You are going to spend your vacation in a city in a foreign country. You have never been there before. Your cousin has a friend who lives there. Write a letter to your cousin's friend. In your letter: - introduce yourself - say why you are making this trip - ask some questions about the city (e.g. places to see, things to do, things to bring)
Sample Response
Dear Mr Ethan, Hope you are doing great. I am Pollard Jeremy, a maternal cousin of Gill from Canada and have heard a lot about you from him. I am writing to say hello and get some information about Melbourne, where I will visit next month with my wife and daughter. Gill must have informed you that I might write to you and I truly appreciate your time as I know you are terribly busy. However, when I mentioned my trip to Gill, he enthusiastically recommended you. You might remember me from the wedding ceremony of Gill last year when he introduced you to me. I am planning to spend some quality time in Melbourne where I solely intend to spend the summer holidays with my family. I have done some online research and learned a few things about Melbourne but this is my first trip to Australia and I thought you would be the best person to recommend to me some hotels, tourists spots, child-friendly amusement parks and dining places. I intend to stay for around one month and would like to be on my budget. Are there any tips for daily commuting? What type of dresses should we bring to Melbourne during this time?
I do not know anybody there and your tips would be a great help to me. No more today. Stay fine and write back to me at your convenience. Warm wishes, Pollard
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Add sentence subject Original: Hope you are doing great Suggested revision: I hope you are doing well Why it matters: Adding the subject creates a complete sentence and “doing well” is more natural in this greeting.
- 2. Correct relative clause Original: where Suggested revision: which Why it matters: “Which” is required because Melbourne is the object of “visit,” not the location of the action.
- 3. Remove false contrast Original: However, when I mentioned Suggested revision: When I mentioned Why it matters: “However” incorrectly signals a contrast with the preceding appreciation of the recipient's time.
- 4. Use natural possession Original: the wedding ceremony of Gill Suggested revision: Gill's wedding Why it matters: The possessive form is more concise and idiomatic here.
- 5. Fix word order Original: recommend to me some hotels Suggested revision: recommend some hotels to me Why it matters: With a named object, “recommend” takes the item before the prepositional phrase “to me.”
- 6. Use noun modifier Original: tourists Suggested revision: tourist Why it matters: The singular noun “tourist” functions as the modifier in this compound expression.
- 7. Use budget collocation Original: be on my budget Suggested revision: stay within my budget Why it matters: “Stay within a budget” is the standard expression for limiting spending.
- 8. Use general clothing term Original: dresses Suggested revision: clothing Why it matters: “Clothing” asks broadly what the whole family should bring, whereas “dresses” refers to one particular garment.
- 9. Use natural closing Original: No more today Suggested revision: That's all for now Why it matters: “That's all for now” is an idiomatic informal transition to the closing.
- 10. Use natural introduction Original: I am Pollard Jeremy Suggested revision: My name is Pollard Jeremy Why it matters: “My name is” is the conventional wording when introducing oneself in a letter.
- 11. Clarify family connection Original: a maternal cousin of Gill from Canada Suggested revision: Gill's cousin from Canada Why it matters: This concise phrasing avoids ambiguity about who is from Canada.
- 12. Complete recommendation meaning Original: enthusiastically recommended you Suggested revision: enthusiastically recommended that I contact you Why it matters: The original wording does not state what Gill recommended the recipient for.
Suggested Rewrites
- Hope you are doing great I hope you are doing well
- where which
- However, when I mentioned When I mentioned
- the wedding ceremony of Gill Gill's wedding
- recommend to me some hotels recommend some hotels to me
- tourists tourist
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fulfils the communicative purpose thoroughly, using a friendly tone and plenty of relevant questions about accommodation, attractions, transport, and clothing. Its main limitation is naturalness: some word choices and phrases are awkward, and the long central paragraph makes the requests less easy to scan. Organise the questions into a focused paragraph and replace unnatural expressions with more idiomatic travel language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The writer introduces himself, explains the family holiday clearly, and asks a well-developed range of relevant questions in an appropriately warm tone.
Make the relationship and salutation slightly more natural for a cousin's friend, and keep every contextual detail directly useful to the request.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message follows a logical sequence and uses referencing and linking effectively, though the long main paragraph contains several functions at once.
Place the trip background and the questions in separate paragraphs, grouping accommodation and attractions apart from transport and clothing.
Lexical Resource
The response demonstrates a broad travel-related vocabulary, but occasional inaccurate forms and collocations reduce precision and naturalness.
Use tourist spots, keep within my budget, getting around the city, and what clothes instead of the less natural alternatives.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A varied range of complex sentences is generally well controlled, with only occasional article, punctuation, and clause-structure problems.
Review long coordinated sentences for missing punctuation and ensure each linked clause has a clear subject and natural verb pattern.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going to spend your vacation in a city in a foreign country. You have never been there before. Your cousin has a friend who lives there. Write a letter to your cousin's friend. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- say why you are making this trip
- ask some questions about the city (e.g. places to see, things to do, things to bring)
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.