You are going away to travel for the summer. A friend will be looking after your house while you are away. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter: - Say where you are going - Describe your house - Explain some of the things your friend must do to look after your house
Sample Response
Dear Debbie, Hope you are doing well. Thanks again for helping to look after my house in August while I’m away. I really appreciate it. As I mentioned to you, I’mto you I’m going to France for a vacation. I’ll be takinggetting the ferry over to northern France where I’ll spend a few days, and then I’m heading to Paris for the rest of the trip. I’ll be staying with some friends there in the city most of the time. I’ll be online and will have my phone so you can contact me any time. My house is fairly small, sofairly small so it shouldn’t be a problem to look after it. There’s an open-plan kitchenopen plan kitchen/living room downstairs and then a couple of bedrooms upstairs. You can sleep in the spare bedroom, which is at the top of the stairs on the right. There’s also a small garden which you can sit out in when it’s sunny. The only things I’d like you to doI’d like you do to are to make sure you put the bins out on Tuesday night of the second week as they are collected on Wednesday morningcollected Wednesday morning. Also, if you could water all the plants once a week, itonce a week it would be great. If you go out, please set the alarm as there have been burglaries in the area recently (I’ll leave you the code by the door). Anyway, must get off now. I’ll give you a phone call a few days before I leave. Bye for now, AimeeBye for now Aimee
Why this response received Band 8.0
The letter fulfils every part of the task with specific travel details, a clear description of the house, and practical instructions, all in a warm and natural tone. Its strongest feature is the effortless progression from itinerary to accommodation and household duties, while a small number of phrasing and punctuation slips slightly reduce polish. The highest-priority improvement is to proofread complex request sentences and closing punctuation for completely smooth accuracy.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The communicative purpose is fully achieved through detailed coverage of the destination, house layout, and several clear caretaking duties in an appropriate informal tone.
Preserve this level of specific, practical detail while keeping each instruction equally direct.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter moves clearly from travel arrangements to the house description and duties, with cohesive devices used flexibly and naturally.
Separate these three content stages into distinct paragraphs to make the structure immediately visible.
Lexical Resource
A broad, natural vocabulary range supports precise descriptions of travel, accommodation, household routines, and security.
Refine the isolated awkward phrase about the things the friend should do so every expression sounds fully natural.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex and simple structures are varied and generally accurate, with only minor slips in one request sentence and some punctuation.
Correct the request to I would like you to and punctuate introductory phrases and the closing consistently.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You are going away to travel for the summer. A friend will be looking after your house while you are away. Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:
- Say where you are going
- Describe your house
- Explain some of the things your friend must do to look after your house
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.