You are planning a holiday in another country and would like a friend to accompany you. Write a letter to the friend asking him/her to join you. In your letter explain: - why you are taking a holiday - what your holiday plan is - why you would like him/her to go with you
Sample Response
Dear Flemming, I'd like to thank you for hosting an incredible party last month when I got the chance to meet your parents, who, in my opinion, are lovely peopleexceptional individuals. I'd love to meet them again. DeleteHowever, I'm writing today to ask you to join me on a trip to Denmarkrequest you to visit Denmark with me. I havehad long been planning to visit Denmark, a remarkable country, and have finally decided to travel there on 27th December. I'd rather have you with me than travel alone. You're the best travel companion I can think of, and our last tripvacation to Malaysia has encouraged mepropels me to invite you to join me againinvite you to be my tour companion again. Our semester finalsfinal is over, and we have two weeks freewe've two weeks to do something before returning to our classes. I thought travelling to a Scandinavian country would be the best way to spend our holidays. My uncle livesresides in Copenhagen, and he'll be able to help us therehe'll be a great help there. I plan to visit my uncle and meet his family first. Then we'll visit Roskilde Cathedral, the Viking Ship MuseumViking Ship Museum, take a castle tour from Copenhagen and enjoy the countryside. I'm also open to your recommendationsrecommendation about things to dothe things to do in Denmark. I hope you'll not turn me down and make your preparationsfinalise your preparation to have a memorable tour to Denmark in December. Warm wishes, David
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter fully addresses the invitation, giving a convincing reason for the holiday, a detailed itinerary, and a personal reason for wanting the friend along. Its main limitation is that the opening about the previous party is only loosely connected and several phrases sound unnatural despite remaining clear. Prioritise more purposeful paragraphing and replace strained collocations with simpler, idiomatic wording to make the message more polished.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are fully covered with relevant detail, and the friendly tone suits the recipient.
Remove the loosely relevant opening about the party so the invitation begins more directly and stays fully focused.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically from the invitation and reason for travelling to the itinerary, although the response is presented as one dense paragraph.
Use distinct paragraphs for the invitation, reasons, planned activities, and closing request to make the progression easier to follow.
Lexical Resource
A sufficiently flexible vocabulary communicates the plans precisely, though phrases such as "propels me to invite you" and "finalise your preparation" sound strained.
Prefer natural collocations such as "encourages me to invite you" and "start making arrangements" when expressing familiar ideas.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A varied range of complex structures is handled securely, with only occasional non-impeding errors and awkward constructions.
Refine small forms such as "our final exams are over" and "we have two weeks" to improve grammatical naturalness.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are planning a holiday in another country and would like a friend to accompany you. Write a letter to the friend asking him/her to join you. In your letter explain:
- why you are taking a holiday
- what your holiday plan is
- why you would like him/her to go with you
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.