One of your friends has asked you to be a partner in his/her new business. Write a letter to reply to your friend's offer. In your letter: - give your opinion of your friend's business idea - tell him/her whether or not you have decided to accept the - offer and explain your reasons for this decision
Sample Response
Dear Joseph, Hope you are doing wellexcellent. I'm sorry I couldn'tI am sorry that I couldn’t write back to you soonerwrite back to you early enough to let you know about my decision about becoming your business partnermy opinion on becoming a business partner of yours. I know that you are really excited about your new business idea of supplying various kinds of raw meatall kinds of raw meats to stores in different citiesin the stores of different cities, but after carefully consideringgiving a lot of consideration to your proposalthis new business idea of yours, I think that it is going to be a little riskier thanriskier than what you would actually like to believe. That said, every businessThen, every business is involves some riskmore or less risky. Since raw meat is perishable,Since raw meat is a perishable item, and as such, you need to be particularly carefulextra cautious about delivering the meatthese raw meats to the stores on time. I am already running my gift shop and I don't have enough money to invest in another business right now. So I don’t think that I can be your business partner at this time. However, I sincerely appreciateBut, I certainly thank you for your kind offer. Wishing you all the best. Warm wishes, Freddie
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response gives a clear, tactful refusal, evaluates the perishable-meat business with relevant delivery risks, and explains the financial reason for declining, so the communicative purpose is fully achieved. Its main limitation is occasional awkward wording and dense single-paragraph organisation; prioritise dividing the opinion, decision, and reasons into clear paragraphs and refining phrases such as “doing well,” “raw meat,” and “however, every business carries risk.”
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter directly evaluates the business idea, clearly declines the partnership, and supports that decision with relevant practical and financial reasons in a suitable tone.
Add a brief constructive suggestion, such as testing deliveries in one city first, to make the response even more helpful to the friend.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response progresses sensibly from the delayed reply through the evaluation and reasons to the refusal, but all content appears in one paragraph and “Then” is a weak transition.
Create separate paragraphs for the business assessment and the personal decision, using “However” to introduce the balancing point about risk.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and precise enough to discuss investment, perishability, delivery, and risk, with a few awkward choices such as “raw meats” and “doing excellent.”
Use natural collocations such as “raw meat,” “doing well,” “supply stores,” and “invest in the venture.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences are generally well controlled and meaning is consistently clear, despite occasional word-form, punctuation, and linking errors.
Revise the greeting to “I hope you are doing well” and avoid combining “Since” with the redundant linker “as such” in the same sentence.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
One of your friends has asked you to be a partner in his/her new business. Write a letter to reply to your friend's offer. In your letter:
- give your opinion of your friend's business idea
- tell him/her whether or not you have decided to accept the
- offer and explain your reasons for this decision
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.