You have recently stayed with an old friend for a few days after not seeing each other for a long time. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - say how you felt about the visit - refer to something enjoyable that you did while staying with him/her - invite your friend to visit you
Sample Response
Dear Kumar, It was wonderful to see youIt's been an incredible experience to have met you in Goa after a long hiatusDelete, probably after half a decade. The week we spent together seems to have vanished in no time. I am writing to thank you for an amazing time and your hospitality during the trip and would like to invite you to my house. The whole week was absolutely awesome. In particular, the trip to George Town willwould remain etched in my memory forever. That evening we had a fabulous dinner at the Mughal Taj and this was the best meal I have had in a decade. I wish I could make time stopmake the time stop! Apart from this, I’d also like to expressgive my sincere gratitude to your wife who was an excellent hostwho had been an excellent host during the trip. As you mentionedAs you have mentioned, you have a plan to attend a seminar organised by the Indian Federation Association in Delhi next July. Accordingly, I’d love you to be my guest and stay with my family. This would give me an opportunity to spend some time with you and welcome you into our homehave you in our house. Warm wishes, Neeraj
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response warmly fulfils the social purpose, develops a memorable shared experience, and extends a clear invitation with useful context. Its main weakness is that some sophisticated wording and tense choices sound more formal or less natural than they would in a letter to a close friend, while the single-block presentation limits readability. Prioritise a consistently conversational register and clearer paragraph divisions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully addressed with a clear sense of enjoyment, a specific shared outing, and a well-developed invitation.
Keep the informal relationship more consistently visible by expressing thanks and the invitation in simpler, friendlier language.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content follows a logical sequence from reflection on the visit to a highlight, additional thanks, and the return invitation.
Divide the response into short paragraphs for the visit, enjoyable memory, and invitation rather than presenting it as one continuous block.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and expressive, although phrases such as “give my sincere gratitude” are overly formal or collocationally awkward.
Choose more natural informal expressions, for example “please thank your wife for being such a wonderful host.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A good range of sentence forms is handled clearly, but several tense and phrasing choices are imprecise despite not obstructing meaning.
Use past forms consistently for the completed visit and reserve future forms for the planned return visit.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have recently stayed with an old friend for a few days after not seeing each other for a long time. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- say how you felt about the visit
- refer to something enjoyable that you did while staying with him/her
- invite your friend to visit you
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.