You have a friend who lives in a city abroad. You would like to apply to do a course at one of the colleges in this city. Write to your friend. In your letter: - explain what you would like to do - describe the work or studies you have been doing for the past few years - ask for help contacting an appropriate institution
Sample Response
Dear Sam, Hope you are fine. I am now in Vizag and working for a large architectural consultancy firm. In order to accelerate my professional and personal growth, I need to complete a course in architectural designpertaining to architectural design. I am hoping you would be able to provide information aboutprovide details on some renowned colleges that offer suchthe courses and help me choose oneguide me chose one. It is well known that Dubai undertakes excellent construction projects, and colleges there offer outstanding architecture and design coursesarchitectural and designing courses too. As you are studying and residing in Dubai, Could you please tell meI request you to kindly apprise me of the architectural courses offered by colleges. I am relying on you to pick a course at a college. I request you to kindly examine the course content and durationcontent of the course, its duration, the course curriculum, the cost and finally the placement opportunities after completion of the course. It would immensely help me in analysing and choosing the right coursepicking up the right course from the right institution. I would be grateful for the information and support. I will be waiting for your reply in this regard. Warm wishes, Talluri
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter clearly identifies the desired architecture course and asks for substantial help comparing colleges, course content, costs, and employment prospects. Its main limitation is task coverage: it barely describes the writer's recent work or studies and does not clearly ask the friend to contact an institution; the register is also overly formal for a friend. Prioritise those two missing details in a warmer personal tone.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The desired course is clear and the request for guidance is detailed, but recent work or study is barely described and contacting a college is not directly requested.
Explain the architectural work completed over the past few years and ask Sam to contact one or two suitable colleges for application information.
Coherence and Cohesion
The message follows a clear path from current circumstances to course aims and requested help, though repetition and a single paragraph make the organisation less effective.
Use separate paragraphs for the course goal, professional background, and specific help requested from the friend.
Lexical Resource
There is a reasonable range of education and career vocabulary, but repetition and overly formal choices such as 'apprise me' and 'in this regard' make the friendly letter unnatural.
Adopt conversational phrases such as 'let me know,' 'help me find,' and 'get in touch with the college.'
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Most sentences are structurally clear and some complex forms are controlled, though errors in verb patterns, articles, and noun choice recur.
Correct forms such as 'guide me to choose,' 'architecture courses,' and 'information about colleges.'
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have a friend who lives in a city abroad. You would like to apply to do a course at one of the colleges in this city. Write to your friend. In your letter:
- explain what you would like to do
- describe the work or studies you have been doing for the past few years
- ask for help contacting an appropriate institution
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.