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

Describe a letter you wrote to someone.

You should say:

• who you wrote this letter to
• what you wrote about
• when it was

and explain why writing this letter was important to you.

Model Answer 1:
These days, the habit of writing a letter with pen and notepad is almost gone, courtesy of the invention of the computer, the internet technology and email, but there was a time when people actually considered letter-writing habit as some form of art by adopting different kinds of writing styles. In fact, I also took this letter-writing habit with pen and paper rather seriously as a high school student before more than 15 years when I didn’t have any access to a computer or the internet.

Today, I would like to talk about one such letter which I wrote to my grandfather when I just got admitted to one of the prestigious high schools in my country. By the way, if I remember it correctly, by then, I had just started to like the idea of writing a letter to people I knew. So, quite naturally, I was yet to fully capture the art of organizing my thoughts and express them in a coherent manner.

But that didn’t prevent me to write a letter to my grandfather to tell him how I liked my new school, and how I was struggling to make new friends at a new school. The letter also included subjects like which teachers were nice to me, and which teachers were tough. I also didn’t forget to mention the great "tiffin", provided by the school, which I really enjoyed eating, as well as the large playing ground where my senior brothers from school used to play football. However, the story of this letter writing thing wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention that I had actually wasted almost half of my notepad, which contained about 30 pages, to write that precious letter.

Anyway, writing this letter was important to me mainly because I was missing my grandfather who loved me so much. After moving to the boarding school, I wanted to tell him about everything that was happening. Besides, it also offered me an opportunity for the first time to learn how to express my thoughts properly in writing unlike the childish way of writing in the past.

Sample Answer 2:
With the convenience of the internet and email technology, these days, we hardly write hand-written letters. Interestingly, I didn't have an internet facility at home until I became 10 years old, so I wrote many letters before I even turned just 10. For this topic, which is quite interesting in my opinion, I would like to mention a letter that I wrote to my mother while I was staying at a boarding house away from home.

I got admitted to a renowned school when I was just ten years old, and I had to stay at the school's boarding house during my study there. I was sad to leave my parents and siblings but had no other choice. Just a couple of days later, when I left my home and started living in that boarding house, I started missing my family and hometown terribly. It was a feeling like nothing before, and I wished I could run away from the place and get back to my own house. But I knew, even as a child, that it was a lousy idea. So I paid more attention to my studies and hobbies despite my melancholy feelings.

So, I wrote a letter to my mother to let her know that I was doing fine and there was nothing to worry about me - that was a bit crafty for a young kid at this age but I didn't want my mother to worry about me at all. In this letter, which took me a great deal of effort and time, I also wrote how much I was missing them all and how things were going on in my school life. I asked my mom how other family members and my dad were doing and if they missed me. I remember asking a lot of questions in my letter and told mostly the positive things about my new life. Finally, I wrote about my teachers, new classmates and other people I met in my new place.

It was a letter written by me as a little kid to my mother to let her know that I was fine and considering the emotions, situation, feelings and my age, it was quite an important letter to me. It was significant also because this was the first time I wrote to my mother as I had always lived with her and never stayed away. I wrote to say that I loved them very much and I was desperately missing them. This letter was my very first attempt to have an ethereal conversation with my dearest mother and other family members whom I have always hold closer to my heart.

Similar Cue Card Topics

Your ability to talk about this Cue Card Topic would enable you to talk about the following Cue Card Topics as well:

1. Describe a letter or email you sent to someone recently.
2. Describe a news item you gave to someone recently.
3. Describe a piece of good news you gave to someone.

• IELTS Cue Card
• Candidate Task Card

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