Last month you had a holiday overseas where you stayed with some friends. They have just sent you some photos of your holiday. Write a letter to your friends. In your letter: - thank them for the photos and for the holiday - explain why you didn't - write earlier - invite them to come and stay with you
Sample Response
Dear David, James & Ethan, Hope you all are doing great. I cannot express how much I enjoyed my time with you guys, and how terribly I miss those days that I spent with you. I received your letter yesterday and was quite surprised to find some of the best pictures we took during our holiday in Singapore. I guess this is the best opportunity to thank you for a great holiday and the fabulous pictures that would remind me of a grand tour to Singapore. As soon as I got back to Australia, I got busy with my thesis paper that I am supposed to submit before the end of the current semester. This is my last semester at the university and I will be free for a while after that and I would love to have you at my place. Why don't you all come and visit me at the end of this December? I am sure we will have a magnificent time together. Stay fine and keep in touch. Warm wishes, Alex
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use words in greetings Original: James & Ethan Suggested revision: James and Ethan Why it matters: Writing out the conjunction makes the three-name greeting read more naturally.
- 2. Natural degree expression Original: terribly Suggested revision: much Why it matters: Much is the natural degree word with the verb miss in this context.
- 3. Improve the collocation Original: best Suggested revision: perfect Why it matters: Perfect opportunity is a more natural collocation for expressing thanks.
- 4. Use future reference Original: would remind me Suggested revision: will always remind me Why it matters: Will matches the continuing future effect of photographs that the writer has already received.
- 5. Use a natural phrase Original: grand tour to Singapore Suggested revision: wonderful trip to Singapore Why it matters: Trip to Singapore expresses the intended holiday experience more naturally than grand tour.
- 6. Remove unnecessary determiner Original: end of this December Suggested revision: end of December Why it matters: Month names normally take no demonstrative after the phrase at the end of.
- 7. Natural informal closing Original: Stay fine Suggested revision: Take care Why it matters: Take care is a more idiomatic closing wish in a friendly letter.
- 8. Sentence rewrite Original: Hope you all are doing great. Suggested revision: I hope you are all doing well. Why it matters: Adding the subject creates a complete sentence while retaining the friendly tone.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: This is my last semester at the university and I will be free for a while after that and I would love to have you at my place. Suggested revision: This is my last semester at university, and once it ends, I will be free for a while and would love to have you stay with me. Why it matters: The rewrite reduces repetitive coordination and makes the timing of the invitation clearer.
- 10. Organise the letter Suggested revision: Divide the response into short paragraphs for the thanks, the reason for the delayed reply, and the invitation and closing. Why it matters: Clear paragraphing would make each required purpose easier for the friends to follow.
Suggested Rewrites
- James & Ethan James and Ethan
- terribly much
- best perfect
- would remind me will always remind me
- grand tour to Singapore wonderful trip to Singapore
- end of this December end of December
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter is warm, natural, and fully responsive: it thanks the friends for both the holiday and photographs, explains the delayed reply, and gives a clear invitation with a proposed time. Its main weakness is presentation, as the whole message forms one dense paragraph and a few expressions sound slightly awkward. Divide the ideas into purposeful paragraphs and refine those collocations for a more polished response.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The friendly letter achieves its purpose and develops all three required points with relevant personal detail.
Make the invitation even more concrete by briefly mentioning what the friends could do during their stay.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas progress logically, but the absence of paragraph breaks makes the letter visually dense and weakens its organisation.
Use separate paragraphs for the thanks, the reason for the delay, and the invitation.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and expressive, with only occasional awkward choices such as referring to the trip as a grand tour.
Choose more natural collocations, for example memories of our wonderful trip and at the end of December.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of complex structures is handled accurately, although a sentence fragment and some long coordination remain.
Write a complete opening sentence and split the longest coordinated sentence to improve grammatical control.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Last month you had a holiday overseas where you stayed with some friends. They have just sent you some photos of your holiday. Write a letter to your friends. In your letter:
- thank them for the photos and for the holiday
- explain why you didn't
- write earlier
- invite them to come and stay with you
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.