Your English-speaking friend has asked for your help with a college project he/she is doing about celebrating New Year in different countries. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - say how important New Year is to people in your country - describe how New Year is celebrated in your country - explain what you like about New Year celebrations in your country
Sample Response
Dear James,
I hope you're doing wellexcellent. I’m delighted to help with your college project about New Year celebrationson the topic 'New Year celebrations', and I'm so happy that you wrote to me about itthat.
In my country, New Yearthe New Year is one of the most significant events of the year, marking a fresh start filled with hope and aspirations. Many people see it as an opportunity to set personal and professional goals, making it a time of great enthusiasm and positivity.
New Year’s Eve is typically celebrated with grand fireworks displays, lively street parties, and family gatherings. In major cities, such as London, thousands of people gather along the River Thames to witness the iconic fireworks at midnight. Many also host private parties, at which friends and familywhere friends and family toast the arrival of the new year with champagne. Additionally, it is customary to sing Auld Lang Syne, a traditional song symbolising friendship and nostalgia.
What I love most about New Year’s celebrations here is the incredible sense of unity and joy. Regardless of their backgroundRegardless of background, people come together to embrace new beginnings, which creates an atmosphere of hope and excitement. New Year is one of my favourite times of the year.This is one of my favourite times of the year.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you need more details.
Warm wishes,
Henry
Why this response received Band 8.0
This is a well-developed, engaging letter that addresses every part of the request with specific cultural detail and a consistently warm tone. The main limitation is minor rather than structural: a few expressions sound slightly unnatural or more formal than necessary for a close friend. The best improvement is to make the opening and some abstract wording more conversational while retaining the strong detail and organisation.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully covers the importance, customs, and personal appeal of New Year celebrations with relevant, well-developed detail and an appropriate friendly purpose.
Add one brief personal example of a family tradition to make the response even more individually engaging for the friend.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing is purposeful, progression is clear, and cohesive devices guide the reader smoothly without becoming mechanical.
Strengthen the link between the general description of celebrations and the personal-preference paragraph with a more explicitly personal transition.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and precise, particularly in the descriptions of celebrations, shared feeling, and new beginnings, with only slight over-formality.
Replace a few abstract expressions with more conversational wording that better matches an informal letter to a friend.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence structures is used accurately and fluently, with only rare non-impeding slips such as “doing excellent.”
Use the adverb in “doing excellently,” or more naturally “doing well,” and check similarly fixed conversational expressions.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your English-speaking friend has asked for your help with a college project he/she is doing about celebrating New Year in different countries. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- say how important New Year is to people in your country
- describe how New Year is celebrated in your country
- explain what you like about New Year celebrations in your country
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.