You are having a graduation party next Saturday night. You have invited 50 people to celebrate at an outdoor barbecue evening, which may continue till late night. Write a letter to your elderly neighbour. In your letter: - explain what will be happening - offer your apologies in advance - invite him/her to visit your house someday / Ms..................,
Sample Response
Dear Ms Kelly, I am your next-door neighbour, James, and I am writingI am your next-door neighbour James and writing to inform you that I have recently graduated from the Bradford Union School. To celebrate this special event, my family and II and my family have invited about 50 guestsa few guests to a house party on Saturday night. I am afraid this will last untiltill late at night and the noise might disturb you. My sincere apologiesapology for that in advance. The graduation party will begin at around 8:00 pm8.00 pm on Saturday and we are expecting approximately 50 guests. We have arranged for an outdoor party, mainly an outdoor barbecue with some musica barbecue party and a music gala, and most guests arethe guests are mainly my friends and relatives. We have arranged an outdoor stage where a few people will speakpeople would talk and two of my friends willwould sing. My friends would be cheeringcheering up and have loud conversations during the party and I am afraid the music might disrupt your sleep. Please accept my sincere apology in advance for any noise from the partythe commotion from the party and the gathering. I hope you would be kind enough to bear with usendure this disturbance considering how special this event is for me. Please visit us for dinner one evening next monthPlease do visit us someday at your convenience forover dinner so that we can have a pleasant conversation. I really enjoyed our last discussion and would love to talk to you again. Yours sincerely, James Grant
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its thorough fulfilment of the communicative purpose: it explains the celebration, anticipates the disturbance, apologises, and extends a friendly invitation in a mostly suitable tone. Its main limitation is the dense one-block presentation, compounded by repeated ideas and noticeable grammar and wording problems; the highest-priority improvement is to separate the three purposes into clear paragraphs and use accurate future forms throughout.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter clearly explains the graduation party, apologises in advance for likely disturbance, and invites the elderly neighbour to visit another day. The semi-formal tone is mostly appropriate.
Mention the outdoor barbecue more directly in the opening to match the prompt exactly.
Coherence and Cohesion
The content is well sequenced, but the response is one long block and repeats apology and party details. Cohesion is adequate, though several sentences could be grouped more clearly.
Use three paragraphs: notice of the party, apology for noise, and invitation to visit.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is suitable and varied, including “commotion”, “convenience”, and “pleasant conversation”. Some choices sound unnatural or too strong, such as “music gala”, “endure”, and “cheering up”.
Choose neighbourly, moderate wording that sounds considerate rather than dramatic.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Meaning is clear, but grammar errors occur in pronoun order, missing verbs, modal choice, and noun phrases. Several future events are expressed with “would” where “will” is needed.
Use “will” for planned party details and check subject-verb completeness in the opening sentence.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are having a graduation party next Saturday night. You have invited 50 people to celebrate at an outdoor barbecue evening, which may continue till late night. Write a letter to your elderly neighbour. In your letter:
- explain what will be happening
- offer your apologies in advance
- invite him/her to visit your house someday / Ms..................,
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.