A friend who lives in another country has invited to you come and stay with him/her on your next holiday. You are too busy to accept the invitation. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - Thank him/her for the invitation - Explain why you cannot come - Give him/her your other news
Sample Response
Dear Rosella, how are you doing? When I got your letter last week I realized we haven‘t talked in month. Thank you so much for including the pictures of your new house and inviting us to visit you in Brazil this summer. I always wanted to go there, but I am afraid we will not be able to make it this summer. Maybe you can visit us instead in Australia? We have just moved to the coast 3 month ago and I have decided to quit my office job. Instead we are now running a small café in a historic beach house. It is quite exciting, but also a lot of work: I get up at 5 a.m. every morning and we usually close after 11 p.m. The house was quite run down when we bought it, but now it looks fantastic. Obviously, I can not close the café for several weeks during summer as we just opened a few weeks ago. We also adopted a puppy named „Spotty“ we can not take on the trip. I attached a few pictures to the letter and I hope they will convince you to come here this summer. Just let me know. Yours Sincerely, A. B.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Separate the greeting Original: Dear Rosella, how Suggested revision: Dear Rosella, How Why it matters: The salutation should be separated from the opening sentence, which begins with a capital letter.
- 2. Correct the apostrophe Original: haven‘t Suggested revision: haven't Why it matters: The contraction requires a standard apostrophe between “n” and “t”.
- 3. Use plural noun Original: month Suggested revision: months Why it matters: The expression needs the plural noun to mean that a long period has passed.
- 4. Use present perfect Original: I Suggested revision: I've Why it matters: The present perfect links this long-standing wish to the current invitation.
- 5. Correct plural form Original: 3 month ago Suggested revision: three months ago Why it matters: A quantity greater than one requires the plural form “months”.
- 6. Add the article Original: during summer Suggested revision: during the summer Why it matters: The definite article is needed when referring to this specific upcoming summer period.
- 7. Use present perfect Original: I Suggested revision: I've Why it matters: The present perfect is appropriate for an attachment sent with the current letter.
- 8. Use friendly closing Original: Yours Sincerely Suggested revision: Best wishes Why it matters: A friendly letter needs an informal closing rather than this formal complimentary close.
- 9. Use precise verb Original: got Suggested revision: received Why it matters: “Received” expresses the arrival of the letter more precisely.
- 10. Choose natural verb Original: including Suggested revision: sending Why it matters: “Sending” is the natural verb for pictures enclosed with a letter.
- 11. Clarify the refusal Original: make it this summer Suggested revision: visit this summer Why it matters: The specific verb makes the declined arrangement immediately clear.
- 12. Add introductory comma Original: Instead we Suggested revision: Instead, we Why it matters: The introductory linking word should be followed by a comma.
Suggested Rewrites
- Dear Rosella, how Dear Rosella, How
- haven‘t haven't
- month months
- I I've
- 3 month ago three months ago
- during summer during the summer
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter is warm, engaging, and thorough: it thanks the friend, clearly explains why the trip is impossible, and gives substantial personal news. The main limitation is recurring grammatical inaccuracy in otherwise fluent sentences, especially with articles, plurals, and verb forms. The highest-priority improvement is to proofread these basic forms carefully while dividing the news and explanation into clearer paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are developed with relevant detail, and the personal, enthusiastic tone is well suited to a close friend.
Use a consistently informal closing rather than the more formal ‘Yours Sincerely.’
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a clear sequence from thanks and refusal to the café, the puppy, and the alternative invitation.
Separate the refusal, personal news, and invitation to Australia into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of natural vocabulary, including ‘run down,’ ‘historic beach house,’ and ‘adopted a puppy.’
Check fixed expressions and time phrases so forms such as ‘in months’ and ‘three months ago’ are consistently idiomatic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses varied sentence structures successfully, but several errors occur with articles, plurals, tense, and clause boundaries.
Proofread for missing articles and plural endings, and separate or link clauses correctly in the sentence about Spotty.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A friend who lives in another country has invited to you come and stay with him/her on your next holiday. You are too busy to accept the invitation. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- Thank him/her for the invitation
- Explain why you cannot come
- Give him/her your other news
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.