You have recently been to stay with an old friend for a few days. You haven't seen each other for a long time and was happy to meet him/her. Now write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - say how you felt about the visit refer to something enjoyable that you did while staying with him/her - invite your friend to visit you
Sample Response
Dear Jonathon, I'm writing to thank you very muchprofoundly thank you for a wonderful stay at your placea really delightful trip to your place. It was great to see you after such a long timeafter a long and to be able to spend some quality time with you and your wife Emily. I am writing to invite you both to visit mevisit my house next summer. Now that I'm back home, I keep thinking about how time does fly. Our school days seemseems as if they were only a few months agojust a few months ago! I was delighted to be with you as it reminded me of how close we were during our school days. Please also thank EmilyI should also thank Emily for being such an excellent host. The trip was a memorable one and I particularly enjoyed our visit to the Bonajuma Beachbeach where I hadspent a really pleasant time. The peaceful atmosphereThe tranquillity and the harmony of the area made a strong impression on mewon my heart. Thank you for taking me there. Perhaps you can come and visit me during the first week of the summer vacationduring the summer vacation. There are plenty of places we can go and my parents would really love to see you. We will have fun and enjoy our time together. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Warm wishes, Alison Cambell
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter warmly fulfils its purpose by thanking the friend, recalling an enjoyable beach visit, and extending a clear invitation, so the message feels friendly and complete. Its main weakness is the single dense paragraph, alongside awkwardly formal phrases and recurring grammatical slips; divide the ideas into clear paragraphs, use simpler natural language, and make the invitation more specific.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter thanks the friend, describes feelings about the visit, mentions an enjoyable beach trip, and invites the friend to visit. The response is friendly and complete, though the invitation could include more specific timing or plans.
Add a clearer invitation with suggested dates and one or two activities you will arrange.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses naturally, but the whole response is in one block and several ideas are crowded together.
Create separate paragraphs for thanks, memories of the visit, and the invitation.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is warm and varied, but some word choices are unnatural or too formal for a close friend, such as profoundly thank and tranquillity and harmony.
Use natural friendly language and avoid overly literary phrases unless they add clear meaning.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear, but errors with missing words, subject-verb agreement, articles, and prepositions occur throughout.
Proofread short phrases for missing nouns and agreement, especially after time expressions and plural subjects.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have recently been to stay with an old friend for a few days. You haven't seen each other for a long time and was happy to meet him/her. Now write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- say how you felt about the visit refer to something enjoyable that you did while staying with him/her
- invite your friend to visit you
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.