Unit 1. Letters of Application
Additional Practice Tests.
Below, you will find additional practice test questions for making applications. Try to write some letters yourself and try to get them corrected by an IELTS teacher, or you can use the essay marking and correction service.
Focus Question 5. Voluntary Work Application.
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Helen Hunter, and I am writing to apply for the position of children's charity volunteer, which I saw advertised in Tesco Supermarket.
The reasons I have for volunteering are two-fold: To begin with, I will commence my bachelor degree in International Childhood Studies in September, so I am looking for some relevant work experience. Also, if I can gain charitable working experience in the field of childcare, it will help to hone my practical skills of working with children and teenagers.
As regards my past working experiences: Since the age of 12, I have been employed by various friends and neighbours as a baby-sitter. Also, I have worked seasonally for Mothercare as a sales assistant for the past five summers, where I was responsible for sales and advice to young mothers.
Certainly, I believe that I could help to make your childhood charity event a great success because not only do I have experience in childcare, but I possess strong organisational skills, which are essential to the success of charitable events.
Finally, thank you for considering my application. I very much look forward to hearing from you and hopefully working at the charity event.
Yours faithfully,
Miss Helen Hunter.
Practice Task 1. Business Loan Application.
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Karl Hopkins and I am a long-standing customer at your bank.
The reason I am writing is to make an application for a business loan because I intend to start a smartphone distribution business. Currently, I am working for a major smartphone distributor, which has taught me exactly how this business works, so I am confident about my business model.
Regarding my current financial position: I have already saved twenty thousand pounds to acquire sufficient stock to satisfy customer orders for the first two months. I also own my own home outright since I completed my mortgage repayments last year. If it is necessary, I could use my home residence as collateral to secure the loan. Indeed, I only require a modest loan of eighty thousand pounds, whereas my home is valued at twice that figure, so it should provide sufficient security.
Assuming the bank authorises a business loan in my favour, could you please indicate the various options for repaying the loan in terms of the time periods, early settlement conditions, and interest rates applicable.
For your perusal, I enclose the official business application form and look forward to hearing from you in due course.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Karl Hopkins.
Practice Task 2. Education Loan Application.
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Donald Clarke, and I am writing to apply for student funding in relation to my university application, which is for the September 2019 new student intake.
The specific degree that I would like to study is English Laws, which is offered by most universities throughout the country. However, I have limited my application to degrees that offer a year of practical experience. Therefore, I should complete my studies in five years by June 2024.
The standard fees for all courses is currently nine-thousand pounds a year, so I am applying for full tuition costs of forty-five thousand pounds. I further desire to secure the maximum living allowance of ten thousand pounds a year, which amounts to a further fifty-thousand. I currently have no savings or other collateral, so I ought to qualify for the full award.
I hope I am successful in securing the loan as I am dedicated to becoming a lawyer. I believe this is the career that will both challenge me professionally and provide a secure income for the future.
I enclose the official student funding application form and look forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Clarke.
Practice Task 3.. Waitress Job Application.
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Janette Brown, and I am responding to a job advertisement for service staff, which was recently posted on the popular employment website, www.service-jobs.com. The position that I am applying for is the senior waiter position.
The reasons why I feel I am ideally suited to this position are as follows: First of all, I have six years experience waiting tables at The Savoy Hotel, which provided me with comprehensive knowledge of silver service waiter skills. In addition, I recently completed restaurant staff managerial training, which I believe equips me with the necessary skills to competently manage a vibrant city centre restaurant like yours. Most importantly, I have a friendly, outgoing personality, which I believe is essential if a business is going to succeed in a hospitality focussed sector.
Given my aforementioned qualities, I hope you will consider me as a suitable candidate for the job. Finally, if my application is successful, please furnish me with details of when the job commences, the remuneration package, and shift pattern hours I will need to know.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Ms. Janette Brown.
Practice Task 4. School Application.
Dear Sir or Madam,
My name is Mr. Alan Robson, and I am writing regarding my daughter with a view to enrolling her in your school. My daughter's name is Denise, and she has just completed year nine in a Japanese High School. Our family have recently moved here to England a month ago, so finding a suitable school place for our daughter is a priority.
