Your best friend just had her first baby. You are currently overseas but will be returning to your hometown in a week. Write to your friend. In your letter: - congratulate your friend - tell her when you will be returning home - ask when you could drop in to meet her and the baby
Sample Response
Dear Jessica, Hope this letter finds you in great health and spirit after going through a critical but one of the most wonderful moments of your life. DeleteWell, you wanted your firstborn to be a girl, and you have indeed been blessed with a baby girl! So, many congratulations to you, and your first baby who has just been bornarrived in this world! By the way, I am soreally sorry that I couldn’t be by your side to witness this wonderful milestonethis wonderful but critical moment of your life since I needed to travel overseasget out of town for a week to address an urgent matter at workan urgent matter in my office. Besides, I was told that you were not due until forafter another two weeks or so. Still, in any caseBut, whatever is the case, please know that you have always been in my prayersprayer and always will beand you will always be. On a happier noteAnyway, I am trying to finish my work as soon as I can so that I can returnas soon as I can and return to the city in a weekin the next couple of days, and I just can’t wait to meetput my eyes on your little angel. Please let me knowSo, please let me know when would be a good timewhen it is a good time to visit you. Warm wishes, Linda Grace
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its warm personal voice and clear coverage of congratulating the friend, explaining the return, and asking to visit. Its main limitation is that frequent awkward expressions and loosely connected discourse markers make the message sound less natural than intended. The highest-priority improvement is to use simpler, idiomatic language and organise the congratulations, travel timing, and visit request into clearer stages.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response covers all three bullet points and sustains a friendly tone, although the return timing is less precise than the one-week context in the prompt.
State the exact return day or date and make the proposed visit arrangement more concrete.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message follows a broadly logical sequence, but repeated conversational linkers and the single dense paragraph weaken the sense of controlled progression.
Separate the congratulations, explanation of absence and return, and visit request into short paragraphs with fewer opening linkers.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary conveys warmth and affection, but several expressions, including 'critical moment', 'in my prayer', and 'put my eyes on', are unnatural in context.
Choose familiar idiomatic phrases such as 'special time', 'in my prayers', and 'meet your little one'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses varied complex structures with mostly clear meaning, though punctuation, agreement, and phrasing errors recur.
Edit long sentences into cleaner units and check noun number and coordination, especially around 'congratulations to you' and 'in my prayers'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your best friend just had her first baby. You are currently overseas but will be returning to your hometown in a week. Write to your friend. In your letter:
- congratulate your friend
- tell her when you will be returning home
- ask when you could drop in to meet her and the baby
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.