You work for an international company. You have seen an advertisement for a training course which will be useful for your job. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - describe the training course you want to do - explain what the company could do to help you - say how the course will be useful for your job
Sample Response
Dear Mr Thompson,
I am writing to request your approvalseek your kind approval to enrol in the advertised Project Management Certification Coursea Project Management Certification Course, Deletewhich I recently came across in an advertisement. Given its relevance to my role, I believe it would significantly enhance my efficiency at work.
Regarding the courseIn relation to the specifics of the course, the programme runs online for four weeksit is a four-week online programme offered by the Canadian Institute of Project Management. The course covers key areas, includingkey aspects such as risk management, budgeting, and team coordination, all of which are directly relevant to my current responsibilitiesall of which are crucial for my current position.
To enablesupport my participation, I would appreciate it if the company could partially or fully sponsor the course fee, as it directly aligns with our business objectives. Additionally, I may need some flexibility with my schedule to attend a few live sessions during work hours.
The training will be highly beneficial to my role, as it will equip me with advanced project management techniques, allowing me to handle tasks more efficiently and contribute to smoother project execution. I believe this will lead to improved productivity for our team.
I look forward to your response and hope for a positive consideration of my request.
Yours sincerely,
Nathan Campbell
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter is purposeful, appropriately formal, and exceptionally easy to follow, with each request supported by precise, job-relevant detail. The main scope for improvement is minor: a few phrases, especially the closing request for 'a positive consideration', sound slightly formulaic or unnatural. Prioritise refining these isolated collocations while preserving the concise paragraph structure and strong development.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are fully covered, and the requests are appropriately developed for a manager.
For even greater specificity, add the course dates or fee amount if those details are available.
Coherence and Cohesion
Focused paragraphs, clear sequencing, and well-managed linking make the letter effortless to follow.
Trim formulaic topic openers where the paragraph relationship is already obvious to make the flow still more natural.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is wide, precise, and well suited to professional training and project management, with only an isolated awkward phrase.
Replace 'a positive consideration' with the more natural 'a favourable response' or 'favourable consideration'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence forms is used accurately and flexibly throughout the letter.
Vary the opening structures of adjacent sentences to demonstrate still greater syntactic flexibility without adding length.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You work for an international company. You have seen an advertisement for a training course which will be useful for your job. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- describe the training course you want to do
- explain what the company could do to help you
- say how the course will be useful for your job
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.