Advice to a Friend on Learning a New Sport

Your English-speaking friend who lives in your town has asked for your advice about learning a new sport. Write an email to your friend. In your email • recommend a new sport that would be suitable for your friend to learn • explain how your friend could learn this sport • suggest that you both learn this sport together. You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear ……………,

Annotated response

7 correction notes

Dear Frank,

Thanks for your email that gives so many details about . I'm glad to know about them. And I hope that the weather is .

I understand that you are seeking my a new sport which you are going to like and enjoy playing. I think that indoor table tennis is the best sport for you to try. I'm recommending this indoor sport for you because it'll save you from the uncomfortable heat and humidity of the outdoors.

Learning to play table tennis is rather easy and fun. In fact, if you can move fast and at will to hit the ball, you're a winner in this game! In other words, it's all about speed and timing rather than strength. But, before all of that, you need to bouncing the ball so that you can develop your control as well as your . But, guess what, I have got an even better idea! How about we learn this sport together!

See you soon. Take care.

Warm regards,

George

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The letter's strongest aspect is its warm, natural informal register and complete coverage of all three bullet points in the prompt. The main limitation is that the explanation of how to learn the sport is developed only briefly, and a few phrasing choices are slightly awkward without obscuring meaning.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.0

The email clearly addresses all three bullet points with a suitable friendly tone, recommending table tennis, outlining a basic learning approach, and proposing learning together, though the learning detail is somewhat thin.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas progress logically from greeting to recommendation to learning method to invitation, with cohesive devices used naturally, though some transitions such as repeated 'But' feel slightly mechanical.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is natural and appropriately informal for a friend, with idiomatic expressions like 'at will' and 'guess what', alongside occasional awkward phrasing such as 'advice in learning'.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A good range of sentence structures, including conditionals and relative clauses, is used with generally accurate control and only minor, non-impeding errors.

More responses with feedback

View all 3 responses (7.0–8.0)