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Task 1 General · Semi-formal letter · Education

Asking a tutor for an assignment extension

A request rather than a complaint, where the band 9 letter wins by making the extension easy to grant instead of hard to refuse.

The question

You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Write at least 150 words. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Dr Halloran,

You are studying a course and will not be able to submit an assignment by the deadline. Write a letter to your tutor, Dr Halloran.

  • Explain why you cannot meet the deadline
  • Describe how much of the work you have completed so far
  • Say what you would like your tutor to agree to

A 150-word letter in a formal, semi-formal or personal register. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.

What separates the three answers

Every version asks for the same fortnight; only the band 9 letter gives the tutor evidence that granting it will produce a better piece of work rather than a later one.

The three answers

Band 6.5

180 words (the task asks for at least 150)

The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.

The answer

Dear Dr Halloran,

I am writing this letter to request you for an extension1 for the research assignment which is due on 12 April. Unfortunately I am not able to submit it on time and I am very sorry about this.

The reason is that my mother was taken to the hospital two weeks ago and I had to travel to my home town to look after her and my younger brother. I stayed there for ten days and during this time I could not access to the library or work on my assignment properly. She is better now but I lost a lot of time.

I have already done the literature review and I have collected most of my data. I still need to do the analysis and write the discussion section.2

I would like to request you to give me two more weeks, so the new deadline will be 26 April. I promise I will submit it on this date. Thank you very much for your kind consideration and sorry again for the inconvenience.4

Yours faithfully, P. Nakamura3

What an examiner notices

  1. 1. Grammatical range and accuracy

    “I am writing this letter to request you for an extension”

    'Request' does not take this pattern — 'request an extension' or 'ask you for an extension'. The same error recurs in the final paragraph.

  2. 2. Task achievement

    “I still need to do the analysis and write the discussion section.”

    The tutor needs to know how much that represents. Without a sense of scale, the two-week request looks arbitrary.

  3. 3. Lexical resource

    “Yours faithfully, P. Nakamura”

    'Dear Dr Halloran' requires 'Yours sincerely'. The mismatch is the clearest single register error in the letter.

  4. 4. Coherence and cohesion

    “Thank you very much for your kind consideration and sorry again for the inconvenience.”

    Two formulas joined by 'and', mixing a formal phrase with a conversational one. The letter ends on courtesy rather than on the request.

One honest caveat

Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.

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