As part of a student social survey project, you are organising a group to visit a historical exhibition in a small town. Write a letter asking for information about the exhibition. In your letter: - ask about the contents of the exhibition - ask for its opening and closing dates - ask whether any discounts are available
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am an A-level student from R.V. College of Arts, Bangalore. As part of the student social survey project, we are planning to visit the historical exhibition being heldthat you are arranging in your town. I am writing to you to seek more details about the exhibition. I understand this is a historical exhibition, but please elucidate on its content, such as, whether this exhibition focuses on any particular period of history, and what the highlights of the exhibition are. Please also inform me how students can benefit from visiting it. Could you also apprise me of the opening and closing dates and daily opening hoursexhibition dates and timings? Could you also let me knowFinally, inform me if it will be closed on weekends Deleteor not. As I mentioned, I am planning this tour for a group of students, so would it be possible for us to get a discount for group bookingsany discount on group booking or perhaps for students? If so, please notify me of the discount we are eligible for. I would be highly obliged if you could provide these details at your earliest convenienceat your earliest so that I can start arranging transport and accommodationmaking the transport and accommodation arrangements. Thank you in advance. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully, Prashant Kaur
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter has a clear formal purpose and requests all the required information with specific, useful detail and a suitably courteous tone. Its main weakness is presentation as one continuous paragraph, compounded by a few overformal or incomplete collocations that make the request less effortless to read. The highest-priority improvement is to group the content into clear paragraphs while retaining the precise questions and professional register.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is fully achieved, with detailed questions about the exhibition content, dates and opening arrangements, and available discounts.
Keep the requests equally specific while making the final request for a reply slightly more concise.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas follow a logical sequence and cohesive referencing is clear, but the absence of paragraph breaks weakens the organisation of the letter.
Separate the introduction, exhibition questions, discount request, and closing into distinct functional paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is wide and precise overall, although “elucidate on its content” and “at your earliest” are awkward or incomplete collocations.
Prefer natural formal phrases such as “provide more details about its content” and “at your earliest convenience”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex sentence forms is used accurately, with only minor punctuation and construction lapses that do not impede meaning.
Remove unnecessary commas around examples and check that embedded questions and request structures remain concise and well balanced.
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
As part of a student social survey project, you are organising a group to visit a historical exhibition in a small town. Write a letter asking for information about the exhibition. In your letter:
- ask about the contents of the exhibition
- ask for its opening and closing dates
- ask whether any discounts are available
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.