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, I hope you are doing wellHope you are doing great. My name is Pollard JeremyI am Pollard Jeremy, Gill's cousin from Canadaa 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, whichwhere 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. When I mentionedHowever, when I mentioned my trip to Gill, he enthusiastically recommended that I contact youenthusiastically recommended you. You might remember me from Gill's weddingthe 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 some hotels to merecommend to me some hotels, touristtourists spots, child-friendly amusement parks and dining places. I intend to stay for about a montharound one month and would like to stay within my budgetbe on my budget. Are there any advice on getting around the citytips for daily commuting? What type of clothingdresses should we bring to Melbourne during this time?
I do not know anybody there and your tips would be a great help to me. That's all for nowNo more today. Take careStay fine and write back to me at your convenience. Warm wishes, Pollard
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.