You work for an international company, and would like to spend six months working in its head office in another country. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - explain why you want to work in the company’s head office for six months - say how your work could be done while you are away - ask for his/her help in arranging it
Sample Response
Dear Mr George, I am writing to express my interest in working at our company headquarters in the United Kingdom for six monthsa few months to further enhance my skills and gainget exposure to the global market trends of our products so that I can better contribute to my company and carry out my responsibilities more efficiently. As you know, I have recently been promotedhave been recently promoted to the assistant product manager positionpost and I am working hard to collaborate with my team to increase salesenhance the sales and enhance our brand's reputationincrease our brand reputation. However, I have been feeling the need to meet and work with our global team members and attend some training sessions that our head office in London holds regularlyarranges frequently. I am quite positive that the opportunity to work in our company’s head office for six months will further enhance my knowledge, and give me valuablefabulous exposure to the global market trend. I have talked to Julian and he has agreed to take up my responsibilities during my absence. Furthermore, I will check my emails daily, and be available for emergency phone calls. Once I get back to the office, I would endeavour to work extra hours in order to catch up on anything I may have missedanything I had missed. Finally, I would need your support to get approval so that I can work in our company’s head office for six months and fulfil the objectives. I look forward to your positive reply. Yours sincerely, Charles Hugo
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully addresses the request with a clear purpose, relevant reasons for the placement, and a practical plan for covering responsibilities, while maintaining an appropriately professional tone. Its main limitation is that the presentation is dense and several expressions are slightly repetitive or unnatural; the highest-priority improvement is to divide the response into clear functional paragraphs and tighten collocations.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are covered with relevant detail, and the professional register suits a manager.
Make the requested managerial help more specific by stating exactly which approval or arrangements the manager should facilitate.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically from reasons to cover arrangements and the final request, but the letter is presented as one dense block.
Use separate paragraphs for the rationale, absence arrangements, and request so each communicative function is easier to follow.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and generally precise, although phrases such as 'enhance the sales' and repeated references to 'exposure' sound slightly unnatural.
Refine collocations and avoid repetition, for example by using 'increase sales' and varying references to professional experience.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used with strong control, and the few punctuation or phrasing lapses do not impede meaning.
Shorten the heavily extended opening sentence and review comma placement to make the syntax more controlled and readable.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You work for an international company, and would like to spend six months working in its head office in another country. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- explain why you want to work in the company’s head office for six months
- say how your work could be done while you are away
- ask for his/her help in arranging it
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.