You have arranged to visit a friend in England but an important event at home now means that you must change the dates of the visit. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - explain the important event - apologise for the situation - suggest a new arrangement
This response is estimated at Band 7.0. Can you write a better one?
Write yours and get clear feedback on all four criteria.
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Sample Response
Dear Albert, I hope you are doing fine.Hope you are doing fine. I have been eagerly waiting to meet you in a few days and spend some pleasant time in England. However, my younger sister gave birth to a baby boy two days ago and willwould be staying at our home for around 3 weeks. I am afraid I will have to reschedule my visit to England in early June instead of early May. I have almost finished my preparationspreparation to travel to England and applied for athe visa. If things go as expected, I will get the visa in a week. Despite my anticipation to meet you on 3rd May, my current situation forces me to delay my visitdelay the tour for a month. As this is her first babyMy sister has had her first baby and she is staying with us. We are so happy to have a new babyangel in our family and my presence is quite important for the baby and the mother. I am the only male member of the family and cannot leave my family unsupporteddesert my family while I travel to England. I am so sorry that I cannot visit you as initially planned and it must be hard for you to reschedule everything. I wish I had an alternativeI wish I have had an alternative! I hope to meet youWishing to meet you on 4th June if everything goes smoothly. Take care and have an excellent time ahead. Warm wishes, Jonathon
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter successfully explains the family event, apologises, and proposes a clear alternative date in an appropriately friendly tone. Its effectiveness is reduced by repeated details, one-paragraph organisation, and some melodramatic or grammatically faulty phrasing, so the highest priority is to structure the message into focused paragraphs and express the reason and new arrangement once in concise, natural language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly explains the important event, apologises, and suggests a new date. The informal tone is suitable for a friend, though some explanation is repeated.
Keep the apology and new arrangement, but reduce repeated details about your sister and family duty.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is easy to follow, but one-paragraph formatting and repeated information weaken progression. The new arrangement appears near both the start and end.
Use three paragraphs: reason for postponing, apology, and new arrangement.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and mostly natural, with some awkward or overly dramatic choices such as desert my family and new angel.
Use friendly, idiomatic phrases that fit a personal letter without sounding melodramatic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Most grammar is clear, but there are errors in tense, modality, and clause construction.
Revise conditional and wish structures, especially I wish I had and I hope to meet.