Welcome to Duke's Diner! Here we have food, made by me, Duke! We are inclusive and we
cater to all kinds of diets. Are you vegan? No problem! Because we have vegetables too!
So what are you waiting for? Come along! Duke's Diner. Where my food goes in your mouth. In
part two of the C1 Advanced writing exam you might need to write a letter of complaint.
But do you know how to do that? No, but I need to. Do you know the structure? No.
And do you know useful expressions to help you get the high marks that you want? No Mr Toby,
I don't. Well don't worry! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is everything
you need to know about writing a letter of complaint for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam.
Duke, mate... I don't think anyone's coming. Yeah Bruce! Look! We have a guest! Look busy!
Hi um is this like Duke's Diner? Like, it doesn't look like the advert I saw.... Yes yes!
Welcome! Um would you like a table? Yeah a table for one. Like I'm getting to know myself right
now so I thought I'd come to a restaurant on my own like obviously I've got loads of friends and
a really hot boyfriend and stuff too like I'm not a loser or anything... Okay okay.
Bruce! Come here! Oh hello! Your table is over here! This way please, madam.
In part two of the C1 Advanced writing exam you could be asked to write a letter of complaint.
This should be between 220 and 260 words. It should be formal so avoid contractions. And in
the exam you will have about 45 minutes in which to write it and trust me that's plenty of time.
You'll be fine. So then, who could you be writing your letter of complaint to? Well it's usually
a restaurant manager or a hotel manager or the manager of a summer english language school which
means obviously that you will be complaining about your experience at a restaurant or a hotel or at
an english language school. And I want to complain about my experience at Duke's Diner! Oh my god!
So then let's have a look at a sample question. You recently went to a new restaurant in town
however you feel dissatisfied with your experience. Write a letter of complaint
to the manager outlining why you didn't enjoy your time and the action you want them to take.
The first thing we need to do is plan. Yes plan! But don't worry! Planning is not hard I promise.
But before we can plan we need to understand what a letter of complaint should do. Number one: a
letter of complaint should follow the conventions of a letter. So we should include salutations and
an opening and closing phrase obviously. You will notice that in this video Monica is using her
laptop so she's writing an email but there's no difference between a letter and an email so relax,
they're the same. Don't panic. Okay. Number two: a letter of complaint should make it very
clear to the recipient why the letter was written obviously. We want the recipient,
the person reading the letter, to read the letter and say "wow this is a letter of complaint!
I need to continue reading!" Yeah obviously, Toby. I'm not stupid. Number three: a letter of
complaint should describe the negative experiences of the writer. Yeah that's really important.
In fact that's exactly what I want to do! And number four: a letter of complaint should suggest
a course of action to fix the problem. Yeah I want, no, I deserve my money back! Okay now that
we know what a letter of complaint should do we can construct our structure and yes
every single letter of complaint that you ever write should follow a structure like this. We give
our salutations then we state why we are writing. This will count as our first paragraph but only
needs to be one sentence long. Next I suggest you include three separate paragraphs discussing three
separate things that were unsatisfactory. These will depend on what you are complaining about.
