Letter to a Friend About Moving House

  • Housing
  • Notification
  • Invitation

You have recently moved to a different house. Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter • explain why you have moved • describe the new house • invite your friend to come and visit Dear.............,

Annotated response

1 correction note

Dear Simmons, Hope you're doing great. I'm still relishing the pleasant memories we had together during our last trip - it was wonderful. I'm writing to let you know that we've moved into a house in Bath, a town set in the rolling countryside of southwest England. I hope you would visit us soon. As you know, my previous apartment was far away from my office and it was inconvenient both for me and Anna to commute a long distance daily. However, we could not shift our house considering Julie's school location. This summer I transferred her to Kingswood School in Bath and moved here soon after. Now the daily commute is no longer a cause of concern for us. We moved into this house at the beginning of February and we really like it. A small garden at the front makes it even more beautiful. We now have enough space to park 3 cars! It has five rooms, a lawn and two large balconies. The best part is that the area is quiet and surrounded by astonishing natural beauty. After living in a flat in a busy area for nearly 8 years, a spacious house seems like a dream come true. I hope you would visit us soon as I'm really looking forward to having you and Linda with us for a few days. It will be fun. Hope to meet you soon. Warm wishes, Mitchell

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The letter develops all three required points with a warm tone and varied vocabulary. However, the whole message is a single block without paragraph organisation. Its account of moving soon after a summer school transfer also conflicts with the stated February move, and the invitation is repeated rather than developed further.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.5

The letter addresses all three bullet points with a friendly tone and substantial detail. However, it says the move followed a school transfer this summer and also dates the move to the beginning of February, leaving the chronology unclear.

Coherence and Cohesion

5.5

The message has an understandable sequence, but the entire letter is one continuous block, including its greeting and closing. The reasons, house description and invitation need clearer paragraph grouping, and the repeated invitation adds some unnecessary repetition.

Lexical Resource

7.5

Vocabulary is flexible and natural for the personal letter, including rolling countryside and a dream come true. Relishing pleasant memories is also an acceptable expression; the main loss of precision concerns the inconsistent dates rather than that collocation.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.5

A variety of complex sentences and verb forms communicates the message with generally good control. The phrase "both for me and Anna" is valid shared-preposition coordination. The repeated "I hope you would visit us soon" is less natural for a direct future invitation than the surrounding language.

More responses with feedback

View all 11 responses (6.5–8.0)