Writing Part 1: the complaint that must fit 120-150 words
You are writing PEIC Level 4 Writing, Part 1. You paid €1,200 for a four-week intensive English course in Dublin (€300 deposit, €900 balance). The brochure promised a maximum of 12 students, 25 hours of tuition a week, qualified teachers and free wifi. In week one: two of the five afternoon classes were cancelled without notice, your class had 18 students, a different teacher took the class each day, and the wifi was unavailable all week. You emailed the centre on 5 and 12 October and received no reply. Today is 20 October. The task is to write a formal email of 120-150 words to the Centre Director. You cannot mention everything, and the email has to leave the reader willing to reply. You are tempted to demand a full refund on the spot and to mention that you have already posted a negative review online.
1. Decide what to include and what to cut, and justify each decision against the word limit and the purpose of the email.
Read the worked answer
Include the three breaches you can evidence and that map onto money: class size (18 against a promised 12), cancelled tuition hours (two of five afternoon classes), and the unanswered emails of 5 and 12 October. Each is a fact with a number or a date attached, and together they establish both the failure and the reasonableness of your complaint.
Cut the wifi. It is real, but it is the weakest item: mentioning it alongside cancelled classes invites the reader to weigh everything as one grievance and find most of it minor. Cutting it makes the case look measured, which is what a C1 writer does - selection is a mark of control.
Cut the negative review. It converts a request into a threat and gives the Director a reason to route the email to a legal or reputation team instead of a course administrator. If you want pressure, use a neutral deadline ('I would be grateful for a reply by 27 October') rather than an ultimatum.
Cut 'demand a full refund' as a first move. Ask what remedy they propose, and state what you consider appropriate - full refund, partial refund or replacement tuition - so the reader has something concrete to agree to.
2. Do the word arithmetic for a 120-150 word email and show where each block goes.
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Target about 140 words, so there is room to trim without falling under 120.
- Subject line (not always counted, so treat it as free): 'Course standards - student ref. 4471'.
- Purpose, 1-2 sentences (≈20 words): who you are, which course, why you are writing - no life story, no apology for writing.
- Facts, 3 short sentences (≈55 words): class size, cancelled classes, unanswered emails, each with a number or date. One complaint per sentence; do not stack three clauses into one 40-word sentence.
- Effect (≈20 words): one sentence on impact - 'This amounts to roughly six hours of tuition lost in the first week' - because impact is what makes a remedy reasonable.
- Request (≈25 words): state what you want and by when.
- Close (≈10 words): 'I look forward to your reply.'
Leave 10-15 words of slack. Candidates who plan 150 exactly usually overshoot and then cut the request sentence, which is the one sentence the email cannot do without.
3. Write the request section and explain the choices of modal and structure.
Read the worked answer
Model: 'Given that the course has not matched the brochure in these respects, I would like to know what remedy you propose - a partial refund or replacement tuition would both be acceptable. I would be grateful for a reply by 27 October so that I can decide whether to continue with the remaining three weeks.'
Why this works. 'I would like to know what remedy you propose' puts the obligation on the recipient without using an aggressive imperative, and it invites a reply rather than ending the exchange. Naming two acceptable outcomes ('a partial refund or replacement tuition') makes agreement easy - a complaint that specifies nothing usually produces an apology and nothing else.
The modals are deliberate. 'Would like' and 'would be grateful' are conventional politeness markers in formal complaint; 'must' or 'I demand' would raise the temperature and, at C1, is not more forceful but simply less controlled. The deadline sentence supplies the pressure that a threat would supply, without the cost.
What to avoid: 'I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience' - vague, and it removes your deadline. And avoid stacking modals ('I would possibly like to maybe request'), which reads as uncertain rather than polite.