A high school friend who moved to another country will visit your country for a month. You have arranged a party for him/her. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - give the date and location of the party - say who is coming to the party - mention things your friend has missed while living in another country
Sample Response
Dear Leena,
I'm so excited to read in your letter thatI'm so excited to learn from your letter that you'll visit your home country for the first time in eight yearsafter at least eight years! Time indeed flies! We've planned to make your trip memorable by arranging a welcome"welcome" party for you, and we are looking forward to your arrival and to spending time togetherlooking forward to your arrival and enjoying our time together.
As for the date and location of the party, we've decided to throw the party on 4th August, three days after your arrival, in the large backyard of Mike's house. We'll start gathering at Mike's place early in the eveningjust after the evening and the party is expected to continue till midnight.
At least twenty of our high school friends and a few buddies from our neighbourhood are expected to join the party. We've also invited a few of your relatives, including your parents and siblingsrelatives including your parents and siblings. It is going to be a blast!
During your eight years in CanadaDuring the eight years of your stay in Canada, many things have happened. Our high school won the district football championship for the first time last year and we have got a new councillor in our city. Moreover, Natasha, Selina and Tania have moved to the UK, and Natasha is expecting a baby soon. Perhaps most interestingly, Sam, who had always been opposed to taking a jobagainst doing a job , has become a junior partnerhas become a junior partner in a local law firm.
We're very much looking forward to your visit.
Have a safe journey.
Warm wishes,
Rebecca
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter is engaging, well organised, and fully covers the party arrangements, guests, and notable events the friend has missed in an appropriately warm register. Its main limitation is a small number of awkward expressions and minor punctuation lapses, so the highest-priority improvement is to refine collocations and proofread complex sentences while preserving the natural, friendly tone.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is fully achieved, with all three bullet points clearly and warmly developed.
Make the missed-events section feel even more personal by briefly linking one or two updates directly to Leena's likely reaction.
Coherence and Cohesion
Information progresses logically through well-focused paragraphs, and cohesive devices guide the reader naturally.
Use slightly smoother transitions into the final updates so the sequence feels less like a list.
Lexical Resource
A wide, flexible vocabulary supports the informal tone, although a few collocations such as "against doing a job" are awkward.
Replace uncommon collocations with natural phrasing, such as "always opposed the idea of getting a job".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A broad range of complex structures is used accurately, with only minor punctuation and phrasing lapses.
Proofread relative clauses carefully, including the closing comma after "who had always been against doing a job".
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
A high school friend who moved to another country will visit your country for a month. You have arranged a party for him/her. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- give the date and location of the party
- say who is coming to the party
- mention things your friend has missed while living in another country
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.