You bought a ticket for a music concert, but now you are unable to go. You decide to offer the ticket to a friend. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter: - Give details of the concert. - Explain why you are unable to go. - Suggest how this friend can get the ticket from you. You do NOT need to include addresses. ………………..,
Sample Response
Dear James,Dear James
Sorry I haven’t been in touch for ages. Life has been so chaotic recently and since starting my new job I’ve hardly had a moment to spare. I hope you’re keeping well.
I'm getting in touch becauseMy reason for contacting you is that I was planning to go and see Drake in concert on the 25th of next month at Wembley Arena. Because this is his first concert here, you can imagineat Wembley Arena and because this is his first concert here you can imagine how thrilled I was to get a ticket. But my boss told me that I have to be in Manchester on the night of the concert to attend a work functionto go to a work function. You can guess how devastated I am!
As you are a massive fan of his too, I was wondering if you’d like my ticket. I don’t want any money for it—for it- let’s call it an early birthday present – but you’d need to pick it up from me next week before I leave for London. I know I could just put it in the post, but I’m scared it might never arrive.
Let me know as soon as possibleASAP if you’re interested and if so, when you’re able to pop over. It would be lovely to see you. Hopefully we can have a coffeeHopefully we’ll manage a coffee and a quick catch-up.
Give my regards to your family, and I hope to see you soon., and hope to see you soon.
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter is engaging and convincingly informal, with all three requested points covered through specific, relevant detail. Its main limitation is occasional sentence-level untidiness, especially the overextended concert explanation and minor punctuation slips; the highest-priority improvement is to use cleaner sentence boundaries and punctuation while preserving the natural, friendly voice.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, every bullet point is fully developed, and the informal tone suits a close friend.
Add a conventional closing and name to complete the letter format more neatly.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically through context, explanation, ticket arrangements, and a friendly closing, with effective paragraphing.
Split the long concert paragraph sentence so its reason, excitement, and scheduling conflict are easier to follow.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is flexible, precise, and naturally informal, with effective phrases such as thrilled, devastated, pop over, and catch-up.
Refine small presentation details, such as spacing around dashes, to make the polished word choice look equally controlled.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A wide range of complex structures is used accurately, and the few errors do not impede communication.
Tighten punctuation in long compound sentences and avoid the subject omission in the final line.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You bought a ticket for a music concert, but now you are unable to go. You decide to offer the ticket to a friend. Write a letter to this friend. In your letter:
- Give details of the concert.
- Explain why you are unable to go.
- Suggest how this friend can get the ticket from you. You do NOT need to include addresses. ………………..,
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.