Considering we are complaining about an experience at a restaurant we will
have a paragraph about the environment, so the decorations and the appearance of the restaurant,
another about the service and our fourth paragraph will be about the food. Our fifth paragraph should
make recommendations. How can the recipient remedy the situation? Here we are complaining about an
experience at a restaurant so we should ask for a refund. And lastly we need to say goodbye,
obviously. Use this structure for every letter of complaint you write. It will make your life much
easier. So then, Monica, let's begin. What is the first thing that we need to do? Salutations! We
need to say hello! Yeah and who are we writing to? The manager of Duke's Diner so I will say "Hello,
you dirty piece of sh..." No you won't. Instead you will write "For the attention of the manager
of Duke's Diner". Oh, if you don't know the name of the hotel or the restaurant or the language
school then just invent one. Don't try and be really creative and spend ages thinking about
it. Just choose one and go with it. It will be fine. This salutation can be used for every single
formal letter that you write. For the attention of... Stupid Duke. No. The manager of Duke's
Diner. Next we need to state why we are writing the letter. This only needs to be one sentence
long and yes it can be the same for every single letter of complaint that you write. Okay um, I
am writing because I hate you and I hope you die. Wow. Or we can say this: "I write this letter to
express my deep dissatisfaction with the service I received at Duke's Diner yesterday". Okay fine. I
like mine better but whatever. Remember that you can use this opening sentence for every single
letter of complaint that you write. I write this letter to express my deep dissatisfaction with
my stay at your hotel or the service I received at the summer school I attended in 2015. Whatever, it
can stay the same. That makes your life very very simple. Also notice here that we have used the
present simple. We have said "I write this letter" and not "I am writing" this letter and this may
seem strange but trust me this is good. It's a very formal way to introduce a formal letter
or email. We can't do this in a story or anything to replace the present continuous but we can do it
in the context of a letter or email so yeah "I write" instead of "I am writing". The examiner
will see that and they'll think "Wow! I know that they know that that is acceptable in formal
writing" and they'll give you higher marks because of it. Simple trick. Now we need to move on to our
three body paragraphs describing our negative experience. We have decided that we are going to
dedicate one paragraph to the environment, another paragraph to the service and another paragraph to
the food. Now before we think about what we're going to say in these paragraphs let's think about
how we're going to connect them together. We will begin paragraph 2 with "To start with". Paragraph
three will open with a "not only...but to make matters worse" inversion structure and paragraph
four we'll begin with "To top it all off". This ensures all three body paragraphs are connected to
each other and you can use this template for every letter of complaint you write. Now that we've done
that remember this... Remember each of these paragraphs should be describing your experience
so that means we need to use narrative tenses: the past simple, the past continuous and the past
perfect. We're telling stories here. Also you need to specify why these experiences were negative.
Are they different to how they were advertised? Did they not live up to your expectations? Make
it very obvious why these experiences for you were not acceptable. If you follow this structure each
paragraph will end up being about three sentences long. So we must describe our experiences and then
say why they were negative. Uh, Monica, our first paragraph is going to be about the environment so
in Duke's Diner what was the environment like? Oh my god where do I begin!? Oh my
god this place is so gross! What am I even doing here? Like it's filthy there's graffiti all over
the walls and... is there something the matter? Yeah it's like freezing in here could you like
turn on my heating or something? Okay, uh just one moment, madam. Duke, she's cold. Um, what do I do?
I don't know... Turn on the heating! Duke we don't have heating! Um we could uh start a fire?
No! Have you got a blanket? Yes I do! Give her this! Okay then, uh will do!
Yeah take this! Nice and warm! Oh my god it stinks! This is like the worst day of my life...
To start with before arriving at the restaurant I was anticipating a luxurious dining experience
instead I found the restaurant in a state of disrepair. The floor was utterly filthy,
the walls were covered in graffiti and there was no central heating.
Here Monica has begun by giving her expectations and then contrasts this with her experience of
the environment. Monica uses INSTEAD to link her ideas together. The grammar here
is simple. Monica used a participle clause with the preposition BEFORE followed by the
gerund. She used the past continuous and the past simple to recount her experiences.
Where this paragraph shines is in its vocabulary. Monica uses the word LUXURIOUS. The expression
STATE OF DISREPAIR which means "being in need of repair" and the ungradable adjective FILTHY with
the modifier UTTERLY. Filthy means "very dirty". And of course if you want to learn more about
gradable and ungradable adjectives I have a video all about them right here! And now Monica, we need
to do exactly the same thing about the service you received. So how was that? Oh my gosh, Toby! The
service was terrible! Oh my god! She looks so gross today... Here is the menu, madam. Okay.
Oh my god there's only one thing on the menu! Chicken nuggets! I can't eat chicken nuggets! I'm
a vegan, yeah? No chicken deserves to be a nugget! Service! Can I have some service please!? Hello!?
Is anyone there!? Hello!?!?! I want some service please!?!?! What? I'm vegan,
yeah. I cannot eat a product of death! Who do you take me for? What? Monica, no you're not. You eat
sushi all the time. What are you talking about? Oh shut up, Bruce! I've been a vegan since yesterday!
I saw a documentary on Netflix and it like totally opened my eyes. In a way I've always
like been a vegan, you know, on a spiritual level. Oh shut up. Sit down! Bloody hell!
Not only was the decor substandard but to make matters worse the service I received left a lot to
be desired. The waiter was incredibly impolite and did not make me feel welcome as a paying customer.
