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 Joey,
I hope this letter finds you on the mend. I heard about your accident and wanted to drop you a note, hoping it's not too boring for you in hospitaltedious in the hospital.
The match on Saturday was very eventfulquite something. It ended in a 2-all draw, leaving us a bit disheartened. Without you, it felt like something was missing. The real gut-punch came in the last 10 minutes when, out of the blue, they scored the equalising goalanother goal. Watching that ball hit the back of the net was quite a shock.
The weather took its toll too. It was a wet day, and the pitch turned into a muddy mess. By the end, the grass was hardly visible, and we were all slipping and sliding. Everyone was pretty worn ou t.
Once you're ready to go homeOnce you're set to head home, let us know, and we'll arrange for someone to take youarrange someone to bring you to watch the next game. The whole team sends their regards, and we're all hoping for your speedy recovery.
Best wishes,
Charlie.
Why this response received Band 7.5
The response is engaging and easy to follow, with vivid description of the muddy conditions and a warm, convincing voice appropriate for a close teammate. The principal weakness is task fulfilment: the prompt asks which team won, but the letter reports a draw, so that required detail is not supplied. Aligning the stated result with the prompt and naming the winning team should be the first revision priority.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The conditions and feelings are clearly developed in an appropriate informal tone, but the required winning team is not identified because the result is presented as a draw.
State which team won and ensure the surrounding score details consistently support that outcome.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information is organised into purposeful paragraphs and progresses smoothly from concern for the friend through the match, conditions, and future plans.
Make the relationship between the final goal and the announced result completely explicit to strengthen logical continuity.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a flexible and vivid range of natural informal vocabulary, including effective expressions for emotion, weather, and match action.
Retain the lively voice while avoiding minor presentation slips such as the split spelling in "worn ou t".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A varied range of sentence forms is handled with strong control, and the few minor slips do not impede communication.
Check final proofreading details and refine the occasional compressed clause so the grammar remains consistently polished.
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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.