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Written by IELTS Mentor

IELTS Speaking Part 2: IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card.

Describe a letter you have written to someone.

You should say:

• what the letter was about
• who you wrote it to
• why you wrote it

and explain how you felt about writing this letter.

Model Answer 1:
When I was attending my junior high school about almost 12 years ago, I remember writing some letters to my friends and my grandfather. Of course, writing a letter to my friends was fun, but writing one to my grandfather was even more special. So, today, I would like to talk about a letter which I wrote to my grandfather.

Like any other grandfathers, my grandfather was the most favourite person to me also in the whole wide world, apparently, because he never used admonish me or discipline me even when I was an “unruly” boy. Besides, since he also used to buy me all kinds of things, like sunglasses, nice wristwatches, and delicious cookies/ or chocolates, I never really wanted to stay away from him. But, that, of course, wasn’t always possible because my parents had to live in different places at different times because of professional reasons. But, whenever I would leave my grandfather to live with my parents, I would write letters to my grandfather telling him how much I missed him.

But, this one letter, I am talking about, was rather positive since I actually invited my grandfather to come to us and live with us. This letter also included topics like how I would one day buy a piece of land near my grandfather’s place and build a house on it so that I would never really need to stay away from him. If I remember correctly, this was probably the longest letter that I had ever written to someone up and until that point.  After all, it had taken me at least about 6 hours to organize my thoughts and transfer them onto my letter pad!

And, after writing that letter, I felt like I had finally managed to express my frustration (“anger” probably should be the right word here) to my grandfather. Besides, I also felt a bit excited while writing it since I was hoping that my grandfather would actually listen to my plea and come to live with us soon.

Sample Answer 2:
With the invention and popularity of email and text messaging, letter writing has already lost its popularity. Nowadays people either text or call someone to convey a message rather than writing a letter and posting it. The letter I will talk about is the one I wrote to my younger sister Emma. It was about 4 years ago and I wrote it as a reply to a letter she wrote me. I would like to mention that I have written many other letters to friends and family members after I wrote this letter to Emma. However, the letter that I wrote to Emma was different than other letters.

It was a personal letter that mostly expressed my love for my family, how much I was missing them and how I was doing in my new school. Just after I moved to a new city and started my class, I received a beautiful letter from my younger sister who was only 12 years old at that time. In her letter, she wrote how much she missed me and how things were different for her without me being near her. She also mentioned how my friends were doing and how sad my parents were during the first few days of my departure. She wrote that my mother was particularly sad without having me around. She also asked me to write back as soon as possible with every detail of my new life and academic progress as my parents instructed her.

I wrote a reply letter to Emma and let her know how much I loved her and how deeply I was missing all of them. I also wrote about my new school, teachers, classmates, and about the hostel I was staying in. I tried to give her a vivid description of everything so that she could visualise the details I wrote about. It was a large letter and took me around a couple of days to finish. I did not give details of my struggle and sad moments as that would have worried them a lot. I mentioned about my study, food and health condition to assure them that I was fine.

Moving to a new city and adjusting there is a difficult experience. Personal touch with family is quite essential during this time and the letter I wrote and the one I received from Emma and my parents helped me to reduce my stress and depression level. Writing a letter to someone we care about is always important and this particular letter was even more important for me to write as my sister and other family members must have been eagerly waiting to receive it. I felt quite happy after I wrote and posted the letter.

Sample Answer 3:
Pursuing a higher education is a blessing for people of a country like South Africa. In that consideration, I am lucky enough to expect that chance of higher study abroad. Recently I have applied for an MA programme at the University of Liverpool.

While browsing the website of different universities, I found that the University of Liverpool is offering a research-based Master’s programme. So, I applied for it. By the same time, I had to write a letter to the Dean of the Institute of Psychology Health and Society to allow me attending the research course on Socio-Economic Factors in Health, Illness and Wellbeing. In fact, this was a one-year research-based MA programme of the university and I was able to fit with the course with my academic background.

