You are going to visit the town where your friend went to university. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - explain why you will be visiting the town - give details of where you will be staying - ask your friend to recommend some evening entertainment
Sample Response
Dear Rony,
Hope you're doing great. I'm planning to take my wife and daughter to Marshville to spend our summer holiday. We'll be visiting this town at the beginning of next monthat the beginning of the next month primarily to enjoy the beautiful hills, and the beach whileand the sea beach while also meeting a distant relative. Since you went to universitywent to the university in this very town, I'm sure you'd be able to give me some local advicehelp me with some information.
We are planning to stay for the first three daysstay the first three days at Hotel Tulip, near the sea beach, and then spend the next two days inat the Martharry area near the town centre. The day before we take our return flight, we'll be visiting ourthe relative at his home near the Hunsberry area. Our main focus during this tour would be to enjoy our holidays as much as possible.
I've done some online research about the places to visit and things to do once we're there. However, Could you recommendI'd request you to recommend some evening activities and entertainment that we may enjoy as a family. I'd also welcome any other tips and recommendations that you might have.
Take care. See you soon.
Best wishesYours truly,
Albert
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter covers every bullet point with clear travel reasons, detailed accommodation plans, and a direct request for family-friendly evening entertainment; its friendly tone is appropriate throughout. The main weakness is occasional awkward or over-formal wording, such as 'the sea beach', 'at the Martharry area', and 'I'd request you'. Prioritise natural prepositions and informal request language while trimming the unnecessary sentence about maximising the holiday.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requested points are clearly addressed with specific detail, and the informal tone suits a letter to a friend.
Clarify the type of accommodation in the Martharry area rather than naming only the area where the family will spend two days.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from the visit's purpose to accommodation and recommendations, with effective paragraphing and clear referencing.
Remove the general sentence about enjoying the holiday because it interrupts the transition from accommodation details to the request for advice.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied enough for travel plans and requests, but several collocations and phrases are unnatural or more formal than the context requires.
Use natural phrases such as 'the beach', 'in the Martharry area', and 'could you recommend some evening activities?'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences and contractions are generally well controlled, with only occasional article, preposition, and punctuation problems.
Proofread fixed prepositional phrases and remove the unnecessary comma in 'the beautiful hills, and the sea beach'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going to visit the town where your friend went to university. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- explain why you will be visiting the town
- give details of where you will be staying
- ask your friend to recommend some evening entertainment
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.