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 Gretel, Hope you are doing great. I am writing this letter to tell you about a fascinating place that I discovered unexpectedly very nearvery near to our college. I would like you to join me next time I go there. While cycling yesterdaylast morning, I took a detour from our regular path and cycled along the bankbanks of the stream that passes behind the main college building. After one kilometre or so, I reached a dead end and when I was about to turn, I became anxious to know where the stream goes beyond this as I could see no land post that end. I was astonishedgasped to see that the small-lookingsmall looking stream turned into a beautiful waterfall with sunrayssun-raises shining through the spraycutting through the water and creating rainbow coloursdisplaying prism colours. The place looked so sereneserene and calm. What astonished me most was the natural beautyThe most astonishing part was the beauty of nature and I wished to stay there longerstay there for long. As I know you are interested in photographyhave an interest in photography, I do not think you should miss the chance to take picturesmiss taking pictures of this wonderful place. I will be cycling to this place again on Saturday and I would really likewant you to come along with me and see the beauty of nature for yourself. See you on Saturday! Best wishes, Gemma
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response’s strongest feature is complete, vivid task coverage: it explains the location and bicycle route, describes the waterfall and its impact, and gives a specific invitation for Saturday in a warm, friendly tone. Its main limitation is language precision and organisation, with awkward expressions and the whole letter presented as one block. Prioritise natural descriptive collocations and clear paragraphs for discovery, description and invitation.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully addresses all three bullet points with relevant detail, conveys a strong personal reaction, and makes a clear, friendly offer to return together.
As a refinement, add an approximate meeting time or starting point for the Saturday trip to make the invitation fully actionable.
Coherence and Cohesion
The narrative progresses naturally from the discovery to the scene and invitation, but the single-paragraph format and several long sentences reduce structural clarity.
Use separate paragraphs for the route, the waterfall description and the invitation, and split the longest discovery sentence.
Lexical Resource
The response attempts vivid vocabulary, but phrases such as “became anxious to know,” “was gasped,” “sun-raises” and “prism colours” are inaccurate or unnatural.
Use precise expressions such as “became curious,” “was amazed,” “sun rays” and “rainbow colours.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures communicates the story, though article, preposition, relative-clause and verb-form errors recur and some sentences are overloaded.
Control relative clauses and coordinated subjects, and revise forms such as “near our college,” “a small-looking stream” and “I gasped.”
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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.