Mr William Parkinson is the dean of the department and his approval is required for attending the course or get admitted to the department. So, I wrote the letter to him informing about my competencies on the course. Besides, I also had to answer some preset questions and elaborated the answers in my letter. Moreover, I described the importance of the course in the context of my country and its prospects and the other relevant issue. I was instructed to submit the answers in a handwritten format. So, I wrote a letter describing the necessary points and had sent it to the following address.  

Getting admission to a foreign university is not so easy as it appears by the consultation with the foreign education councillors. It requires necessary documents and simultaneously the applicant needs to attain the minimum qualification to apply for the admission. I had to analyse each of my qualifications and collect all the scorecards so far I have achieved in my academic career. Moreover, the admission instruction asked me to provide all the copies of my academic results, and then write a letter to the dean of the department. After gathering all the necessary documents, I wrote the letter. In fact, without the letter, it was impossible to submit the application to the university. The instructions clearly stated that a letter should be submitted to the dean of the faculty and a scanned copy of the letter should be attached to the application form. So, I had to write the letter.

It was an exciting experience for me. In fact, I have not written many letters in my life and it was a lengthy one. Moreover, I had to be thoughtful while writing the letter. The letter contained all the academic credentials of my life which I hardly evaluated when I was an undergraduate student. Besides, collecting the necessary documents was also hard for me. I am a careless boy. I like to keep things in a mess. So, it was difficult for me to sort out the documents and prepare them to be sent in the UK. Finally, I completed all the tasks perfectly, though it took more time. Right before the deadline ended, I sent the letter to the university address. I am waiting for their response and hope I would get the chance to this research-based master’s programme of the University of Liverpool.
 

More Ideas to talk about this Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card topic:

Topic: Describe a letter you have written to someone.

1. Honestly, I am not enthusiastic at writing letters but had to write one for one of the colleagues. He left the job from our company and joined another one. So, I had to write a recommendation letter for Jones. The letter described his qualities and how he performed during his tenure while his stay with me. In the beginning, I felt confused about what to write. But later, I adapted to the matter and praised him heavily in the letter.

2. My visit to China was a fruitful one and I bought an electronic device from a local manufacturer there. So, I wrote a letter to the seller of the product and asked him to describe the functionality and how the device works. In fact, I was having trouble in operating the device. I was worried whether the supplier would respond me or not. Later, I made a long-distance call and informed that I have sent a letter. I was assured that I will get a reply within a short time.

3. The letter I wrote last week was about following up about the order that I placed to a software firm. I wrote the letter to the CEO of that Japanese company. In fact, my bank had ordered a customized software for its smooth operation and we had an agreement to be provided with the software in a month. Since there were no responses from the other side, I wrote the letter. I felt a bit discomfort to use some harsh words in the letter and also suggested not to grant those as personal.

4. Placing an order and through issuing a letter is really irritating. But I had to follow my official rules and wrote a letter to a local supplier to provide with necessary stationery items for my office here in Mexico. I had to write the letter because there was an acute shortage of stationery items in the office. So, I wrote in detail about our needs and also asked to deliver the products as soon as possible for him. I did not have any special feelings about it as I have to write such letters often to meet my official needs.

5. Writing love letter is a big deal. It requires a lot of attention and also an expression of love. I wrote a love letter to my girlfriend to propose her to be with me for the rest of her life. Marry agreed happily. I had to write this because I could not bear the emotions inside my mind anymore. Writing the letter was tough for me because I was not sure if she would accept it or not. Besides, my inexperience in the matter also weakened me.

6. I was responsible to invite my relatives to my elder sister’s marriage ceremony and I wrote a letter to my pen friend in England. The letter was about inviting him to the ceremony. I wrote the letter to Julia and invited her to be present at the ceremony that was supposed to be held in the last part of September. I was filled with thrill while writing the letter. In fact, I had seen her only in virtual media and her arrival in my land would be a great event for me. So, I was delighted.

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