You are going to another country to study. You would like to do a part-time job while you are studying, so you want to ask a friend who lives there for some help. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - Give details of your study plans - Explain why you want to get a part-time job - Suggest how your friend could help you find a job
Sample Response
Hi Sarah,Sarah!
We just spoke on the phone, butphone but it totally slipped my mind to let you know that I was accepted by the University of MelbourneI got accepted to the University of Melbourne and I’ll be headed to your city soon! I’m going to be studying finance and I will arrive for induction in a few months Delete(assuming the pandemic is under control by then).
I’m writing now because I’m wonderingbecause I was wondering if you could help me find part-time worklook into finding part-time work for me when I get there. I’ll be living off-campus and my parents aren’t going to be able to send me money consistently – that’s why I need some work in the 20–30 hours per month20-30 hour range monthly.
If you could ask around at your school, that would be a tremendous help. Also, if you see any help-wanted adshelp wanted ads around town, it’d be great if you could snap a picture so that I could email or call. Any other ideas you have are welcome!
Thanks for your help!
Why this response received Band 8.0
This is a confident, natural informal letter that fully covers the study plans, financial reason for working, and practical ways the friend can help. The main limitation is a small amount of imprecision, especially the unclear description of the desired monthly working hours. The best improvement would be to clarify that detail while preserving the direct, friendly tone and well-controlled sentence variety.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All three bullet points are fully and relevantly developed in a consistently appropriate informal tone.
Clarify whether the desired commitment is 20 to 30 hours per month or per week so the request is completely precise.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are arranged in a clear sequence, and paragraphs and linking devices guide the reader naturally through the request.
Keep each practical request equally concise so the final paragraph remains as focused as the earlier ones.
Lexical Resource
The letter uses a wide range of natural informal expressions and precise study and employment vocabulary with only minor imprecision.
Replace the awkward phrase 20-30 hour range monthly with a more natural expression such as 20 to 30 hours per month.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide variety of complex structures is used accurately and flexibly, with punctuation supporting the conversational tone.
Refine the working-hours sentence to use a cleaner noun phrase while maintaining the otherwise strong grammatical control.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going to another country to study. You would like to do a part-time job while you are studying, so you want to ask a friend who lives there for some help. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- Give details of your study plans
- Explain why you want to get a part-time job
- Suggest how your friend could help you find a job
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.