General Training Writing Task 1 · informal · apology

Letter to a friend apologizing for missing party

A friend of yours invited you to a home party he/she arranged. However, you have just missed this party. Now you want to apologise for not attending it.

Write a letter to your friend to apologise. In your letter:

apologise to your friend
explain why you did not attend the party
say what you plan to do to make up for missing the party

Write at least 150 words. You do not need to write any addresses. Begin your letter: Dear ...,

Band 8 sample letter

Dear Sarah,

I am so incredibly sorry that I missed your housewarming party last Saturday. I was really looking forward to seeing your new place and catching up with everyone, so it was a huge disappointment to realise I had let you down.

To be honest, I completely mixed up the dates. I had marked the event in my calendar for the following weekend, and it wasn't until I saw the photos you posted on social media that I realised my mistake. I felt absolutely terrible when I saw how much fun everyone was having and realised I had missed the celebration entirely. Please accept my sincerest apologies for my absent-mindedness.

I would love to make it up to you soon. Are you free next Friday evening? I would like to take you out for dinner at that new Italian restaurant in the city centre to celebrate properly. Alternatively, if you prefer, I could pop over with a bottle of wine and some dessert later this week to see the flat properly. Let me know what works best for you.

Best wishes,

James

183 words. Names and details are invented; write your own.

Why this scores well

A Band 8 response fully addresses all three bullet points with a natural, consistent tone and appropriate cohesive devices. A common Band 6 mistake is providing a generic excuse without specific details, or failing to propose a concrete plan to rectify the situation.

Write to a friend or relative by first name and close with Best wishes, Love or See you soon.
Contractions, phrasal verbs and a warm opening line are expected; a stiff formal tone loses marks here.
Still cover every bullet in its own paragraph; friendly does not mean unstructured.

Useful phrases from the letter

housewarming: a party to celebrate moving into a new home
let you down: to fail to support or help someone
mixed up: confused the order or details of something
absent-mindedness: the tendency to be forgetful or distracted
make it up to you: to compensate someone for a mistake or disappointment
pop over: to visit someone for a short time

Write your own and get a band

Answer this prompt in a timed General Training writing test and get a band for task achievement, coherence, vocabulary and grammar, with the sentences to fix.

Practise IELTS General writing

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Frequently asked questions

Is this letter formal or informal?

Informal. Write to a friend or relative by first name and close with Best wishes, Love or See you soon.

How long should an IELTS General Training letter be?

At least 150 words, and 160 to 200 is the comfortable range. Spend about 20 minutes on it and leave 40 for Task 2, which carries twice the marks.