Formal Letter · Explaining a Missed Work Meeting to Your Manager
A complete IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 question with a model answer of 285 words, plus a breakdown of the sentence structures, cohesive devices and vocabulary that answer uses. Write your own version first, then compare.
Written by Manish Sharma · CELTA and DELTA qualified · 8 years teaching IELTS
Score my answer to this questionThe question
You have 20 minutes. Write at least 150 words.
You recently missed an important meeting at work that you were expected to attend. Your manager has asked you to explain what happened. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: - Explain which meeting you missed and why it was important - Describe the reasons why you were unable to attend - Suggest how you will catch up and avoid the situation happening again Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Ms Patel,
How to approach it
- 01Use 'Dear Ms Patel' and sign off with 'Yours sincerely' — formal, named recipient
- 02Open with a clear purpose sentence that thanks the manager for the request and signals what you will do
- 03Identify the meeting precisely (name, date, room, your role) so the explanation feels professional
- 04Keep the reason factual and proportionate — avoid melodrama or excessive personal detail
- 05Show ownership: acknowledge what you could have done better, even if the cause was beyond your control
- 06Close with a concrete plan to catch up and a process change to prevent recurrence
Model answer
285 words in 7 paragraphs. Read it after you have written your own, not before: the point of a model answer is to show you what you missed, and you cannot miss anything you have not attempted.
Dear Ms Patel,
Thank you for your message yesterday. I am writing to explain why I was not present at the quarterly client review with Harlow Partners on Tuesday morning, and to set out how I plan to put things right.
The meeting, scheduled for 09:30 in Meeting Room 4, was the formal sign-off on the Phase Two pricing proposal. As the lead analyst on the account, I was expected to walk Harlow's finance team through the revised model and answer questions on the rate card. I am very aware that my absence was both noticeable and potentially damaging to our relationship with the client.
The reason I could not attend was a sudden domestic emergency. At around six on Tuesday morning my mother had a serious fall at home and was taken to A&E by ambulance. I travelled straight to the hospital and remained with her until early afternoon, when she was stabilised and admitted for observation. In the rush I did manage to phone the office before 09:00, but I now realise the message did not reach the meeting room in time, and for that I apologise.
To recover the situation I have already sent the Harlow team a full written summary of the pricing model and offered a follow-up video call at their convenience this week. I will also save the emergency rota numbers of two senior colleagues on my phone so that, if anything similar happens again, the meeting organiser can be informed within minutes rather than relying on a single switchboard message.
I am very sorry for any disruption this caused and I am happy to discuss the matter further whenever suits you.
Yours sincerely, Anna Olsen
What this answer actually does
Measured from the text above, and compared against the other 31 answers of the same type in this library. These are counts, not band scores: they describe what the writing does, which is the part you can copy.
61 more than the median answer for this task type
4 words at the shortest, 38 at the longest
2 fewer than the median answer for this task type
carry a subordinate or relative clause
Sentence rhythm
Sentences average 21.9 words and vary by 9.5 words either side of that, running from 4 words to 38. Variation is the point. Grammatical Range and Accuracy rewards a mix of simple and complex sentences, and an answer where every sentence is the same length reads as flat no matter how correct it is. 5 of the 13 sentences here carry a subordinate or relative clause.
Vocabulary and repetition
Ignoring grammar words, 80 per cent of the content words in this answer are distinct, and 70 per cent appear exactly once. Lexical Resource is where repetition costs the most marks, and the usual cause is not a small vocabulary but reaching for the same noun every time the topic is named.
The longest run of words copied straight from the question is 3 words. Examiners discount wording lifted from the question, so a short run here is the right outcome: the answer restates the topic in its own words rather than borrowing the question's.
What you are marked on
All four criteria carry equal weight, and your Writing band is their average rounded to the nearest half band.
Task Achievement
Address all three bullets fully: identify the meeting, explain the reason for missing it, and propose recovery and prevention measures.
Coherence & Cohesion
Use a clear paragraph for each bullet with appropriate formal opening, internal linking, and closing.
Lexical Resource
Use precise formal workplace vocabulary for accountability, client relationships, and operational recovery.
Grammatical Range & Accuracy
Use a range of past tenses to narrate the absence, modal verbs for commitments, and future forms for the recovery plan.
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