You went to another city for a training course and stayed at a friend's house for a week. They have been great hosts. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - thank them for having you at their house for a week - express your gratitude for their hospitality - say how much you miss them
Sample Response
Dear Robert, I hopeDear Robert, Hope all is well with youat your end. I'm also carrying on well with my life and workworks. DeleteAnyway, I just wanted to let you know how gratefulgrateful and thankful I really am for allowing me to stay at your house for athe whole week so I could attendin order to help me attend the training course last monthin the last month. As you know,After all, it would have been really difficult for me to find another suitable place on such short notice since I was informed about the training programme only a few daysonly just a few days before the start of the training. I'm also very gratefulvery much grateful for the kind and generous hospitality that waswere shown to me by your entire family. I especially enjoyed my afternoon afternoon snackssnack time with your whole family after returning from my training. Besides, I also liked how you took me fishingto do fishing at a nearby lake during the weekend and made a video of itwhile making a video of it. In fact, during that one-week stayone week of stay at your place, I very much felt like a part of your great family, so it is no wonder thatno wonder that I miss all of you now that I have leftmiss all of you after leaving your city. Please send my gratitude to everyone in your family. Warm wishes, Thomas
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully addresses the purpose in a warm, personal tone, giving clear thanks and specific memories that make the gratitude convincing. Its main weakness is presentation: the entire message sits in one long paragraph, while a few redundant or awkward expressions and small grammatical slips reduce polish. Organise the ideas into short paragraphs and make the final statement about missing the family more direct and personal.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter thanks the friend, describes hospitality, and says the writer misses them. The informal purpose is achieved well.
Make the “I miss you” point more direct and personal near the end.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is warm and coherent, but one long paragraph weakens organisation.
Use paragraphs for thanks, hospitality details, memories, and missing the family.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and friendly, though some phrases are redundant or unnatural.
Avoid double expressions such as “grateful and thankful”.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
There is a range of sentence forms, but errors with prepositions, plural nouns, and agreement appear.
Check agreement with abstract nouns and gerund phrases after “go”.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You went to another city for a training course and stayed at a friend's house for a week. They have been great hosts. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- thank them for having you at their house for a week
- express your gratitude for their hospitality
- say how much you miss them
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.