A friend has asked you to babysit on Saturday and wants to know how much you charge per hour. You already have a commitment this weekend, but you are free the following weekend. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - explain why you cannot help this weekend - say that you could help the following weekend - explain what your fee is
Sample Response
Dear Margarita, Thank you for asking me to babysit for you. DeleteI must say that I enjoyrelish looking after Della and would be happy to helphelp you out. She is such a lovely childsweet kid. However, this weekend my parents will be visitingwith me and I will not be availablecannot spare time. I hope you understandI am hoping you would understand the situation and allow me to look after Della the following weekend if neededlook after Della the next week - if needed. My parents are coming to visit me next Friday and I am going to take them to some interesting places around townsome interesting places in the town. They rarelyscarcely visit me so I would like to spend as much time as possible with them. Also, my father's birthday is next Mondaybirthday is on next Monday, and I want to celebrate this special occasion with them. I'm really sorryI am really sorry that I am unable to help this weekendnot able to help this time, but I am free next weekend and I would be glad to babysit for you then if you chooseif you should choose to go out for the day. My charge is twenty dollars per hour until midnight and thirty dollars per hour after that. Please give meYou would need to give me any special instructions you might have and, of course, leave a phone number in case of an emergencyin case of emergency. Warm regards, Anna Lechner
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter addresses all three points clearly, with a warm personal tone, a developed explanation of the family commitment, firm availability for the following weekend and precise hourly fees. Its main weakness is slight overdevelopment and a few unnatural forms, including "on next Monday" and "allow me to look after Della." Use clearer paragraphing by purpose and edit those local phrases while keeping the helpful, friendly voice.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All bullet points are fully covered with relevant detail, and the warm tone consistently suits a letter to a friend.
Keep the explanation of the current commitment slightly more concise so the offer for next weekend and fee remain most prominent.
Coherence and Cohesion
The sequence from refusal to explanation, alternative availability and fees is logical, though the single-block presentation obscures that structure.
Create short paragraphs for the apology and reason, the following-weekend offer, and the charging arrangements.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses flexible, friendly vocabulary, but choices such as "relish" and "allow me to look after" sound stilted in this context.
Prefer natural phrases such as "I really enjoy looking after Della" and "I would be happy to babysit next weekend."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Sentence forms are varied and mostly well controlled, with occasional errors in prepositions and conditional phrasing.
Correct forms such as "next Monday" without "on" and use "I hope you understand" for a direct present request.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A friend has asked you to babysit on Saturday and wants to know how much you charge per hour. You already have a commitment this weekend, but you are free the following weekend. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- explain why you cannot help this weekend
- say that you could help the following weekend
- explain what your fee is
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.