Two common IELTS letter writing topics
For those of you preparing for the IELTS General Training test, it would be a good idea to become more familiar with the letter writing topics that you could get in IELTS Writing Task 1.
Looking at examples from published IELTS tests and from what our students have told us about their writing tests, two common IELTS letter writing topics are a letter of complaint about a product or service and a letter of invitation to a friend.
A letter of complaint
Here’s a sample task asking you to write a letter of complaint (taken from the Official IELTS Practice Materials):
You recently bought a large expensive item but when it was delivered to your home you found some problems with it.
Write a letter to the manager of the shop. In your letter
- give details of what you bought
- describe the problems with your item
- say what you want the shop to do
If you get this kind of topic in your test, you may find it easier (and quicker) to write your letter if you use ideas from a real situation, i.e. if you write about a product that you (or somebody you know) actually bought and had problems with. When I wrote a sample answer for this task, I found it easier to base my letter on a real experience.
A letter of invitation to a friend
Here’s a sample task asking you to write a letter of invitation to a friend (taken from the book Cambridge IELTS 8):
You have recently moved to a different house.
Write a letter to an English-speaking friend. In your letter
- explain why you have moved house
- describe the new house
- invite your friend to come and visit
As with the previous task, you may find it easier if you base your letter on a real situation. You may never have written a letter inviting a friend to your house, of course, but you may have called a friend to invite them to your new house/apartment and you could base your letter on this experience.
I’ll post a sample answer to the first task later today.
Pete
See our IELTS tutor profiles to find out more about our qualified and experienced English language teachers.
Average rating
Very useful post! Thanks a lot!
I’m glad you found the post useful, Emilio. I think you’ll also like our free IELTS download ‘The five most common types of IELTS General Training Writing Task 1‘.
Pete