Inquiring About a Work-Related Seminar Abroad

  • Professional training
  • Events
  • Travel
  • Request

You would like to participate in a work-related seminar in another country. Write a letter to the person in charge of the seminar. In your letter: - ask for information about the seminar dates - ask for details of the programme - ask about accommodation - ask about the cost

Annotated response

1 correction note

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am Rona Lyn Olivar, an ICU Nurse at the Urdaneta Heart Hospital, located in the province of Pangasinan in the Philippines. I have learned from a colleague that you will conduct in Singapore, and I am writing to ask for some information regarding the seminar, and hoping that you would kindly provide it to me.

Firstly, with regards to the schedule, kindly inform me about the seminar schedule and what time would it begin and end each day. Secondly, please notify me of the topics and speakers of the program. I am also wondering if there is any special consideration for the registered nurses who will be attending the seminar. And finally, I would like to know about the accommodation and the cost. Would the accommodation be arranged by you or should an individual be responsible for that? What would be the approximate cost to attend and successfully finish the seminar?

I am enthusiastic about attending the seminar, and your reply will help me plan for it in advance. So, I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Rona Olivar

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The letter fully achieves its purpose, covering all four bullet points with a consistently polite and professional register and relevant supporting detail. Its main limitation is some mechanical organisation and recurring, non-impeding grammatical and phrasing slips that prevent a fully natural range of language throughout.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

8.0

All four required points are clearly asked about with appropriate detail, and the professional yet courteous register suits a letter to a seminar organiser.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically from introduction to sequenced enquiries and a courteous close, though the sequencing within the second paragraph is somewhat mechanical and the bullet order is slightly compressed.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is sufficiently precise for the workplace context, with natural collocations such as 'special consideration' and 'successfully finish', although phrasing is occasionally wordy or slightly awkward.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A range of complex sentences and questions is used with generally good control. The indirect question after inform me uses inverted word order in what time would it begin and end; it needs what time it would begin and end. Sentence-initial And is grammatical and does not itself reduce accuracy.

More responses with feedback

View all 14 responses (5.0–7.5)