You are going to visit New Zealand for an 'English and Homestay' program. You have just received details of your homestay host family. Write your first letter to the family. In your letter: - introduce yourself - ask the family some questions to get information that is important to you - tell the family about your arrival date and time
Sample Response
Dear Mr and Mrs Ericsson, I hope you are doing wellgreat. I am Eoghan Antonio from Italy, and I would likeI am Eoghan Antonio from Italy, would like to thank you for agreeing to host megranting my application to host me for the English and Homestay programme in your homeprogramme at your house. This is something I have been eagerlyso eagerly looking forward to and I am deeply gratefulI thank you profoundly for the opportunity. I am writing to ask for some informationI am writing for some information and to confirm my arrival date. I will be your guest for a month as part of the 'English and Homestay' program in Hamilton, New Zealand. I am a first-year studenta fresher at the University of Turin and I speak both Italian and Spanish. I am really excited to visit your country and stay with your familybe your humble guest. This would be an excellent opportunity to learn about the languagelearn the language, culture and way of life in New Zealand. However, I am curious to know about a few things before my arrival at your house. To start, how can I getreach from the airport to your house? Should I take a taxi or book an Uberrequest a ride from Uber? I will arrive at the airportreach the airport on 9th November 2022 at 11:30 am. Would it be possible for you to meet me at the airportcome to the airport to receive me? Besides, what areis the current weather conditions in your city? What typetypes of clothing are suitable for this season? I will be boarding the flight to New Zealand on 8th November at 10:45 am (GST time) and land there the next day around 11:30 am. Eagerly waiting to meet you in person. Sincerely yours, Eoghan Antonio
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter introduces the writer, asks several practical questions, and gives a clear arrival date and time, so every required point is covered. Its main limitations are presentation and language control: the message is unparagraphled, repeats the travel timing, and contains recurring sentence-boundary, agreement, and verb-form errors. Prioritise organising the introduction, questions, and arrival details into separate paragraphs, then proofread each sentence for a complete subject and controlled tense.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are developed with useful personal, transport, weather, and arrival information, though some details are repetitive and the tone is occasionally overdone.
State the arrival information once and use a warm, natural tone without excessive gratitude or self-description.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content follows a broadly logical sequence, but the single dense paragraph, repeated arrival details, and abrupt final fragment weaken progression.
Use separate paragraphs for the introduction, practical questions, and final arrival arrangements.
Lexical Resource
There is a reasonable range for travel and homestay topics, but several choices such as "humble guest" and "receive me" sound unnatural.
Use natural phrases such as "stay with you", "pick me up", "get from the airport", and "weather conditions".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of structures is attempted, but comma splices, missing subjects, agreement errors, fragments, and faulty future forms recur.
Rewrite the opening as two complete sentences and use parallel future verbs, such as "I will board" and "will land".
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going to visit New Zealand for an 'English and Homestay' program. You have just received details of your homestay host family. Write your first letter to the family. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- ask the family some questions to get information that is important to you
- tell the family about your arrival date and time
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.