You had a good meal at a local restaurant with your family. Write a letter to the newspaper. In your letter: - tell the newspaper about the restaurant - describe the meal you had - explain why you think the restaurant is worth visiting
Sample Response
Dear Sirsir or Madam, I am a resident of central Seoulcentral Seoul city, South Korea. I am writing to recommend one of the best restaurants I have visited recentlyhave been to lately. I hope you willwould write a review of this establishment so that more people can learn aboutfor more people to learn about itthis great establishment. It was my birthday and we visited a Korean restaurant on Friday in my town. Personally, I did not expect anything special about it because my originally booked Italian restaurant was cancelled due to some unavoidable reasons. I was feeling a bit gloomy but the Korean restaurant's ambienceambient presence and warm welcome liftedrevived my mood. We ordered BBQ and cold noodlesice-noodles and they served not only an incredibly delicious meal but also offered us the best possible service. Moreover, the restaurant's manager explainedtold that most of the ingredients came from organic farms. The noodles tasted excellentcelestial and the BBQ was perfectly grilled. The restaurant was a wonderful choice for the celebration and its location was another advantageon top of its great location. I am convinced that people would love to be there and would find it a affordablepocket-friendly restaurant that serves delicious foodhighly palatable food. I would appreciate it if you recommendedIt would be a good idea if you recommended the restaurant in your newspaper. Yours faithfully, Jack Seojun
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter achieves its purpose with an appropriately formal tone, relevant meal details, and persuasive reasons for recommending the restaurant. Its main limitation is presentation and precision: the entire response is one paragraph, the establishment is not clearly identified, and a few expressions are awkward or grammatically inaccurate. Divide the letter into purposeful paragraphs, name or locate the restaurant clearly, and favour natural, precise wording over exaggerated descriptions.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are addressed with relevant detail, and the formal tone is generally suitable for a newspaper letter.
Identify the restaurant more specifically and make the requested newspaper action slightly more direct and concrete.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a logical sequence and linking is generally clear, but presenting the whole letter as one paragraph weakens organisation.
Separate the recommendation, meal description, and reasons for visiting into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of descriptive and persuasive vocabulary, though repetition and several unnatural choices reduce precision.
Replace forced expressions such as ambient presence and tasted celestial with natural, specific descriptions of atmosphere and flavour.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex sentences is generally controlled, but errors in reporting structures, parallelism, and capitalisation remain noticeable.
Correct forms such as the manager told us that and check paired structures such as not only...but also for grammatical balance.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You had a good meal at a local restaurant with your family. Write a letter to the newspaper. In your letter:
- tell the newspaper about the restaurant
- describe the meal you had
- explain why you think the restaurant is worth visiting
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.