A friend has agreed to look after your house and pet while you are on holiday. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - Give contact details for when you are away - Give instructions on how to care for your pet - Describe other household duties
Sample Response
Dear Aditi,
I hope you’re doing well. I’m so grateful to you for agreeing to house-sit for me while I am away on vacationwhile I will be away for a vacation next month. Thanks to you, I can enjoy the beaches of Thailand without worrying.
I expect you will arrive hereI suppose you will land here on the evening of 22 nd September; by then, I willwould have departed onvia my morning flight. To enter the houseFor entry into the house, you need to collect the keyscollect keys from Mr Mittal, who livesstays in flat 302, exactly opposite mine. Once I arriveUpon reaching the destination, I will send you my local number via Messengerover messenger; you can ring me in case of any issues.
Furthermore, there are a few chores thatthere are few chores which you need to take care of. My pet dog, Ruby, needs to be fed twice a day, and you can findfor that, you can find the pet food on the top-left shelf in the kitchentop left shelf of the kitchen.
In addition, please water the plants near the window once a daydaily once. Lastly, keep an eye on the incoming mailmails as I expect an important deliverycourier during that period.
Thanks once again for your kind gesture. Looking forward to meeting you in person once I’m back.
Best regardsRegards,
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response is strongest in its clear, friendly organisation: the house access, pet care, and household duties are easy to follow. The main limitation is that several phrases are unnatural and the contact arrangement is only promised for later rather than made fully practical. The highest-priority improvement is to give complete contact details and use more idiomatic everyday language throughout.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter has a clear purpose, an appropriate friendly tone, and addresses all three bullet points with relevant instructions.
Make the contact information more useful by providing a number or another definite way to reach you while away.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response is logically sequenced and clearly paragraphed, although some linking expressions feel mechanical.
Connect related household instructions more naturally instead of relying repeatedly on ‘Furthermore,’ ‘In addition,’ and ‘Lastly.’
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is adequate and sometimes varied, but awkward collocations such as ‘daily once’ and ‘incoming mails’ recur.
Use natural combinations such as ‘once a day,’ ‘mail,’ and ‘contact me on Messenger’ to improve precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses a useful range of sentence forms, but several article, tense, and phrasing errors remain noticeable.
Check articles and future forms carefully, for example ‘a few chores’ and ‘I will have departed by then.’
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A friend has agreed to look after your house and pet while you are on holiday. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- Give contact details for when you are away
- Give instructions on how to care for your pet
- Describe other household duties
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.