You recently received a letter from a friend asking for advice about whether to go to college or to try to get a job. You think he/she should get a job. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - say why he/she would not enjoy going to college - explain why getting a job is a good idea for him/her - suggest types of job that would be suitable for him/her
Sample Response
Dear David, I've received your letter, and I'm so glad that you all are doing fine. Thank youAlso, I thank you for confiding in me aboutfor taking me into confidence in order to consult about the important decision of whether to get a job or go to collegea decision as important as either getting a job or going to a college. While I consider both optionspropositions to be crucialvery crucial for personal and professional growth, I think that timing and personal circumstances are also important when makingtaking such an important decision. Given that I know you personallyAnd, knowing you personally for a long timefor quite some time, I don’t think that the current circumstances are right for youtiming and circumstances are exactly on your side for going to collegeas far as the issue of going to a college is concerned. In fact, I know thatI know, how you don’t like handling a heavy homework loaddoing so much homework and love to explore new places and opportunities. Therefore, I suggest that youSo, I'd suggest that you should gain some workjob experience before you start college. You should get a job as a front-desk agentjob as a front desk agent at a hotel because you havebecause I know you have an outgoing personality and yououtgoing personality, and you enjoy meeting and talking tolike to meet and talk to different kinds of people. After all, a hotel is a place which is visited by all kinds of new people almost every day. I wish you the very best of luck. Warm wishes, Antony
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter gives friendly, personalised advice and links a hotel front-desk role sensibly to the recipient’s outgoing personality and interest in meeting people. Its main limitation is uneven bullet coverage: the college objection relies mostly on disliking homework, and only one job type is suggested despite the prompt asking for types. Prioritise adding another concrete reason against college and two or three suitable job alternatives with brief justifications.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The central recommendation is clear and personally relevant, but reasons against college and the range of suitable jobs are only partly developed.
Explain one further college-related mismatch and suggest additional customer-facing or travel-related roles suited to the friend.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter moves from general advice to the college concern and job recommendation, though the extended opening delays the specific response.
State the recommendation early, then use one paragraph for college and another for suitable employment options.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is reasonably varied and suitable for advice, but several expressions are overly formal or unnatural for a close friend.
Use natural phrases such as ‘thanks for asking my advice’, ‘not the right time’, ‘gain work experience’, and ‘people-facing role’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning remains clear, but punctuation, negative-clause structure, article use, and the pattern after ‘suggest’ contain noticeable errors.
Use ‘I know you do not enjoy homework’ and ‘I suggest gaining work experience’ without unnecessary commas or repeated modal verbs.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently received a letter from a friend asking for advice about whether to go to college or to try to get a job. You think he/she should get a job. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- say why he/she would not enjoy going to college
- explain why getting a job is a good idea for him/her
- suggest types of job that would be suitable for him/her
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.