In the IELTS General Training Writing Task 1, you’ll be asked to write a letter in response to a practical, everyday situation. This could be a complaint to a company, a note to a friend, or a request to someone you know at work. The tone can range from formal to informal, depending on the situation, but this example requires a semi-formal approach: polite and professional, because you are writing to your manager, but friendly enough to reflect the fact that you know each other well.
In this post, we’ll look at a model letter asking a manager for permission to work from home part of the week, followed by a clear breakdown of why it works, using the IELTS marking criteria as a guide.
Task Type: Semi-formal Letter
Situation: Asking your manager to agree to a new working arrangement
Timing: 20 minutes
Word Count: At least 150 words
The Question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words.
You would like to change your working arrangements so that you can work from home for part of the week.
Write a letter to your manager. In your letter:
- explain why you would like to change your working arrangements
- describe the arrangement you are proposing
- say how you will stay in contact with your colleagues
Write at least 150 words.
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ………… ,
Understanding the Question
This is a request letter to someone you know in a professional context. Your manager is not a stranger, so “Dear Sir or Madam” would sound cold, but they are also not a friend, so casual language would be out of place. Use their first name with “Dear” and sign off with “Best regards” or “Kind regards”.
The key to answering such questions is addressing all three bullet points clearly. Missing any part will affect your Task Achievement score, limiting you to at most a band 5.0.
Notice that the bullet points ask you to do three different things: give reasons, describe a plan, and explain a practical detail. A good answer treats each one separately rather than mixing them together. Because you are asking for something, the tone should be respectful and the request should sound reasonable from the company’s point of view, not only your own.
Ensure your letter is at least 150 words to meet the requirements. A longer letter will not lose marks (although you will be losing time for checking mistakes), but a shorter letter is likely to lose marks.
How to Structure Your Answer
A clear structure will help your writing feel natural and easy to follow. Here is a suggested outline:
Opening: State your request
- Say clearly what you are asking for (working from home) and how often
- Keep it to one or two sentences; the detail comes later
Paragraph Two: Explain your reasons
- Give one or two specific reasons (a long commute, family responsibilities, a change in circumstances)
- Make the reasons sound reasonable rather than emotional
Paragraph Three: Describe the arrangement
- Say which days you would work from home
- Show that you have thought about the team’s needs (meetings, working hours)
Paragraph Four: Explain how you will stay in contact
- Mention the tools you will use (email, messaging, video calls)
- Offer something extra, such as a daily update, to reassure your manager
Closing:
- Invite a response and offer to discuss the idea
- Sign off with “Best regards” and your first name
Key Tips
- Make the request easy to say yes to: Managers worry about disruption. If you show that meetings and working hours will not change, your request sounds practical rather than demanding.
- Give specific, believable reasons: “My commute has become longer since the timetable changed” is more convincing than “I am tired of travelling”. Specific details also give you a chance to show vocabulary.
- Keep the tone balanced: Semi-formal letters allow phrases like “As you know” and an occasional contraction such as “I’d”, but avoid slang and avoid the stiff phrasing of a formal complaint.
- Follow the order of the bullet points: The examiner will look for each point in turn. Keeping the same order makes your letter easier to follow and easier to mark.
Model Answer
Dear Sarah,
I am writing to ask whether it would be possible for me to work from home two days a week from next month.
As you know, my commute has become much longer since the train timetable changed in September, and I now spend almost three hours a day travelling. My parents have also recently moved closer to me, and I would like to be more available to help them during the week.
My proposal is to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays while keeping my usual nine-to-five schedule. I would still be in the office for all team meetings, which are normally held on Mondays and Wednesdays.
To stay in touch, I would remain online on the company messaging system throughout the day and respond to emails promptly. I’d also be happy to send you a short summary of what I have completed at the end of each remote day.
Please let me know what you think. I would be glad to discuss it further.
Best regards,
Daniel
(171 words)
Why This Letter Works
✅ Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully covered. The reasons for the request are explained in the second paragraph with two concrete details: a longer commute and parents who have moved nearby. The proposed arrangement is described precisely (Tuesdays and Thursdays, the same working hours, attendance at meetings). The third paragraph explains how Daniel will stay in contact, naming the messaging system, email, and an end-of-day summary. The tone is consistently semi-formal: polite and professional, with the first-name salutation and “Best regards” sign-off that this relationship calls for.
✅ Coherence and Cohesion
Each paragraph has a single job: the opening states the request, the second gives reasons, the third describes the plan, the fourth deals with communication, and the closing invites a reply. Linking is handled naturally. “As you know” connects the request to shared background, “also” adds a second reason without a new sentence opener, “while” joins the two halves of the proposal, and “To stay in touch” signals the topic of the final body paragraph. The reader never has to work out where one idea ends and the next begins.
✅ Lexical Resource
The letter uses natural workplace vocabulary rather than exam phrases. “Working arrangements”, “my usual nine-to-five schedule”, “remain online”, and “respond to emails promptly” are all collocations an English-speaking employee would use. “Be more available to help them” is a tactful way to describe family responsibilities without over-explaining. The phrase “each remote day” shows control of a current, specific term. Nothing is repeated unnecessarily: “work from home” appears early, and later paragraphs use “remote” and “in the office” instead.
✅ Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter mixes simple statements with longer complex sentences. The opening uses an embedded question (“whether it would be possible for me to…”), the second paragraph uses the present perfect to describe recent changes (“has become”, “have also recently moved”), and the third uses a relative clause (“which are normally held on Mondays and Wednesdays”). Conditional “would” runs through the proposal, which is exactly the right modal for a request that has not yet been agreed. There are no grammatical errors, and commas are used accurately to separate clauses.
Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
| working arrangements | the agreed pattern of where, when and how you do your job |
| work from home | to do your job at your house instead of at the office |
| commute | the daily journey between home and work |
| timetable | a schedule showing when trains or buses run |
| be available to | be free and able to do something |
| proposal | a plan or suggestion offered for someone to consider |
| nine-to-five | the standard working day, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. |
| schedule | a plan of when things will happen |
| team meeting | a regular gathering of colleagues to discuss work |
| stay in touch | keep communicating with someone |
| remain online | stay connected and reachable through the internet |
| messaging system | software used at work for sending short messages (e.g. Teams, Slack) |
| respond promptly | reply quickly |
| summary | a short account of the main points |
| remote | done from a distance, not in the office |
| discuss further | talk about something in more detail |
Vocabulary Quiz
Choose the best answer for each question.
1. Daniel’s “commute” is…
a) his salary
b) his journey to and from work
c) his job title
d) his lunch break
2. If you “stay in touch” with colleagues, you…
a) sit near them
b) keep communicating with them
c) avoid them
d) manage them
3. A “proposal” in this letter is…
a) an offer of marriage
b) a complaint
c) a plan put forward for consideration
d) a contract
4. To “respond promptly” means to…
a) reply quickly
b) reply politely
c) reply in writing
d) reply the next day
5. A “remote day” is a day when you…
a) take holiday
b) travel for work
c) work away from the office
d) attend a conference
Answer key: 1 b, 2 b, 3 c, 4 a, 5 c
Practice Makes Perfect
Writing semi-formal letters can be challenging, but with regular practice, you’ll improve your ability to stay on topic and meet the IELTS requirements. Try writing your own response to this question, then compare it to the model answer above.
If you’d like feedback on your writing, book a lesson with us today.
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