Today, we will look at a letter reporting lost luggage. The letter in this IELTS task 1 general training rating would score 6 in the test.
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task.
Last Wednesday you flew from London to Vancouver. When you arrived home, you discovered that you had left your hand luggage on the plane.
Write a letter to the airline. In your letter, you should explain:
- where and when you lost your bag
- what your bag looks like
- what its contents were
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Dear Sir or Madam,
I would like to report lost property. It seems that I left my hand luggage on one of your flights. Last Wednesday, November 22nd, I flew from London to Vancouver LB118 and took my hand luggage with me. I put it in the overhead bin. Unfortunately after the long flight, I must have forgotten it on plane.
It’s a blue hand luggage on wheels. It has one outside pockets and is locked with a small lock. I had all of my school work and books in it. I also had a new jacket in it. I had just received it as a gift from my grandmother in London.
As you can imagine these items are very important to me. Please let me know if you have my hand luggage. And how I can get it back. Write me at my return address or email: amy(at)rogers.ca
I’m looking forward your reply
Many thanks,
Amy Rogers
Task achievement
The writer has addressed the requirements of the task. However, the purpose could have been written a little better ie ‘I am writing to report the loss of my hand luggage on flight LB118 from London to Vancouver on 22nd of November’. The bullet points have been adequately covered in the task.
Band 6
- Addresses the requirements of the task
- (Academic) presents an overview with information appropriately selected
- (General Training) presents a purpose that is generally clear; there may be inconsistencies in tone
- Presents and adequately highlights key features/bullet points but details may be irrelevant, inappropriate or
inaccurate
Coherence and cohesion
The information has been arranged coherently and there is a clear overall progression. However, the cohesion could be better between sentences i.e. ‘It’s a blue hand luggage on wheels. It has one outside pockets and is locked with a small lock’ – could be rewritten ‘It is a small blue case on wheels with one outside pocket and is secured with a small lock’ = ’I had all of my school work and books in it. I also had a new jacket in it’ would be better ‘It has all of my schoolwork and books as well as a new jacket inside’. Adding the sentence connectors ‘and’ and ‘as well as’ adds coherence here and improves the grammar.
Band 6
- Arranges information and ideas coherently and there is a clear overall progression
- Uses cohesive devices effectively, but cohesion within and/or between sentences may be faulty or mechanical
- May not always use referencing clearly or appropriately
Lexical resource
The range of vocabulary is adequate for the task with some word choice form errors ie ‘is locked with a small lock’ would be better ‘it has a small lock’ – ‘It’s a blue hand luggage on wheels’ could be changed to ‘It is a small blue case on wheels’. More vocabulary could also have been used to describe the case in a little more detail.
Band 6
- Uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task
- Attempts to use less common vocabulary but with some inaccuracy
- Makes some errors in spelling and/or word formation, but they do not impede communication
Grammatical range and accuracy
The writer needs to use more complex sentences in this response as the majority are simple. This could be easily improved by adding sentence connectors ie ‘. I also had a new jacket inside which I just received as a gift from my grandmother in London’.
Band 6
- Uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms
- Makes some errors in grammar and punctuation but they rarely reduce communication
That brings an end to this letter rating. How could you improve the score? If you are preparing for your IELTS test and want to find out a bit more about general task 1, check out our post giving five tips to improve your IELTS general writing task 1! Our candidate would have scored a 6 overall for this task. Is there anything that surprised you about the score for this letter? Have your say, and comment in the section below! Click here for the full public IELTS task 1 writing descriptors.
If you need your writing corrected and rated, make sure that you check out our writing corrections and feedback service!
