You want to sell some of your furniture. You think a friend of yours might like to buy it from you. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - explain why you are selling - describe the furniture - suggest a date - when your friend can come and see the furniture
Sample Response
Dear Rajib, I hope you are doing wellHope you are doing great. I'm writing to let you know that I have decided to sell some of my furniture. I am movingI will move to a new city soon and my new apartment is not big enough to accommodate all my furnitureall of my furniture. I thought you might be interested in buyinginterested to buy some of the furniture I plan to sellI have planned to sell. You know that I've recently been transferred to Rajshahi. It's great news for me because I have wantedwished to live there for a long timefor a long. However, there's a problem: thethere's a problem- the new flat is smaller than my current one and I will need to sell some of my furniture. More specifically, I want to sell my dining set and sofamy dining and sofa set. Last month, you came to my house foron the occasion of my younger daughter's birthday. I remember you inquiring about the dining table and the sofa set and I thought you might want to buy themwant to have those. Nevertheless, it's a large dining table including six chairs made of mahogany wood. Besides, the sofa I own is a modern fabric Scandinavian sofa set that was placed in my living room. I would rather sell the furniture to someone I know than to a strangersomeone whom I know than an unknown person, and I'm willing to offer a reasonable price. You can come anytime you want and inspect the furniture. If you feel that they are perfect for you, you can buy themthose. Don't worry about the price. That's all for nowNo more today, I hope to speak to you soonspeak to you soon. Warm wishes, Rahim
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter has a clear, friendly purpose and gives useful detail about the move and both furniture sets. Its main limitation is that it invites the friend to visit at any time instead of suggesting the requested date, while some repetition and awkward phrasing reduce precision. The highest priority is to give a specific day and time and organize the explanation, descriptions, and visit arrangement into distinct paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and informal tone are appropriate, and the reasons and furniture are developed, but no specific viewing date is suggested.
Propose a definite day and time for Rajib to inspect the furniture so that every prompt requirement is fully addressed.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a broadly logical sequence, although repetition and the absence of clear paragraph breaks make the letter less streamlined.
Use separate paragraphs for the reason for selling, the furniture description, and the proposed viewing arrangement.
Lexical Resource
A good range of specific vocabulary, including references to mahogany and Scandinavian furniture, is weakened by several awkward collocations.
Improve natural word combinations such as 'interested in buying' and use pronouns like 'them' instead of repeatedly referring to items as 'those.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied complex sentences are generally well controlled, with only occasional errors in verb patterns, tense choice, and punctuation.
Check verb complements and time expressions, particularly forms such as 'interested in buying' and 'have wanted to live there for a long time.'
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You want to sell some of your furniture. You think a friend of yours might like to buy it from you. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- explain why you are selling
- describe the furniture
- suggest a date
- when your friend can come and see the furniture
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.