You have stayed at a friend’s house last weekend and forgot your watch there. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - thank him/her for the hospitality - describe your watch and say where you could have left it - suggest a way how to get it back
Sample Response
Dear Harish, I hope this letter finds you in good health. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for my stay at your home in Adelaide last weekend. I had a pleasant time thereover there and I can not thank you enough for the genuine hospitality you showed mehospitality you have offered me. Adelaide is an interesting place for shopping and a diverse range of shopping malls are located there. I bought a brand-newbrand new Rolex wristwatch for my wife from Rundle Street Shopping CentreRundle street shopping centre with her upcoming birthday in mindkeeping her approaching birthday in mind. I was particularly attractedwas actually tempted by the attractive brown strapfascinating brown colour strap and square-shaped dial. The dial has Roman numeralsroman numbers too. I am very excited about it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it in my luggage when I got back to Sydney. I remember keeping it in your living room—probablyliving room- probably in a drawer of the large table. I want to gift it to my wife on her birthday next week and surprise her. However, this willcan be possible only if you go to the troubletake the burden to send it to my address. Actually, James Brown, one of my colleagues,James Brown - one of my colleagues, is travelling to Sydney from Adelaidefrom your place this weekend. I can request him to collect it from your house. He lives just a couple of miles away from your apartment. I will pass your address and contact number to him. I think you can hand it over to him without any trouble. I hope to see you soon in Sydney. Warm wishes, Navaretta
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter successfully addresses every bullet point with a friendly, appropriate tone, giving a precise watch description, a plausible location, and a practical collection arrangement. Its main limitation is presentation as one dense paragraph, compounded by a few awkward expressions and minor grammatical slips. The highest-priority improvement is to divide the letter into clear functional paragraphs and replace unnatural phrases with simpler, idiomatic wording.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is fully achieved, with all three bullet points clearly and appropriately developed in a friendly register.
Keep the supporting shopping detail slightly more concise so the request and retrieval arrangement remain the central focus.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically from thanks to description, location, and collection, but the entire letter is presented as one dense paragraph.
Use separate paragraphs for the opening thanks, the watch and likely location, and the proposed collection plan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally precise, particularly when describing the watch and collection arrangements, despite several unnatural collocations.
Replace awkward phrases such as approaching birthday and take the burden with natural alternatives such as upcoming birthday and arrange to send it.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses a broad range of mostly accurate sentence structures, with occasional agreement, capitalization, punctuation, and phrasing errors.
Proofread subject-verb agreement, proper nouns, parenthetical punctuation, and constructions such as this will be possible rather than this can be possible.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have stayed at a friend’s house last weekend and forgot your watch there. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- thank him/her for the hospitality
- describe your watch and say where you could have left it
- suggest a way how to get it back
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.