There is a public park near where you live. You have heard that the local council wants to sell this park. Write a letter to a local newspaper. In your letter: - introduce yourself - describe the importance of the park - say what action you will take if the council continues with its plan
Sample Response
Dear Editor,To the Editor, My name is John Smith – a resident of Coquitlam for five years. My family moved here due to its affordability and proximityaffordability, and proximity to the city. We also enjoy several small parks whereparks in which our sons and their friends play. One of these parks is Lafarge Park on Guilford StreetLafarge Park, on Guilford Street. It is not large, but it is well-used, clean, and safe. Recently, I learnt that Coquitlam Council has decided to sell this public amenity for development. The land has already been rezoned for residential usereasoned residential, so I assume as many dwellings as possible – perhaps even twenty apartments – could be built here. While I am not a lawyer and do not knowlawyer, and do not know throughby which legal process this land could be sold, as a resident, I was neither informed nor consulted about it. All my neighbors say the same thing. We have petitioned the council, and I hope this letter reaches a wider audiencepublic. Our website, SaveLafargePark.com, listsSaveLafargePark.com lists a number of protest activities that we hope your readers will join us inin which we hope your readers may join us. Too few green and tranquil public spaces remain in this overdeveloped city. Save Lafarge Park before it isit is be too late. Yours faithfully, John Smithtoo late. John Smith
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter is persuasive and specific, introducing the resident clearly and explaining both the park’s community value and organised opposition to the sale. Its main limitation is that the intended future action is implied through an existing petition and website rather than stated conditionally, while a few conspicuous wording errors reduce polish; the priority is to state the next action explicitly and proofread key phrases.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The response addresses all required points with relevant detail and an engaging public-facing tone, though the action to be taken if the plan continues is not fully explicit.
Add a direct conditional statement explaining the precise protest, campaign, or legal action that will follow if the council proceeds.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas develop logically from personal background and the park’s value to the council’s plan and the community response.
Use clear paragraph breaks to separate the introduction, importance of the park, concerns about the sale, and proposed action.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is varied and often precise, with effective expressions such as “public amenity,” “tranquil public spaces,” and “overdeveloped city,” despite an important word-choice error.
Replace “reasoned residential” with “rezoned for residential use” and proofread other formal collocations for precision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses a flexible range of sentence forms with generally strong control, although a few punctuation issues and the error “before it is be too late” remain.
Proofread complex sentences and final appeals carefully, correcting the closing phrase to “before it is too late.”
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
There is a public park near where you live. You have heard that the local council wants to sell this park. Write a letter to a local newspaper. In your letter:
- introduce yourself
- describe the importance of the park
- say what action you will take if the council continues with its plan
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.