You are a member of an International Students' club. The club is organising an event to celebrate popular food from around the world. Write a letter to the event organiser, Luis. In your letter: - offer to make a popular dish from your country - describe what this dish is - explain why it should be included in the event
Same question Compare 2 different answersSample Response
Dear Luis,
I am excited about the upcoming international food event and would like to thank you for organising it. I would love to contribute to this event by preparing a famous dish from China called Peking Duck.
As you might already know, Peking Duck is one of China’s most iconic and celebrated dishes, originating from Beijing. It features crispy, golden-brown roasted duck served with thin pancakes, spring onions, cucumber, and a rich hoisin sauce. The combination of textures and flavours - crispy skin, tender meat, and sweet-savoury sauce - makes it a truly unforgettable dish. Traditionally, it is prepared using a special roasting technique that enhances its flavour and ensures a perfect crunch.
I believe Peking Duck would be an excellent addition to the event because it represents China’s rich culinary heritage and is widely loved around the world. It would provide attendees with an authentic taste of Chinese cuisine and add diversity to the selection of dishes at the event. Please let me know if I can go ahead with this contribution.
Looking forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
Chen Hao
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use formal wording Original: would love to contribute to this event Suggested revision: would be delighted to contribute to the event Why it matters: This phrasing is slightly more polished for a letter to an event organiser.
- 2. Choose precise wording Original: famous Suggested revision: celebrated Why it matters: “Celebrated” better conveys the dish’s cultural significance in this context.
- 3. Remove redundancy Original: most iconic and celebrated dishes Suggested revision: most iconic dishes Why it matters: “Iconic” already conveys that the dish is widely celebrated.
- 4. Fix dash punctuation Original: flavours - crispy Suggested revision: flavours—crispy Why it matters: An em dash without surrounding spaces correctly introduces the explanatory list.
- 5. Reduce promotional tone Original: truly unforgettable dish Suggested revision: distinctive dish Why it matters: This wording is more measured while preserving the positive description.
- 6. Clarify the texture Original: ensures a perfect crunch Suggested revision: gives the skin a crisp texture Why it matters: The revision identifies exactly which part of the dish becomes crisp.
- 7. Avoid wordiness Original: widely loved around the world Suggested revision: popular worldwide Why it matters: The shorter phrase avoids repeating the same idea through both “widely” and “around the world”.
- 8. Use concise wording Original: go ahead with this contribution Suggested revision: proceed with this contribution Why it matters: “Proceed” expresses the request for approval more concisely.
- 9. Sentence rewrite Original: Looking forward to your response. Suggested revision: I look forward to your response. Why it matters: The original is a sentence fragment because it lacks an explicit subject and finite verb.
Suggested Rewrites
- would love to contribute to this event would be delighted to contribute to the event
- famous celebrated
- most iconic and celebrated dishes most iconic dishes
- flavours - crispy flavours—crispy
- truly unforgettable dish distinctive dish
- ensures a perfect crunch gives the skin a crisp texture
Why this response received Band 8.5
The letter fully addresses the request with an engaging, precise description of Peking Duck, and its strongest feature is the natural integration of cultural significance with sensory detail. Its only notable limitation is a slight reliance on polished generalities rather than practical event detail; the best refinement would be to add one brief, concrete point about how the dish would be prepared or served at the event.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and all three bullet points are fully and convincingly developed in an appropriately warm, polite register.
As a final refinement, add a practical detail about preparing or serving the dish at the event.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses smoothly from the offer to the description and justification, with clear paragraphing and unobtrusive cohesion.
Make the closing request connect even more directly to the proposed contribution by briefly confirming the next logistical step.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied, precise, and natural, especially in the vivid description of the dish and its cultural value.
Replace one or two familiar evaluative phrases such as "truly unforgettable" with a more specific, personal observation.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence structures is used accurately and flexibly, with virtually no grammatical impediments.
Maintain this control while adding one concise conditional or modal sentence about the event arrangements.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are a member of an International Students' club. The club is organising an event to celebrate popular food from around the world. Write a letter to the event organiser, Luis. In your letter:
- offer to make a popular dish from your country
- describe what this dish is
- explain why it should be included in the event
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.