You recently visited a place that had a strong impact on you. Now you want to write to your friend about the place. Write a letter to a friend about the place. In your letter: - explain where the place was and how you got there - describe what you saw - offer to take your friend there
Sample Response
Dear Samuel, I hope you are doing very welldoing excellent. I am writing to inform you about a place I visited for the first timehad been to for the first time and the experience wasis overwhelming. I would like to take you there and show you how this part of the city is different from the rest. Recently, I, along with a group of people, visited a slum area as part of a social activityas part of social activity. This slum is situated in a distant place, beyond the city outskirtsaway from the city outskirts and could only be reached on footcould be reached on foot only. Upon entering the area, I was surprised by the children who were ready to welcome us; they were eagerly waiting forthat someone would bring something for them to eat. We spent about 4 hours playing games, explained to them the importance of personal hygiene, taught them a fewtaught them few important social skillsaspects, gave them food that we had broughtfood which we took along with us and at the end of the session, we distributedat the end of the session we distributed around 30 winter blankets, one for each familyaround 30 winter blankets for each family in the slum. When we were in the midst of the slum, I personally witnessed their povertysaw and felt their poverty, their longing for help and their need for social awareness. When we were leaving, I was so happy to see the smiles on their faces. The trip to the slum gave me the ideainfused me with an idea to gather a few more peoplegather a few more and ask them to help supportask them for their help in supporting the slum dwellers. I know that you are very much interested in these types of philanthropic activities. If you agree, we can visit the areavisit there next week and help them in any way possible. Best wishesYours truly, Prasad
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter communicates the visit vividly, covers all three requested points, and gives the friend a clear reason and opportunity to join a future trip. Its main limitation is language control: several unnatural collocations and shifts in tense reduce precision, while the single dense paragraph weakens readability. The highest priority is to organise the account into clear paragraphs and revise awkward phrases for natural, consistent expression.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear, all three bullet points are covered, and the impact of the visit is developed with relevant detail, though the tone is occasionally too formal for a friend.
Use a consistently warm, informal register and make the location description more precise.
Coherence and Cohesion
The account follows a logical sequence and uses referencing and linking effectively, but presenting the whole letter as one dense paragraph limits readability.
Separate the opening, visit description, personal reaction, and invitation into distinct paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
A reasonably broad vocabulary conveys the charitable visit and its emotional effect, but several collocations such as "waiting that" and "taught them few important social aspects" are unnatural.
Prioritise natural word combinations and simpler precise wording when expressing unfamiliar ideas.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses varied complex structures and remains clear, although recurring article, tense, and clause-construction errors reduce control.
Review tense consistency and article use, especially in the opening and descriptions of the completed visit.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently visited a place that had a strong impact on you. Now you want to write to your friend about the place. Write a letter to a friend about the place. In your letter:
- explain where the place was and how you got there
- describe what you saw
- offer to take your friend there
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.