You live in a city in a foreign country, and a friend from your home country is coming to the city for several days. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - ask him/her to bring some things from home that you need - explain why you need them - arrange to meet your friend
Sample Response
Dear Shrity,
I’m so excited that you’ll be visiting me in Adelaide this coming March. I’ve made many plans for us, and I’m eagerly waiting for your arrival. We haven’t seen each other for ages and I hope you have been well during this timehad been great during this time. I have a favour to ask you, and I hope it won’t be too much trouble for youwouldn’t be a burden for you.
I’d really appreciate it if you could meet my mother before flying to Australia because I’d like you to bringas I’d want you to bring a couple of items for me. The first thing is a woollen cardigan that my grandmother made for me. It has sentimental valueIt has some sentimental values both for my grandmother and me. My mother would also give you a couple of books – don’t worry, they are not heavy. I need those books to complete mya thesis. I couldn’t find them here. Finally, my mother would also give you a tin containinga tin jar that will contain some homemade cookies and delicacies that my mother used to prepare for me during my childhoodused to prepare me in my childhood. They also have sentimental valueThey also have emotional and sentimental values both to me and my mother.
I do hope that it won’t cause you any problemsit'll not cause you any problem. In the meantime, send me your travel itinerary so that I can plan to pick you up at the airportreceive you at the airport. We'll take a taxi and directly get back to my apartment.
I can’t wait to see you and spend some quality time as friends.
Have a safe flight.
Yours truly,
Susmita
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter is warm, detailed, and complete, with all requested items, reasons, and meeting arrangements presented in a natural friendly voice. Its main limitation is a cluster of awkward collocations and tense choices that occasionally reduce precision, despite consistently clear meaning. Prioritise checking tense consistency and using idiomatic singular expressions such as sentimental value to make the language more polished.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully developed with specific items, convincing reasons, and a clear airport meeting arrangement in an appropriate friendly tone.
Keep the detailed coverage while trimming minor repetition about the emotional importance of the items.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter is clearly paragraphised and moves smoothly from the greeting and request to the item details and practical meeting plan.
Make the item paragraph slightly more concise so that its internal progression remains as balanced as the rest of the letter.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a good range of relevant and less common vocabulary, but several collocations involving value, containers, and childhood food are inaccurate.
Use more idiomatic combinations such as sentimental value, a tin of cookies, and food my mother used to prepare for me.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Varied simple and complex structures communicate clearly, although several tense and conditional choices are inaccurate or unnatural.
Review time references and conditionals, especially the forms used after hope and in polite future requests.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You live in a city in a foreign country, and a friend from your home country is coming to the city for several days. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- ask him/her to bring some things from home that you need
- explain why you need them
- arrange to meet your friend
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.