You bought a music concert ticket. However, you are unable to go. So you want to offer the ticket to your friend. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - say about the concert - say why you are unable to go - inform how your friend can receive the ticket
Sample Response
Dear Eric, Hope you are doing wellgreat. It's only been two weeksIt's been only two weeks since I last saw you and it already feels like a year! I am writing to offer you a concert ticket that I purchased a few days ago. As I can't make it to the concert, I thought you should go. On November 7th, Guns N' Roses is coming to Oakland to rock the city. The full bandteam will be on stagewould be on the stage and it would be a four-hour concerta 4 hours' blast at the Oakland Coliseum. I did not want to miss my favourite band's live performance and purchased a ticket. Unfortunately, I will have to misscancel it due to a sudden family triptour to Canada at that timeduring the time to meet my grandparents on their 50th wedding anniversary. I know how much you loverevere Guns N' Roses and sothat's why I would like you to enjoy the concert. I did not want to disappoint my parents and dishearten my grandmother, who is eagerly awaiting my visitexpecting me on their weddingmarriage anniversary. I will give the ticket to David, who is also going to the concert, and you can meet him before the concertprior to the concert to collect it. Do not forget to record the performance and share your experience with me when we meet after I get backwhen I get back and meet you. Take care and have fun. Warm regards, Robert
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter has a warm, convincing informal voice and gives ample detail about the concert, the family commitment, and the ticket collection arrangement. The main weaknesses are the absence of paragraph breaks and several unnatural word combinations, although the message remains clear. The highest-priority improvement is to divide the response into purposeful paragraphs and edit expressions such as “family tour” and “marriage anniversary” for naturalness.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully covered with relevant detail, and the friendly tone is consistently appropriate for a close friend.
Keep the same complete coverage while trimming a little repeated explanation about disappointing family members.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a clear sequence and are linked effectively, but presenting the entire letter as one block weakens organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for the offer, concert details, reason for missing it, and collection arrangement.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of lively and topic-specific vocabulary, but several collocations are unnatural or imprecise.
Replace expressions such as “the full team,” “family tour,” and “marriage anniversary” with natural alternatives such as “the full band,” “family trip,” and “wedding anniversary.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A varied mix of complex and simple sentences is generally well controlled, with only occasional structural and agreement errors.
Correct forms such as “a four-hour concert” and rewrite the awkward clause beginning “due to a sudden family tour” as a clear reason clause.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You bought a music concert ticket. However, you are unable to go. So you want to offer the ticket to your friend. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- say about the concert
- say why you are unable to go
- inform how your friend can receive the ticket
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.