You are working for a company. You need to take some time off work and want to ask your manager about this. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - explain why you want to take time off work - give details of the amount of time you need - suggest how your work could be covered while you are away
Sample Response
Dear Mr Pattison, My parents are going to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on 14th December and I would like to request unpaid leave from workI would request some unpaid leave from the office next month to prepare for the party and enjoy the occasion. This anniversaryThe 50th wedding anniversary is a significant occasion both for our parents and for usboth for our parents and us and we want to make it specialdistinctive. We will hold the celebrationcelebrate the occasion on 14th December and have already booked a large venue for the celebrationparty hall for that. The whole family, including my nephews and nieces, and almost 50 other guests are expected to be present and it demands a huge preparation. To attend this occasionparticipate in this occasion, I would need to be away from work for three days, considering the travel time and some preparationssome preparation works that I need to completethat I am expected to finish before the party. Therefore, I would be absentI would, hence, be absent from work from 13th December to 15th December. I do not have any urgent work commitments during that periodurgent work commitment at that time and Tania has agreed to handle my taskslook after my tasks while I would be away. She had done that before and after I return, I would be ready to work some extra hours to cover any of my pending tasks. I would be very grateful if you could approve this time offallow me the time off. The occasion is very special to me and my family and I want to be there to celebrate with my familymake it memorable by attending it. Thank you in advance. Yours sincerely, Donna Roth
Why this response received Band 7.0
The request is courteous, purposeful, and complete, with especially clear dates and a practical plan for covering the writer's duties. The main weakness is recurring awkwardness in collocation and in the handling of tense and modal forms, even though meaning remains clear. The highest-priority improvement is to use consistent future and conditional structures when describing the leave arrangement and work cover.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly explains the family occasion, specifies the three-day absence, and provides a credible work-cover arrangement in a suitable tone.
Make the opening request slightly more direct by using would like to request before giving the supporting detail.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content follows a clear sequence from the reason for leave to dates, cover arrangements, and a polite closing.
Use distinct body paragraphs for the reason, duration, and work-cover proposal so each requested point is immediately visible.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is sufficiently varied and appropriate for a workplace request, despite several awkward collocations such as huge preparation and preparation works.
Prefer natural combinations such as extensive preparation, preparation tasks, and pressing work commitments.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a good range of complex sentences, but tense and modal choices are inconsistent in several clauses about future arrangements.
Keep the future time frame consistent by writing while I am away, she has done this before, and after I return I will work extra hours.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are working for a company. You need to take some time off work and want to ask your manager about this. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- explain why you want to take time off work
- give details of the amount of time you need
- suggest how your work could be covered while you are away
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.