Your parents will celebrate their 40th anniversary next month. You are planning a big celebration and want help making it memorable. Write to a friend who is a professional event planner. In your letter: - explain why the occasion is special - ask for your friend's assistance - set up a convenient time to meet and discuss your plans
Sample Response
Dear Amelia, Hope you are doing fine. It was so delightful to hear that you had a memorable tour in Europe, and I'm sure that would revive you to the fullest. I'm writing to seek your advice regarding my plan to celebrate my parents 40th marriage anniversary. I'm sure you can help me make this a grand celebration. Spending 40 years together is a great reason to celebrate and my parents have shown a true testament of what a marriage really is and I am absolutely blessed to be a part of this remarkable family. 4 decades with blessing, love, affection, true commitment and care is absolutely remarkable. I only wish I would be that fortunate! As I want to make this event unforgettable, I need your help. The 40th anniversary, also known as the ruby anniversary, should be a joyous occasion filled with family and friends who’ve been a part of your lives over the years. I know how famous you are for making such an occasion a success and despite some superficial ideas, I am not sure how to make arrangements for such a monumental occasion which is on 24th March. I hope you can meet me someday to discuss and finalise the planning. I can come over to your office to have the conversation at your convenience. Do inform me when you can meet. Hope to meet you soon. Warm wishes, Karina
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Complete the greeting Original: Hope you are doing fine Suggested revision: I hope you are doing well Why it matters: Adding the subject makes the greeting grammatically complete while retaining the friendly tone.
- 2. Add the possessive Original: my parents 40th Suggested revision: my parents' 40th Why it matters: The plural possessive apostrophe shows that the anniversary belongs to both parents.
- 3. Use the standard term Original: marriage Suggested revision: wedding Why it matters: “Wedding anniversary” is the established expression for marking years of marriage.
- 4. Correct the opening phrase Original: 4 decades with blessing Suggested revision: Four decades filled with blessings Why it matters: A sentence should begin with the written number, and “blessings” is naturally plural here.
- 5. Use a future hope Original: I only wish I would be Suggested revision: I only hope I will be Why it matters: The writer is expressing a possible future hope rather than an unreal present wish.
- 6. Describe attendance naturally Original: filled Suggested revision: shared Why it matters: An occasion is naturally “shared with” the people who attend it.
- 7. Correct the pronoun Original: your Suggested revision: their Why it matters: The family and friends belong to the parents' lives, so the third-person possessive is required.
- 8. Use professional praise Original: famous you are for making such an occasion a success Suggested revision: well known you are for making events successful Why it matters: The revision praises the friend's event-planning ability more naturally and concisely.
- 9. Clarify the planning stage Original: despite some superficial ideas Suggested revision: although I have some initial ideas Why it matters: “Initial ideas” accurately describes early plans without suggesting they are shallow.
- 10. Use concise wording Original: make arrangements for Suggested revision: plan Why it matters: “Plan the occasion” expresses the intended action directly.
- 11. Punctuate the added detail Original: occasion which is on Suggested revision: occasion, which will take place on Why it matters: The non-defining date clause needs a comma and a future verb.
- 12. Use the natural object Original: planning Suggested revision: plans Why it matters: People finalise specific plans rather than “the planning”.
Suggested Rewrites
- Hope you are doing fine I hope you are doing well
- my parents 40th my parents' 40th
- marriage wedding
- 4 decades with blessing Four decades filled with blessings
- I only wish I would be I only hope I will be
- filled shared
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its enthusiastic, well-developed explanation of why the anniversary matters and why the friend’s professional help is valued. Its main limitation is repetition about the significance of forty years, while the meeting arrangement remains vague. The highest-priority improvement is to make the planning request more practical by proposing a specific date and time and trimming material that does not advance the purpose.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response addresses all three bullet points in an appropriate friendly register, but the proposed meeting is left entirely at the recipient’s convenience.
Offer one or two specific meeting times and briefly identify the planning areas in which assistance is needed.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress clearly from the occasion’s importance to the need for help and a meeting, although some opening material and repeated celebration details reduce focus.
Remove the unrelated reference to the European tour and combine repetitive points about the forty-year marriage.
Lexical Resource
The response displays a broad vocabulary suited to celebration and event planning, with occasional awkward collocations and imprecise choices.
Use more natural wording, such as 'refreshing' instead of 'revive you to the fullest' and 'a testament to their marriage' instead of 'a testament of'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A variety of complex sentences is handled with generally good control, though possessives, conditionals, and some long clause combinations contain errors.
Correct forms such as 'my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary' and 'I only hope I will be that fortunate', and divide overloaded sentences.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Your parents will celebrate their 40th anniversary next month. You are planning a big celebration and want help making it memorable. Write to a friend who is a professional event planner. In your letter:
- explain why the occasion is special
- ask for your friend's assistance
- set up a convenient time to meet and discuss your plans
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.