You play a team sport with some friends. Last week a member of the team had an accident and wasn’t able to play with you at the weekend. You decide to write to him in hospital, telling him about the match. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - Tell him which team won - Describe the conditions on the day - Say how you felt about the match
Sample Response
Dear Parthiban,
I hope you feel better now in hospital and we are carrying on well with our friends. I’m delighted to express my feelings about our victory at the last tournament match in this letter.
First of all, I’d say that it was an unexpected victory for our Chennai team during our last district tournament cricket match conducted at Chepauk stadium with the Trichy team. Despite 5 wickets from 2 overs, our team played vigorously from the third over and scored unbelievable runs at last. Besides, our opponent team Trichy also played equally to get a good score. However, Krishna from our Chennai team scored 36 runs in a single over, which was the most surprising moment for every audience in the stadium.
Finally, we won our dream competition with a score of 150/10 which breaks the previous year record. As you know, we felt very happy about this success. However, we missed your presence in the stadium. I strongly say that our success would have been easier if you had played in our team.
Expecting to meet you soon with our friends.
Kind regards,
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Fix the verb phrase Original: feel better now in hospital Suggested revision: are feeling better in hospital Why it matters: The progressive form is natural when asking about a friend's current recovery.
- 2. Use a natural expression Original: carrying Suggested revision: getting Why it matters: 'Getting on well' is the appropriate expression for how the group is doing.
- 3. Make the purpose direct Original: express my feelings about our victory at the last tournament match in this letter Suggested revision: tell you how I felt about our victory in the latest tournament match Why it matters: The revised phrase sounds natural in an informal letter and states the purpose directly.
- 4. Clarify the match event Original: Despite 5 wickets from 2 overs Suggested revision: Despite losing five wickets in the first two overs Why it matters: The original phrase omits who lost the wickets and does not form a clear concession.
- 5. Choose a natural collocation Original: vigorously Suggested revision: strongly Why it matters: 'Played strongly' is a more natural description of the team's performance.
- 6. Clarify the result Original: scored unbelievable runs at last Suggested revision: eventually scored an impressive total Why it matters: This phrasing clearly describes the team's eventual score without the unnatural plural expression.
- 7. Fix the team reference Original: our opponent team Trichy Suggested revision: our opponents, Trichy, Why it matters: The plural noun and commas correctly introduce the opposing team's name.
- 8. Use the correct comparison Original: played equally Suggested revision: played just as well Why it matters: 'Just as well' correctly compares Trichy's performance with Chennai's.
- 9. Improve the collocation Original: get Suggested revision: achieve Why it matters: 'Achieve a score' is more natural and precise in this context.
- 10. Use a countable reference Original: every audience Suggested revision: everyone in the audience Why it matters: 'Audience' is a collective group, so individual spectators are referred to as everyone in it.
- 11. Name the event naturally Original: our dream competition Suggested revision: our important match Why it matters: 'Dream competition' is not a natural expression for the match the team hoped to win.
- 12. Keep the past tense Original: breaks Suggested revision: broke Why it matters: The record was broken during a completed match, so the past tense is required.
Suggested Rewrites
- feel better now in hospital are feeling better in hospital
- carrying getting
- express my feelings about our victory at the last tournament match in this letter tell you how I felt about our victory in the latest tournament match
- Despite 5 wickets from 2 overs Despite losing five wickets in the first two overs
- vigorously strongly
- scored unbelievable runs at last eventually scored an impressive total
Why this response received Band 6.0
The letter gives a lively account of the result and communicates genuine excitement while acknowledging the absent friend. However, it does not describe the conditions on the day, so a major part of the task remains unaddressed, and some sporting expressions are imprecise. The most important improvement is to include clear details about the weather or playing conditions before polishing grammar and collocation.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The winner and the writer's feelings are clear and developed, but the required description of the day's conditions is missing.
Add specific information about the weather, pitch, or other playing conditions and maintain a consistently natural tone for a friend.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows a generally clear sequence from greeting to match account and reaction, though connectors are sometimes mechanical or imprecise.
Organize the match description around the three bullet points and use fewer formulaic transitions such as 'First of all' and 'Finally'.
Lexical Resource
There is sufficient sporting vocabulary and some less common language, but collocations such as 'played equally' and 'every audience' are inaccurate.
Use natural match-reporting phrases, for example 'played equally well', 'the spectators', and 'broke last year's record'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response uses a range of sentence forms, but frequent errors in tense, articles, prepositions, and agreement reduce accuracy without obscuring the message.
Check tense consistency when recounting the match and revise noun phrases and relative clauses for accurate agreement and article use.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You play a team sport with some friends. Last week a member of the team had an accident and wasn’t able to play with you at the weekend. You decide to write to him in hospital, telling him about the match. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- Tell him which team won
- Describe the conditions on the day
- Say how you felt about the match
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.