Last month you had a holiday overseas where you stayed with some friends. They have just sent you some photos of your holiday. Write a letter to your friends. In your letter: - thank them for the photos and for the holiday - explain why you didn't - write earlier - invite them to come and stay with you
Sample Response
Dear Thomas and Eva, Thank you so much for sending me the photos from the holiday I spentphotos of the holidays that I spent with you guys last monthover the last month. Believe it or not, it was one of the best holidays of my life with so many happy momentshappy and joyful moments to cherish for a long time to come. I especially remember our time at the famous beach restaurant where we enjoyed eating some of the biggest lobsters with garlic sauce and butter on the side. And, talking about the photos, I think the photos we took while riding horsesriding on the horses at the ranchat a horse ranch were some of the most natural-looking pictures I've ever taken. By the way, I must apologise to youmust say sorry to you because I didn’t write to you soonerwrite to you early enough after receiving the photos from you. It is just that I got really busy dealing with some new assignments at work as well as moving to a new home. Anyway, it is my turn to invite you to my place and spend some time with me because I think that you would like my new place. Warm wishes, Sophia
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter maintains a warm, natural tone and uses vivid shared memories to thank the friends convincingly, while also giving a clear reason for the delayed reply. The main limitation is that the invitation is brief and lacks practical detail. Prioritize developing that final purpose with suggested dates or activities, while trimming repetitive wording so the message feels both complete and polished.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response addresses every bullet point in an appropriate informal tone, but the invitation is less developed than the thanks and holiday memories.
Make the invitation more persuasive and complete by suggesting when the friends could visit and what they might do together.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas follow a clear conversational progression, although the single dense body and several discourse markers make the organization slightly less controlled.
Separate the thanks, explanation, and invitation into short paragraphs and use transitions more selectively.
Lexical Resource
The response shows a good range of lively, topic-appropriate vocabulary, with occasional repetition and imprecise combinations.
Reduce redundancy in phrases such as 'happy and joyful moments' and 'riding on the horses at a horse ranch' to achieve greater precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of complex structures is handled well, and the few awkward constructions or punctuation choices do not affect clarity.
Revise bulky relative clauses and unnecessary introductory commas to make sentences more natural and controlled.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
Last month you had a holiday overseas where you stayed with some friends. They have just sent you some photos of your holiday. Write a letter to your friends. In your letter:
- thank them for the photos and for the holiday
- explain why you didn't
- write earlier
- invite them to come and stay with you
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.