You have recently heard that a friend of yours has had some problems as a result of some unusual weather. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - express your concern (i.e. - say you are sorry to hear what has happened) - tell him/her about a similar experience that you once had - give some advice, or - offer help
Sample Response
Dear Edward, I am so sorry to learn from my cousin that your house has been badly damaged by the recent This is more concise and idiomatic.flash flood due to some sudden and excessive rain in your area. To be honest, I have never really heard of this kind of unusual weather before, Do not separate especially from its complement.especially, in the part of our country where you live. Anyway, I thought that only the area, in which I live now, is such unusual weather since it is . In fact, I also faced a similar kind of situation Spell out a small number in a letter.about 5 years ago when The identifying phrase should not be enclosed by commas.the river, surrounding my town, suddenly Past simple gives the event sequence naturally.had swollen because of This is the usual collocation.some excessive rain and caused a flood in This is more natural.a significant part of our town, including my own house. Of course, Floodwaters is normally plural and receded is precise.the flood water had disappeared Avoid stacking as and just as.as suddenly and quickly just as it had arrived, but This places the passive construction naturally.enough damage to my house was already done. So, don’t worry as you will soon Get over does not take with.get over with this shock just as I did Crisis sounds overly dramatic here.during my crisis. Also, try to remain as positive as possible and think that you still have a house left that can be fixed sooner or later. Most importantlyMoreover, if you need any help, please do not hesitate to ask me. Warm wishes, Julian Anderson
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter fully addresses the situation with genuine concern, a relevant personal experience, reassurance, and an offer of help, while maintaining an appropriately warm tone. The main limitations are some awkward collocations and overlong sentences that blur the chronology of the flood experience. Tighten those sentences, use more natural weather vocabulary, and make the offered help more concrete.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All requested purposes are covered clearly, although the final offer of help could be more specific.
Offer one practical form of help, such as accommodation or assistance with repairs.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message follows a logical concern-experience-advice-help sequence, but formatting is compressed and some sentences are overloaded.
Use conventional letter paragraphs and divide the flood account into shorter chronological units.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and appropriate overall, though several collocations are inaccurate or overly formal.
Prefer natural phrases such as prone to flooding, recovered from the shock, and floodwaters receded.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex structures are generally controlled, with some tense, punctuation, and preposition errors.
Simplify long clauses and check past perfect, comma placement, and phrasal-verb complements.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have recently heard that a friend of yours has had some problems as a result of some unusual weather. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- express your concern (i.e.
- say you are sorry to hear what has happened)
- tell him/her about a similar experience that you once had
- give some advice, or
- offer help
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.