Furthermore he became angry when I mentioned that I was vegan despite the fact that I was
promised an inclusive atmosphere. Monica begins with a "not only...but to make matters worse"
inversion. This is complex grammar and a cohesive device that connects the paragraphs together,
increasing our score for organization. She lists two complaints related to the service
and uses a concessive clause to explain why she was disappointed. Monica connects her two ideas
using FURTHERMORE. And finally before we move on to your refund we need to talk
about the food. So Monica, what was the food like? Oh I don't even want to think about it!
What? She's a vegan! Oh gosh! What do we do? We've only got chicken
nuggets and they're frozen anyway! Um have we still got that carrot from the advert?
Yeah. Yeah okay then. Well, we can give her that, can't we?
Your vegan meal. Bon appetit... Acunamatata. Okay.
Does she like the food? Yeah I think so. She's vegan,
ain't she? And vegans eat vegetables and a carrot is a vegetable. Vegans love vegetables!
To top it all off the food was absolutely atrocious. Being a vegan and therefore unable
to eat the meat option I was given a raw carrot instead of a meal prepared by the chef. To my
horror the carrot was half-eaten. This is not what I have come to expect from a restaurant in 2022.
Monica starts with "to top it all off" which lets the reader know that this is the final complaint.
Monica uses the ungradable adjective ATROCIOUS with the modifier ABSOLUTELY. This is followed
with a participle clause. Monica describes the events that took place and then explains why
they were unsatisfactory with "this is not what I have come to expect from a restaurant in 2022".
So now we have our salutations. We have stated the purpose of the letter.
We have one paragraph complaining about the atmosphere.
Another complaining about the service. And another complaining about the food.
So now we need to let the reader know what course of action they should take. To do this
I suggest recommending a course of action using a subjunctive reporting verb. And if you're thinking
"Toby! I don't know what a subjunctive reporting verb is!" Well, I've got a video all about them,
right here and how you can use them in your C1 Advanced Cambridge exam so maybe click that
link and watch that video at some point? Why not? We have all the time in the world! yeah!
But don't worry, it's easy. The structure that we need is this: I politely request that plus SUBJECT
plus THE INFINITIVE. I politely request that I be refunded. Or another example:
I politely request that the hotel improve its housekeeping. I politely request that you jump
off a bridge. Oh, Monica... You. Next we should make a recommendation and this recommendation
should help the reader ensure that no one in the future needs to have the same bad experiences
as you so think about a way that the reader can avoid this situation happening in the future.
Well that's really obvious... Close the diner! Yeah it's awful! Try and be more constructive
than Monica and make sure that your recommendation is related in some way to the experiences that you
shared in your letter of complaint obviously. Now what grammar structure can we use to make
this recommendation? Well I suggest using an inverted second conditional and of course if
you want to learn all about inverting conditionals I have a video right here! It's made especially
for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam! So yeah there's that... So you could say something like
"Were I the restaurant manager I would improve the food and the service to avoid future complaints".
Yes so, "Were I the manager of Duke's Diner I would set it on fire and claim the insurance".
Yeah. Yeah. Due to the lacklustre experience I have had I politely request I be refunded as
soon as possible. Were I the manager of such an establishment I would attempt to modernize
all aspects of the dining experience from the ambiance to the food as future customers should
not have to share my ordeal. So Monica uses a subjunctive reporting verb to request a refund
and then follows this with an inverted second conditional to make a recommendation.
She uses relevant vocabulary like LACKLUSTRE which means "not good enough", MODERNISE, AMBIENCE and
ORDEAL which means "a negative experience". And with that Monica, we are done! Now we just need
to say goodbye. Yeah let's keep this one really simple "I hate you. From Monica". No, Monica this
is a complaint. It's a formal piece of writing and we've suggested a course of action so let's say
"I hope this issue can be resolved promptly. Kind regards, Monica." And here is our completed letter
of complaint. A salutation. Why we are writing it. Three paragraphs describing events and why they
were negative. One paragraph recommending a course of action. And finally a sign-off. All done.
And with that we are finished. Now you know every single thing you need to know about
writing a letter of complaint for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam. If you liked the video don't
forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you haven't already, leave a comment down below!
My name is Toby and... And come to Duke's Diner! Seriously, Duke!? You
think anyone's going to come to your diner after watching this? This was SMASH English...