You recently visited a place that had a strong impact on you. Now you want to write to your friend about the place. Write a letter to a friend about the place. In your letter: - explain where the place was and how you got there - describe what you saw - offer to take your friend there
Sample Response
Dear Kakoli, I hope you are doing greatHope you are doing great. I was away for a meditation course for a week and when I returned homeafter my arrival, I sawgot to see the beautiful birthday gift you sent mesent by you. Thank you so much. I had a wonderful retreatnice vacation at the ‘Art of Living’ meditation centre and enjoyed my birthday in a perfectly serene settingamid perfect serenity. Words are few to describe the place. Though located in a busy city such as Bangalorepopulated area like Bangalore, the meditation centre is very calm. What I liked most wasis my fellow participants; they were full of positive energy. I feel I have rediscovered myself during those seven daysin just those seven days. Believe it or not, I was in completetotal silence for four days. In those four days, I could deeply reflect on my life goalsgoal and what I really wantedwant to do. Why don’t you come with me next timejoin me the next time? I know you are quite fond of meditation and yoga, so let’s plan thata trip. Take care and see you soon. Warm wishes, Ushree
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter conveys a vivid personal response to the meditation centre and ends with a warm, natural invitation that suits a friend. Its main limitation is task coverage: it locates the centre only broadly, never explains how the writer travelled there, and describes the experience more than what was seen; prioritise adding the journey details and two or three concrete visual features while removing the unrelated opening about the birthday gift.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The location, personal impact, and invitation are clear, but the means of travel is missing and the description of what was seen is limited.
State how the centre was reached and add concrete details about its buildings, grounds, or surroundings before explaining the emotional impact.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter follows an understandable path from the visit to its effect and the invitation, though the gift discussion is a distracting opening and the text lacks paragraph breaks.
Remove the unrelated gift material and use separate paragraphs for the journey, the place and experience, and the invitation.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and expressive, with effective choices such as "serenity," "positive energy," and "reflect," despite occasional awkward phrasing.
Keep the expressive tone while using more precise descriptive nouns for the place and replacing phrases such as "Words are few to describe" with natural wording.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A range of sentence forms is used accurately overall, with only occasional tense, complement, and noun-form lapses.
Maintain consistent past tense when describing the visit and revise forms such as "What I liked most was the positive energy of my fellow participants."
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently visited a place that had a strong impact on you. Now you want to write to your friend about the place. Write a letter to a friend about the place. In your letter:
- explain where the place was and how you got there
- describe what you saw
- offer to take your friend there
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.