You recently enjoyed a meal at a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, and you were very pleased with the food and service. Write a letter to the restaurant manager. In your letter: - give details of your visit to the restaurant - mention the reason for the celebration - say what was good about the food and the service
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to you to express my satisfaction with the excellent service and high quality of food that your restaurant provided us last Sunday, on the occasion of my 30th birthday. We were a party of fifteen, which included my family, close friends and colleagues from work. Your staff went out of their way to provide seating arrangements that were easily accessible. The waiters were extremely professional, polite and obviously experienced as they did not encroach too much on the proceeding. Your current menu offers plenty of choices, as does your wine list, and everything was available. We were very pleased with the quality and quantity of the dishes served. I ordered the rack or mutton ribs, which was deliciously succulent and, if anything, maybe slightly too large! Nevertheless, we managed to finish it. I was similarly impressed with the variety of local and international wines you served. The wine that was ordered arrived at the correct temperature that each wine should be consumed. The waiters were familiar with the etiquette, and the service was paramount. All in all, our group enjoyed a delicious meal at your establishment, and I had a very happy birthday. Thank you once again. Yours faithfully,
Denis Brian
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Correct word choice Original: encroach too much on the proceeding Suggested revision: intrude too much on the proceedings Why it matters: ‘Intrude on the proceedings’ accurately describes staff avoiding disruption to the occasion.
- 2. Correct the phrase Original: rack or mutton ribs Suggested revision: rack of mutton ribs Why it matters: The preposition ‘of’ is required to name the dish.
- 3. Correct meaning Original: service was paramount Suggested revision: service was excellent Why it matters: ‘Paramount’ means most important, not exceptionally good, so it does not express the intended praise.
- 4. Tighten modifier Original: which included Suggested revision: including Why it matters: ‘Including’ connects the list to the party size more directly.
- 5. Remove redundancy Original: colleagues from work Suggested revision: colleagues Why it matters: The word ‘colleagues’ already indicates people known through work.
- 6. Use concise wording Original: seating arrangements that were easily accessible Suggested revision: easily accessible seating Why it matters: The revision expresses the same detail more economically.
- 7. Avoid unsupported adverb Original: obviously experienced Suggested revision: clearly experienced Why it matters: ‘Clearly’ links the judgement more naturally to the observed professional service.
- 8. Use balanced description Original: deliciously succulent Suggested revision: succulent and delicious Why it matters: The coordinated adjectives sound more natural than using ‘deliciously’ as an intensifier.
- 9. Separate key functions Suggested revision: Divide the body into short paragraphs for the visit and celebration, the food, and the service. Why it matters: Clear paragraph boundaries would make the three requested areas easier for the manager to follow.
- 10. Group service details Suggested revision: Move the later comment about waiter etiquette beside the earlier description of the staff. Why it matters: Keeping related service observations together would improve cohesion and reduce topic switching.
Suggested Rewrites
- encroach too much on the proceeding intrude too much on the proceedings
- rack or mutton ribs rack of mutton ribs
- service was paramount service was excellent
- which included including
- colleagues from work colleagues
- seating arrangements that were easily accessible easily accessible seating
Why this response received Band 7.5
This is a warm, appropriately formal letter that fully explains the birthday visit and gives vivid, specific praise for both the meal and the staff. The main weakness is occasional imprecise or unnatural phrasing, while the limited paragraphing slightly reduces readability. The best improvement would be to divide the account into clear stages and refine collocations when describing the service and wine temperature.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Detailed feedback by IELTS writing criterion after the annotated essay.
Task Achievement
The letter clearly identifies the visit and celebration and develops detailed, relevant praise of both the food and service in a suitable tone.
Maintain this level of coverage while making the closing slightly more purposeful, for example by stating that the writer hopes to return.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses clearly from the occasion and guests to service, food, wine, and an effective conclusion, though the body is not divided into paragraphs.
Separate the visit details, service comments, and food-and-wine evaluation into short paragraphs to make the progression easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and often precise, with effective choices such as 'succulent' and 'went out of their way', but a few expressions are inaccurate or unnatural.
Replace awkward combinations such as 'encroach too much on the proceeding' and 'the service was paramount' with natural, context-specific phrasing.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response shows flexible control of complex sentences, with only occasional errors or awkward constructions that do not impede meaning.
Refine relative clauses and preposition use, particularly the sentence about wine arriving at the correct serving temperature.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently enjoyed a meal at a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, and you were very pleased with the food and service. Write a letter to the restaurant manager. In your letter:
- give details of your visit to the restaurant
- mention the reason for the celebration
- say what was good about the food and the service
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.