You play a team sport with some friends. Last week a member of the team had an accident and wasn’t able to play with you at the weekend. You decide to write to him in the hospital, telling him about the match. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - tell him which team won - describe the conditions on the day - say how you felt about the match
Sample Response
Dear Jim,
I hope this letter finds you in brighter spirits. Anticipating for your return into our football team as soon as possible, and I heard as it’s just a ligament tear so, you will be discharged soon.
Firstly, I know this is disappointing news for youit’s disappointing news for you; we lost last Sunday’s matchthe last Sunday match to our opponents, the Solaris teamour opponent Solaris team. As you knowAs you were aware, this interoffice football tournament started last month and followed the scheduled league formatwas conducted as per the scheduled league matches. However, the semi-final between our team and Solarisbetween us and the Solaris team went to a tie-breakerwas a tie-breaker match. Finally, we could not win this time.
Last Sunday was very humid when the match startedwas a very humid day to start the match. Consequently, our players were sweating and gasping throughout the day by noon we were exhausted. During the second halfDuring the last half-time, we could not score any goalsgoal, which led to our defeateventually leading us to our defeat.
Even though we are sportspeoplewe are a sportsman and should possess team spiritthe team-spirit, I felt I missed my closest teammatemy staunchest ally that day to back me up. Hence, I wish you a speedy recovery and would like to see you on the field soonsee in the field soon.
See you soon,
DeleteBest regards,
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response follows a clear sequence and communicates the match result, difficult weather, and the writer’s disappointment in a suitably friendly letter. However, frequent grammatical and collocational errors make several sentences awkward, while the feelings about the match receive limited direct development. Prioritise complete, accurately structured sentences and state the emotional reaction to the defeat more explicitly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter addresses all three bullet points and maintains an appropriate friendly purpose, though the writer’s feelings are only briefly conveyed.
Explain the emotional response to the defeat more directly and add a little detail about why the friend’s absence mattered.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is divided into relevant paragraphs and has a broadly logical sequence, although some linking is mechanical and one sentence runs together.
Use fewer formulaic connectors and separate closely packed ideas into clearly punctuated sentences.
Lexical Resource
There is enough vocabulary to describe the match and relationship, but awkward collocations occur frequently despite generally clear meaning.
Choose more natural phrases for returning to the team, describing the second half, and expressing team spirit.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The response attempts varied structures, but frequent errors in sentence formation, agreement, articles, and prepositions reduce control.
Prioritise writing complete clauses and checking subject–verb agreement and missing objects before adding complex structures.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You play a team sport with some friends. Last week a member of the team had an accident and wasn’t able to play with you at the weekend. You decide to write to him in the hospital, telling him about the match. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- tell him which team won
- describe the conditions on the day
- say how you felt about the match
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.