In the past, it was important for us to ensure that Denise attended an international school, which offered a bilingual English and Japanese program, so that she could make the transition to the British education system more easily. Indeed, she has spoken English as her mother tongue since she was a small child as well as being fluent in Japanese. Despite her linguistic strengths, Denise's prefers to focus on mathematics, sciences, and computers studies as her main subject options.
If your school still has places, we would like to enroll her as soon as possible. Could you also please let me know any fees that will be payable and the applicable term dates?
I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel welcome to call me on my mobile (054 343 4456).
Yours faithfully,
Mr. Alan Robson.
Practice Test 5. Letter of Complaint.
Vocabulary · a recalled product: a defective product that is taken off the market ·malfunctions: failures in operation · faulty: defective · apology: an admission of error or discourtesy accompanied by an expression of regret e.g. public apology · annoyance: Being bothered by something or someone e.g. She expressed annoyance at the slow service ·dissatisfaction: a feeling of unhappiness or disapproval, e.g. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the service Letters of Complaint Useful Phrases and Vocabulary · satisfaction: a happy or pleased feeling because of something that you did or something that happened to you ·attitude: the way you think and feel about someone or something · quality: how good or bad something is · to portray: to describe (someone or something) in a particular way ·incompetence: lack of the ability to do something well · to attend to: to give needed help or attention to (someone or something) · severe: very bad, serious, or unpleasant · to compensate: to give money or something else of value to (someone) in return for something ·to demand: to require (something) · hazardous: dangerous · a lawn mower: a machine used for cutting the grass on lawns · assembly: the act of connecting together the parts of something (such as a machine) · to chuckle: to laugh in a quiet way · a welded edge: to join pieces of metal together by heating the edges until they begin to melt and then pressing them together · a coupler: something combined with something else · to misuse: to use (something) incorrectly · hassle: to bother or annoy (someone) constantly or repeatedly
Common Expressions.
Opening a letter of complaint.
Introducing your complaint.
- I am writing this letter to protest about the plan to ...
- I am writing this letter to express my disappointment in relation to the proposal to ...
- I am sorry to have to inform you of the following unfortunate situation: Last week when I visited your ...
- I am writing to express my unhappiness about your decision / plans to ...
- I am writing to make clear / to lodge my displeasure (show my irritation / frustration) at your plans to ...
- I am sorry to have to complain in relation to the following unfortunate situation, which occurred at your ...
- I am writing in connection with an unfortunate experience I had when I visited your store / business etc...
- I am writing this letter to bring to your attention my disapproval of your decision / proposal to ...
- I am writing this letter to complain about an incident that happened on (date) at (time) at (place)
- I am writing this letter to express my dissatisfaction with the poor service I experienced when I ...
- I am writing in connection with ...
Developing your complaint.
- The reasons for my complaint / objections are three-fold: First of all, ... Also, ... In addition, ...
- Unfortunately, I found the standard of professionalism and workmanship to fall well below what I had come to consider to be an acceptable level in regard to ...
- I am very disappointed with the poor standard(s) of service / workmanship / professionalism I encountered when I visited your ...
- Something that I feel particularly aggrieved about is that ...
- Another source of real dissatisfaction is that ...
- This was not what I had expected. In fact, it is quite the opposite;
- Although, according to your staff, I should have got / the product should have / the service should have included, in fact it fell short of this expectation...
- Notwithstanding the fact that I was assured by your sales assistant / employee that ...
- On using your service / product, I was quite surprised to discover that, despite being assured by your company employees that it would work perfectly, when I got it home, in fact the product failed to ...
Asking the recipient to take action:
- I sincerely hope that you will take my complaint seriously
- I trust you will take appropriate action to remedy this situation in the immediate future so that we can put this unfortunate incident / event(s) behind us.
- I am fully confident that we can overcome this unfortunate situation and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. I trust it would not be inconvenient for you to now act to redress this problem by ...
- I would be sincerely grateful if you could ...
- I hope you will give your immediate attention to this matter...
- I fully anticipate that you will take remedial steps to resolve this matter to our mutual satisfaction. I therefore expect you to ...
- In view of these circumstances, I trust you will see that it would be unfair if I were not given some kind of compensation for my loss / inconvenience ... Therefore, it only seems fair that you provide me with ...
- As a valued customer, I fully expect that you will provide me with ...
- In order to satisfactorily address my grievance, I feel that what would be fair (what would suit me best) would be if you were to ...