You had a good meal at a local restaurant with your family. Write a letter to the newspaper. In your letter: - tell the newspaper about the restaurant - describe the meal you had - explain why you think the restaurant is worth visiting
Sample Response
Dear sir or Madam, I am a resident of central Seoul city, South Korea. I am writing to recommend one of the best restaurants I have been to lately. I hope you would write a review of this establishment for more people to learn about this great establishment. It was my birthday and we visited a Korean restaurant on Friday in my town. Personally, I did not expect anything special about it because my originally booked Italian restaurant was cancelled due to some unavoidable reasons. I was feeling a bit gloomy but the Korean restaurant's ambient presence and warm welcome revived my mood. We ordered BBQ and ice-noodles and they served not only an incredibly delicious meal but also offered us the best possible service. Moreover, the restaurant's manager told that most of the ingredients came from organic farms. The noodles tasted celestial and the BBQ was perfectly grilled. The restaurant was a wonderful choice for the celebration on top of its great location. I am convinced that people would love to be there and would find it a pocket-friendly restaurant that serves highly palatable food. It would be a good idea if you recommended the restaurant in your newspaper. Yours faithfully, Jack Seojun
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Capitalise salutation Original: sir Suggested revision: Sir Why it matters: Both titles should be capitalised consistently in a formal salutation.
- 2. Use natural place name Original: central Seoul city Suggested revision: central Seoul Why it matters: Seoul already identifies the city, so city is redundant here.
- 3. Avoid repetition Original: this great establishment Suggested revision: it Why it matters: The pronoun avoids repeating establishment in the same sentence.
- 4. Use correct noun Original: ambient presence Suggested revision: ambience Why it matters: Ambience is the natural noun for the restaurant's atmosphere.
- 5. Use natural term Original: ice-noodles Suggested revision: cold noodles Why it matters: Cold noodles is the natural English term for this dish.
- 6. Fix reporting verb Original: told Suggested revision: explained Why it matters: Tell requires an object, while explained can introduce a that-clause directly.
- 7. Use natural description Original: celestial Suggested revision: excellent Why it matters: Celestial is unnatural for describing the taste of a meal in this context.
- 8. Make request direct Original: It would be a good idea if you recommended Suggested revision: I would appreciate it if you recommended Why it matters: The revision makes the request to the newspaper clearer and appropriately polite.
- 9. Use formal wording Original: have been to lately Suggested revision: have visited recently Why it matters: Visited recently is more concise and suitable for a newspaper letter.
- 10. Use correct future form Original: would Suggested revision: will Why it matters: Will is the natural form after hope when referring to a future action.
- 11. Clarify purpose link Original: for more people to learn about Suggested revision: so that more people can learn about Why it matters: So that expresses the intended purpose more clearly.
- 12. Use natural collocation Original: revived Suggested revision: lifted Why it matters: Lifted my mood is the natural collocation for this positive change.
Suggested Rewrites
- sir Sir
- central Seoul city central Seoul
- this great establishment it
- ambient presence ambience
- ice-noodles cold noodles
- told explained
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter achieves its purpose with an appropriately formal tone, relevant meal details, and persuasive reasons for recommending the restaurant. Its main limitation is presentation and precision: the entire response is one paragraph, the establishment is not clearly identified, and a few expressions are awkward or grammatically inaccurate. Divide the letter into purposeful paragraphs, name or locate the restaurant clearly, and favour natural, precise wording over exaggerated descriptions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are addressed with relevant detail, and the formal tone is generally suitable for a newspaper letter.
Identify the restaurant more specifically and make the requested newspaper action slightly more direct and concrete.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a logical sequence and linking is generally clear, but presenting the whole letter as one paragraph weakens organisation.
Separate the recommendation, meal description, and reasons for visiting into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of descriptive and persuasive vocabulary, though repetition and several unnatural choices reduce precision.
Replace forced expressions such as ambient presence and tasted celestial with natural, specific descriptions of atmosphere and flavour.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentences is generally controlled, but errors in reporting structures, parallelism, and capitalisation remain noticeable.
Correct forms such as the manager told us that and check paired structures such as not only...but also for grammatical balance.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You had a good meal at a local restaurant with your family. Write a letter to the newspaper. In your letter:
- tell the newspaper about the restaurant
- describe the meal you had
- explain why you think the restaurant is worth visiting
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.