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 Sir or Madam, I am writing to share my positive review offor the Yummy Restaurant that I believe is a dining establishment worth visitinga worth visiting dining establishment in our area. We celebrated my sister's birthdaymy sister's birthday party last week at this restaurant. Originally, I thought only twenty people would attend, but apparently, the number increased to thirty. I was worried that it would not be possible for the restaurant to accommodate more people without prior notice. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the managerManager told me that they could accommodate the larger groupthey could do it and would even upgrade our room to a more spacious one. The overall service was impeccable and the party was a hit, thanks to the great staff and their professionalism. We ordered a three-course set menu and the food was excellentthe taste was top-notch. The escargot entree was soabsolutely divine that I could still remember the taste of its garlic butter sauce. My sister ordered pan-fried salmon fillet with mashed potatoes as the main course, and people were raving about it. The dessert was a mini-opera which I thought to be rather average, though it might be simply because I do not have a sweet toothdo not have sweet teeth. Overall, we experienced a wonderful night at this restaurant. This place is highly recommended and we have even started planning our next visit. I believe you should publish an article regarding this establishment in your 'Fine diners' section so that people can learn about this fabulous place. Thank you in advance. Yours faithfully, Helen Lim
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter’s strongest feature is its vivid, well-developed account of the restaurant, meal and service, which gives the newspaper a convincing reason to recommend the venue. Its main weakness is presentation: all content is compressed into one long paragraph, and a few expressions such as “a worth visiting” and “sweet teeth” are inaccurate. Prioritise clear paragraphing by purpose and polish these isolated collocation errors.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are fully developed with relevant detail, and the formal recommendation to the newspaper is convincing.
Refine the review by giving the restaurant’s location or defining feature briefly, while retaining the balanced and specific meal description.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas move logically from the occasion and service to the food and recommendation, but the single long paragraph weakens the letter’s structure.
Separate the opening purpose, restaurant and service details, meal description, and final recommendation into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is flexible and vivid, with effective choices such as “impeccable,” “spacious,” and “divine,” though a few collocations are inaccurate.
Replace “a worth visiting dining establishment” with “a dining establishment worth visiting” and “sweet teeth” with “a sweet tooth.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used with strong control, and the few grammatical slips do not impede communication.
Polish relative-clause and result structures, for example changing “so divine that I can still remember” to express the intended relationship cleanly.
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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.