You have a friend who lives in a city abroad. You would like to apply to do a course at one of the colleges in this city. Write to your friend. In your letter: - explain what you would like to do - describe the work or studies you have been doing for the past few years - ask for help contacting an appropriate institution
Sample Response
Dear Rachel,
Hope you are doing fine. I am sorry that I have not written to you for a long timefor a long. I have been extremelyterribly busy over the last few months and I never seem to have a minute to myself! I am writing to tellnotify you that I'd like to study fashion designdesigning at a university in Canada next year and I hope you can give me some advice and information. I think I would prefer a college in Torontoa Canadian college, specifically in Toronto, because I have an aunt who lives there and she is willing to let me stay with herhost me at her house. I have recently finished school and achieved an overall mark of 78%got an overall 78% mark. I am willing to pursue a careerbuild my career in the fashion industryfashion designing industry and I need to complete my bachelor'sbachelor degree to do sofor that. However, I really don't know which university to apply to and what are their requirements for the applicants are. I am hoping you can recommend a university to mechoose a university for me that offers an excellent fashion-design coursefashion designing related course with affordable tuitionat a moderate cost. Could you send me some information on several collegesinformation about different colleges and the courses they offer relevant to my interestsrelated to my interest? I hope you can spare some time and don't mind doing this for me. I hope to hear from you soon. Warm wishes, George
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter has a warm, appropriate tone and clearly explains the intended fashion course, recent academic result, Toronto preference, and the help needed from the friend. Its main limitation is that the past-study background is brief and several course-related expressions are awkward, including a malformed sentence about admission requirements. Prioritise precise programme terminology and a focused request for institution contacts and entry details.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are addressed in a friendly register, though the recent-study history is brief and the request focuses more on selection than direct contact.
Add one relevant detail about recent subjects or qualifications and ask the friend to contact shortlisted colleges about entry requirements and fees.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message progresses naturally from personal reconnection to study plans, academic background, and requested help, but most content appears in one long paragraph.
Use separate paragraphs for the opening, intended course and background, and the specific assistance requested.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is sufficiently varied for education, career plans, accommodation, and costs, with several unnatural collocations.
Use 'fashion design', 'pursue a career', 'bachelor's degree', 'admission requirements', and 'reasonably priced programme'.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence forms is generally clear, although fragments and a malformed indirect-question structure reduce accuracy.
Revise the opening as a complete sentence and write 'I do not know which university to apply to or what its admission requirements are'.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have a friend who lives in a city abroad. You would like to apply to do a course at one of the colleges in this city. Write to your friend. In your letter:
- explain what you would like to do
- describe the work or studies you have been doing for the past few years
- ask for help contacting an appropriate institution
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.