Letter of Complaint and Generic Structure

English Admin –  Learning functional text in the form of letter of complaint. Learning English in high school is focusing on text types. One of them is letter for business. Today we are giving you a letter of complain sample completed with generic structure.

Every text for learning English is given along with generic structure. Do you know what reason behind it?  What is the relation between the text sample and the generic structure? Why students who learn English in classroom are suggested to learn both? Before we point to such question. Lets’ see the following sample, letter of complain and its generic structure analysis. Here we go!

Letter of Complaint Example

The generic structure when writing a letter of complaint

Dear Big Meal’s representative
I’m writing to inform you that I had a negative bad experience at your location in Columbus, New Jersey on August 4. My receipt number is 512, and the person who handled my order was Alex.
First of all, I recognize that you, as the reader of this letter, are not responsible for my bad experience, but I am still upset about the situation.
I went to the drive through and ordered seven meals with no pickles. When I received my order, I checked that all of the sandwiches and fries were in the bag paid and drove away. When I got home, I realized my number seven had pickles on it. I’m allergic to pickles, and I didn’t want to waste the sandwich, so I drove back to the drive through to explain the situation and get it fixed.
I feel very disappointed with this interaction, as I usually enjoy my experiences at your restaurant. To fix this situation, I would like a coupon for a free meal of my choice. I think an apology from Alex is also appropriate.
Please contact me at 555.555.5555 or email me back at jkorkell@email.com. I would like this situation to be resolved so I can continue to be a loyal Big Meal’s patron-
Best,
Jim Korkell

Note on Generic Structure of Letter of Complaint
Most texts is written with generic structure. This structure is applied to reach the goal when writing the letter of complaint. Every text is written for different purpose so each of them has different generic structure.

For the sample above, the letter of complain is arrange according to the following stag structure:
1. Identifying reference
My receipt number is 512
2. Making a complaint
I recognize that you, as the reader of this letter, are not responsible for my bad experience
3. Making a detail complaint
I went to the drive through and ordered seven meals with no pickles. When I received my order, I checked that all of the sandwiches and fries were in the bag paid and drove away.
4. Requesting compensation
To fix this situation, I would like a coupon for a free meal of my choice.
5. Making suggestion
I think an apology from Alex is also appropriate.
6. Prompt reply encouraging
Please contact me at 555.555.5555

That is all for today learning a functional text. This example for letter of complaint is given with generic structure. It should be given the language feature but I think the structure of the text need to given firstly. Happy learning English texts.