Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer. Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter: - suggest how you could help her in her home - say why you would like to do this work - explain when you will and will not be available
Sample Response
Dear Mrs Barrett,
My name is Lia LimaI am Lia Lima, a university student and a resident of the neighbourhooda local in the neighbourhood, writing to you to expressshow my interest in helping you with your household taskswork next summer.
I can help you with cleaning the kitchen, preparing a few mealscooking a few items, taking out the rubbishtaking the garbage outside and doing the grocery shoppingdoing groceries. I can also iron your clothes, vacuum your floorsclean your floor with a vacuum cleaner and contactcall the pharmacy to refill your prescriptionrefill the medicine.
I will have a long holiday this summer, and I will take a part-time computer course. ThisIt means that I will have a few spare hours each daya few hours each day to spare to work inat your home while also earning some money to cover the cost ofsupport the expenses of the part-time computer course that I am planning to takeintake.
I will be available between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm each day except Sunday. I would also be busy on Tuesdays as I visit my mother and take a dance class every Tuesday.
I am looking forward to assisting you with your work this summer and getting to know you better. For your convenience, I am attaching my details with this letter.
Yours faithfully,
Lia Lima
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter is clearly structured and gives practical detail about household tasks, motivation, and working hours in a polite, appropriate tone. Its main weakness is ambiguity in availability because Tuesday is excluded only after stating availability every day except Sunday, while several collocations are unnatural. The highest priority is to provide one unambiguous weekly schedule and refine the descriptions of chores and the computer course.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose and all bullet points are well developed, but the stated daily availability conflicts with the later Tuesday restriction.
State directly that you are available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Coherence and Cohesion
Focused paragraphs correspond closely to the requested points and create clear, natural progression.
Combine the two availability statements into one precise paragraph to remove the only local inconsistency.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary covers household work and scheduling adequately, though several phrases are unnatural or imprecise.
Use do the grocery shopping, vacuum the floors, collect prescriptions, cover course costs, and take a course.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A useful range of structures communicates clearly, but article, relative-clause, and coordination errors recur.
Simplify long sentences and ensure parallel forms when listing both availability and reasons for working.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer. Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter:
- suggest how you could help her in her home
- say why you would like to do this work
- explain when you will and will not be available
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.