A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening. Write a letter to your relative. In your letter: - Explain arrangements you have made for them to have keys and get into the house - Tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house - Say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening
Sample Response
Dear Marco, I write you to say that I´ll wont be home until late tomorrow. There is emergency meeting at workplace. I made some arrangements for you to get my house safely. Your train arrives 07.00am and there is car with my personal driver waiting for you. He will drive you into downtown. From there you have to take 15 minute walk to my place. If he drops you off then you´ll see large orange building on the south side of Williams street. You have to walk trough the tunnel to get First street. When exiting the tunnel, take right from the police station and walk straight to the end of the street. My house is with yellow roof on your right hand side. key is hidden behind the greenhouse which is located in back yard. We will definitely catch up when I arrive in the evening and we can watch some dvd-s what i have
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use the correct form Original: I write you Suggested revision: I'm writing to you Why it matters: The present continuous is the natural form for stating the purpose of a letter.
- 2. Correct the future negative Original: I´ll wont Suggested revision: I won't Why it matters: “Will” and “won't” cannot be used together in the same verb phrase.
- 3. Add the article Original: There is emergency meeting Suggested revision: There is an emergency meeting Why it matters: A singular countable noun needs an article here.
- 4. Add a possessive Original: at workplace Suggested revision: at my workplace Why it matters: The possessive determiner is needed to identify whose workplace is meant.
- 5. Add the missing preposition Original: get my house safely Suggested revision: get into my house safely Why it matters: “Get into” is required when the meaning is entering a building.
- 6. Add the time preposition Original: arrives 07.00am Suggested revision: arrives at 7:00 a.m. Why it matters: Clock times require “at,” and the revised format is clear and conventional.
- 7. Add the article Original: there is car Suggested revision: there is a car Why it matters: A singular countable noun needs the indefinite article.
- 8. Remove the preposition Original: drive you into downtown Suggested revision: drive you downtown Why it matters: “Downtown” functions as an adverb here and does not take “into.”
- 9. Form the noun phrase Original: take 15 minute walk Suggested revision: take a 15-minute walk Why it matters: The phrase needs an article and a hyphenated compound modifier.
- 10. Add the article Original: see large orange building Suggested revision: see a large orange building Why it matters: A singular countable building needs an article when first mentioned.
- 11. Capitalise the street name Original: street Suggested revision: Street Why it matters: Both parts of this proper street name should begin with capital letters.
- 12. Correct the spelling Original: trough Suggested revision: through Why it matters: “Through” is the preposition meaning from one end of the tunnel to the other.
Suggested Rewrites
- I write you I'm writing to you
- I´ll wont I won't
- There is emergency meeting There is an emergency meeting
- at workplace at my workplace
- get my house safely get into my house safely
- arrives 07.00am arrives at 7:00 a.m.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The letter provides all the necessary practical information, especially detailed directions and a workable key arrangement, and its informal purpose remains clear. However, frequent errors with articles, verb forms, prepositions and sentence construction make the language awkward and sometimes slow comprehension. The highest-priority improvement is to proofread each sentence for a complete verb phrase and required articles before refining the directions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three requested points are addressed with relevant details about transport, the hidden key, arrival time and an evening activity.
Add a friendly closing and clarify exactly how the relative will identify the driver and enter the locked house.
Coherence and Cohesion
The directions follow a broadly logical sequence, and basic time and location links help the reader track the route.
Group the arrival arrangements, walking directions and evening plan into separate paragraphs and use clearer transitions between them.
Lexical Resource
The response has enough practical vocabulary to communicate the route and arrangements, despite several awkward or inaccurate word combinations.
Replace phrases such as 'get my house' and 'house is with yellow roof' with natural combinations such as 'get into my house' and 'house with a yellow roof'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is generally clear, but frequent errors in articles, verb forms, capitalization and relative clauses reduce accuracy.
Prioritise complete forms such as 'I won't be home', add missing articles, and use 'DVDs that I have' for the final clause.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A family member is coming to stay with you. He/she will be arriving by train in the morning, but you won’t be home until the evening. Write a letter to your relative. In your letter:
- Explain arrangements you have made for them to have keys and get into the house
- Tell your relative how to get from the train station to your house
- Say when you will be home and suggest what you could do together that evening
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.