Letter to Mrs Barrett Offering Summer Home Help

Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer. Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter • suggest how you could help her in her home • say why you would like to do this work • explain when you will and will not be available You do NOT need to write any addresses. Begin your letter as follows: Dear Mrs Barrett,

Annotated response

13 correction notes

Dear Mrs Barrett,

My name is Elaine Sully, and I am writing this letter to you still need somebody to help you at your home. your advertisement in a local newspaper, and I just thought that it would be a great opportunity for me to earn to take a piano lesson while also helping you at your home.

what sort of assistance I could offer you, I could do anything from washing dishes to . I can even do grocery shopping once in a while, in addition to preparing some occasional afternoon snacks. And I have to do all these things right at my home because I have to fill in for the duties of my mother, who has to leave the house for professional reasons.

I am available anytime from 7:00 am to 11:00 pm and from 4:00 pm to 9:00 pm except on Tuesdays. So, if this , please let me know.

Elaine Sully

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.0

The letter covers all three bullet points with relevant, concrete detail and a mostly appropriate semi-formal tone. Its main limitations are occasional informal phrasing such as 'By the way' and 'extra cash', along with some awkward constructions like 'make an enquiry if you still need somebody' that slightly weaken precision.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

7.5

The letter clearly addresses all three bullet points from the prompt, suggesting household help such as laundry and grocery shopping, explaining the motive of earning money for piano lessons, and giving detailed availability, with only a slightly informal tone in places.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Ideas are organised into logical paragraphs covering purpose, offer of help, and availability, with generally good cohesive devices, though transitions such as 'And' and 'By the way' feel somewhat mechanical or informal.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is sufficiently flexible and natural for the task, with appropriate topic-related phrases like 'folding laundry' and 'fill in for the duties', although a few informal choices such as 'extra cash' reduce precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A good range of sentence structures is used accurately, including relative and conditional forms, with occasional awkwardness such as 'to make an enquiry if you still need somebody' but no impeding errors.

More responses with feedback

View all 4 responses (5.5–8.0)