A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening. Write a letter to your relative. In your letter: - explain the arrangements you have made for him/her to get keys - tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house - say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening
Sample Response
Dear Ivan, I hope you are doing wellHope you are doing fine. I am so glad that you are coming to stay with me. Unfortunately,But, unfortunately, I will not be able to pick you up from the train station since I will be out of townstaying out of the town that morningon that morning because of an important work commitmentfor some important work. You know how the job of a marketing directora Marketing Director goes. Please don't worryBut, please don’t you worry because I have askedrequested my landlady to hand the keys to youhand you over the keys to my apartment when you arriveas soon as you come. I will be backBesides, I will be back at my apartment that eveningon that same day during the evening time. As soon as I arriveAnd as soon as I arrive, we will both headwe both will head to an upscale restaurant to have dinnereat our dinner. After that, we will go to a nearby lake which looks gorgeous at night. Anyway, before I end, let me give you directions to my apartmentthe direction to my apartment from the train station. Just take a taxi and ask the driver to take you to “Oaktree village home” and the driver will take you there. It is a popular residential place in the town, and every taxi driver knows it. Warm wishes, Lance Jerry
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter maintains a warm, suitable family tone and covers the key collection, taxi journey, evening return, and two suggested activities. Its main limitation is practical vagueness: it gives no precise return time, landlady contact or collection point, and only a general destination for the taxi. The priority is to provide exact key-collection instructions, a full address or landmark, and a specific time when the writer will be home.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requirements are covered with relevant plans, but the key arrangements, directions, and return time lack enough practical detail.
Give the landlady's location or contact details, the complete destination address, and an approximate homecoming time before suggesting dinner and the lake visit.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content is easy to follow overall, though the route directions come after the evening plans and the entire letter remains one paragraph.
Order the letter by arrival sequence: key collection, travel from the station, return time, and evening activities, using separate short paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate and sometimes lively, but phrases such as 'staying out of the town', 'hand you over the keys', and 'eat our dinner' are unnatural.
Use idiomatic expressions such as 'out of town', 'give you the keys', 'have dinner', and 'a well-known residential complex'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence forms conveys the plan clearly, but fragments, unnecessary commas, word order, and article errors recur.
Write complete sentences after the greeting and use natural structures such as 'Please don't worry' and 'I will be home at about six'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening. Write a letter to your relative. In your letter:
- explain the arrangements you have made for him/her to get keys
- tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house
- say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.