You have a friend who has always liked the car you currently drive. Now you have decided to sell the car. You think your friend might be interested in buying it. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - say why you want to sell your car - describe the condition of the car - invite the friend to come and see the car himself/herself someday
Sample Response
Dear Mike, I haven’t heard from you in a while. So, how are you? By the way, do you still like my car? Well, I'm asking because I'm actually planning to sell my current car, which you've always liked, and I thought that I'd rather sell it to you instead of some strangers.
I've decided to purchase an SUVSUV car as I frequently need to travelneed to frequently travel to my grandmother's house where the roads are a bit bumpy. So I am sellingSo I would sell my current sedansedan car and buy an SUVgo for an SUV. With regard to the car I want to sell, it's still in good condition, even though I've driven it for almost two2 years. In fact, its engine still runs smoothlyengine is still very smooth, and starts very quietlywith almost no sound when it starts, while its air conditioning system is also in excellent conditionvery much intact. Besides, you'll hardly find any scratchesscratch on its shiny exterior. And as for its interior, I have recently replaced all the seat coverschanged all the seat covers of my car, so it essentially looks like new. I guess that you've already got a good ideasome sort of ideas about the condition of my car from my description, but if you're really interested in buyinginterested to buy this car, please drop byplease better drop by my house sometime next week and see the car yourself. Warm wishes, Anderson
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter has a clear friendly purpose and develops all three requirements convincingly, especially the detailed account of the car’s condition and the specific invitation for the following week. Its main limitation is a cluster of unnatural expressions and some unnecessary repetition of car. The priority is to retain the warm tone while using more idiomatic phrases for vehicle type, condition, purchase interest, and the invitation.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully developed, and the warm informal tone is well suited to writing to a friend.
Make the invitation slightly more direct by suggesting a particular day or asking which day next week would suit the friend.
Coherence and Cohesion
The reason for selling, the car’s condition, and the invitation follow a logical progression, though the long second paragraph could be grouped more clearly.
Separate the condition details from the invitation so each main communicative purpose has its own paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and vivid enough for the informal purpose, but phrases such as SUV car, engine is smooth, and some sort of ideas are not fully natural.
Prefer idiomatic wording such as an SUV, the engine runs quietly, hardly a scratch, and a good idea of the car’s condition.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of sentence forms is handled with generally good control, despite occasional errors in verb patterns and modal phrasing.
Correct forms such as interested in buying and drop by, and avoid constructions such as please better and I would sell when stating a firm plan.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have a friend who has always liked the car you currently drive. Now you have decided to sell the car. You think your friend might be interested in buying it. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- say why you want to sell your car
- describe the condition of the car
- invite the friend to come and see the car himself/herself someday
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.