General Training Writing Task 1 · informal · giving information

Letter to a team member recovering from injury

You play a team sport with some friends. Last week a member of the team had an accident and wasn't able to play with you at the weekend. You decide to write to him in the hospital, telling him about the match.

Write a letter to your friend. In your letter:

tell him which team won
describe the conditions on the day
say how you felt about the match

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

Band 8 sample letter

Dear Mark,

I was devastated to hear about your accident last week. The whole team has been talking about you, and we are all hoping for a very speedy recovery. I wanted to drop you a quick note to let you know how things went during the match on Saturday.

Despite your absence, we managed to secure a hard-fought victory, winning 3-2. It was a close contest, but the boys really stepped up when it mattered most, and we scored the winning goal in the final five minutes of play.

Conditions were far from ideal, unfortunately. It had been raining heavily since Friday, so the pitch was incredibly muddy and slippery. We spent most of the afternoon sliding around, which made controlling the ball quite a challenge for both sides.

To be honest, the match felt a bit bittersweet. While the result was fantastic, the atmosphere just wasn't the same without you on the wing. We missed your energy and tactical awareness, and it honestly felt like something was missing from our usual flow. Get well soon, mate.

Best wishes,

Tom

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

Why this scores well

This response reaches Band 8 by fully addressing all bullet points with a natural, consistent tone and cohesive paragraph structure. A common Band 6 error is failing to link the emotional impact of the match to the friend's absence, often resulting in a list-like response rather than a cohesive letter.

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

devastated: extremely upset or shocked by bad news
secure: to succeed in obtaining or achieving something
hard-fought: requiring a great deal of effort to achieve
ideal: perfect or most suitable for a purpose
bittersweet: a mixture of sadness and happiness
tactical awareness: the ability to understand game strategy

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.