A letter to your manager requesting time off for a family event
An IELTS General Training Writing Task 1 semi-formal letter requesting leave from a manager, with a band 9 model answer, a plan, and notes on how it meets each marking criterion, including tone and the coverage of all three bullet points.
Write your answer
Do this before you scroll. The model answer below will make sense as a comparison and not much use as a template.
Task 1 General Training · 20 minutes · at least 150 words
You need to take some time off work to attend an important family event in another city. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter: explain what the event is and when it takes place; say how long you need to be away; suggest how your work could be covered while you are absent.
- explain what the event is and when it takes place
- say how long you need to be away
- suggest how your work could be covered while you are absent
Spell check is turned off deliberately, because it is off in the real test. Your essay stays in this browser and is never uploaded.
How to plan this one
- 1The recipient is your manager, someone you know in a professional role, so the tone is semi-formal: polite and clear, with a name in the greeting, no slang and no "Yours faithfully".
- 2Purpose in the first sentence. The manager should know this is a leave request before the second line.
- 3One paragraph per bullet, each with a specific detail: the event and its date, the exact days, named colleagues and tasks. Vague suggestions for cover are the bullet candidates under-develop.
- 4Close with a courteous line that invites a reply, and sign off with "Kind regards" or "Best regards" and your full name.
Model answer
Written at the top of the band. Read it for the moves it makes, not the opinions it holds: a memorised essay on this topic will not fit the prompt you actually get.
Dear Mr Raza,
I am writing to request a short period of leave next month so that I can attend my younger sister's wedding in Karachi.
The wedding is on Saturday 18 October, and as the eldest brother I have responsibilities in the days before it, from receiving relatives arriving from abroad to the arrangements for the events on the Thursday and Friday. It is the first wedding in our family for many years, and my parents are relying on me to be there for all of it.
I would therefore like to take five working days, from Wednesday 15 to Tuesday 21 October, and return to the office on Wednesday 22 October. I have checked the leave calendar and no one else in the team has requested those dates.
As for my work, the monthly client report is due on 14 October and I will complete it before I leave. Ahmed has agreed to handle the daily supplier calls while I am away, and I will brief him fully on the two open orders on Tuesday 14 October. Anything urgent can be sent to my email, which I will check each evening. I would be happy to prepare a short handover note if that would be useful.
Thank you for considering this request. I would be grateful if you could let me know by the end of this week so that I can confirm my travel.
Kind regards, Bilal Hussain
Why it scores, criterion by criterion
Task Achievement
The purpose is stated in the first sentence. Each bullet has its own paragraph with specific detail: the event, its date and the reason it matters; the exact dates and the return day; named colleagues, named tasks and a handover offer. The letter does what a real request letter must do, which is make the manager's decision easy.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphs follow the bullets in order and each opens on its function ("The wedding is on", "I would therefore like to take", "As for my work"). "Therefore" links the dates to the reason; "as for" turns to the cover arrangements. The closing paragraph asks for a reply by a date, which ties back to the request.
Lexical Resource
Semi-formal register held throughout: "request a short period of leave", "I have checked the leave calendar", "handle the daily supplier calls", "brief him fully", "handover note", "I would be grateful if". No slang and no stiff formality either; the tone is that of a competent employee writing to a manager they know.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of structures appropriate to a letter: "so that" purpose clauses, a "from ... to ..." date range, the conditional "if that would be useful", the polite request form "I would be grateful if you could". Dates and days are consistent and correctly formatted. Error-free.
Language worth stealing
Each of these carries a trap as well as a use, so the note matters as much as the phrase.
- I am writing to request a short period of leave ... so that I can ...
- A purpose sentence for any request letter. "So that" gives the reason in the same breath, which a manager wants first.
- I would therefore like to take N working days, from A to B, and return on C
- The exact dates, with the return day stated. The bullet asks how long; a range without a return date leaves the manager to work it out.
- As for my work, ... X has agreed to ..., and I will ...
- "As for" turns to the third bullet cleanly. Naming a colleague who has already agreed is the detail that makes the suggestion credible.
- I would be grateful if you could let me know by ...
- A closing request with a deadline. It is polite because of "would" and "could"; it is useful because of the date.
More Task 1 General Training practice
Last updated 18 September 2026.