest what could be done about them
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.