You are going to visit New Zealand for an 'English and Homestay' program. You have just received details of your homestay host family. Write your first letter to the family. In your letter: - introduce yourself - ask the family some questions to get information that is important to you - tell the family about your arrival date and time
Sample Response
Dear Mr Nithan, I am Preeti Roy, a 22-year-old student from India. I applied for an English and Homestay programmean English Homestay program at the University of Wellington and I have received a letter from the university, informing me that I will be staying with your familyapprising me that you will be my host family. I really appreciate that you have agreed to host me in your homehost me at your house. I am from Delhi, India, and I am pursuingDelhi, India and I am pursuing my engineeringEngineering degree atfrom the University of Technology in Delhi. My father is a doctor and my mother is an architect. I have two siblings and they are younger than mejuniors to me. I applied for the English Homestay programme last June to enhancefurther enhance my English-speaking skillsEnglish speaking skills. I was wondering if you could advise me on the weather and local etiquetteweather and etiquette in Wellington as I have never been there. What type of clothingdress should I bring? Could you also inform me of the distance between your home and the university and what will be the easiest way to reach the university? Besides, I am coming to New Zealand for the first time and have no idea about the local customs and manners I should respectcommon cultures and manners you respect. Please advise me on that as well. I will arrive in Wellington on 1010th December, probably around 10:30 a.m.10:30 in the morning. I plan to arrive a week earlyI want to reach a week earlier as I want to explore the surrounding areas. Kindly also inform me of the best way to reach your home from the airport. Looking forward to meeting you soon. Yours sincerely, Preeti Roy
Why this response received Band 6.5
The response's strongest feature is its thorough fulfilment of the task: it introduces the student, asks several practical questions, and gives a precise arrival date and time in a consistently polite tone. Its main limitation is unnecessary personal detail and some awkward expressions, which make the letter longer and less natural than needed. The priority is to streamline the introduction and phrase the cultural and travel questions more idiomatically.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
All required points are fully addressed with useful questions and clear arrival information, although details about the writer's parents and siblings add little to the purpose.
Keep only personal details that help the host family prepare, and clarify what arriving a week early is relative to.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter progresses logically from introduction to questions and arrival plans, but its single long body and repeated requests reduce concision.
Group the introduction, practical questions, and arrival arrangements into separate paragraphs with one clear focus each.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and generally appropriate, but phrases such as "apprising me," "juniors to me," and "common cultures" sound unnatural.
Prefer natural wording such as "informing me," "younger than me," "local customs," and "what clothes should I bring."
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The writer uses varied sentence forms with generally good control, though occasional article, capitalization, and clause-choice errors remain.
Use standard forms such as "an engineering degree," "English-speaking skills," and "the easiest way to get to the university."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going to visit New Zealand for an 'English and Homestay' program. You have just received details of your homestay host family. Write your first letter to the family. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- ask the family some questions to get information that is important to you
- tell the family about your arrival date and time
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.