Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-09-12

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Your English-speaking friend who lives in your town has asked for your advice about learning a new sport. Write an email to your friend. In your email:

• recommend a new sport that would be suitable for your friend to learn
• explain how your friend could learn this sport
• suggest that you both learn this sport together

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ....................................,

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Dear Sara,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out to express my pleasure that you are thinking to learn a new sport and asking about my recommendation.

First of all I will suggest you to assess your fitness level. If you are able to play any sport than it would be beneficial for you to learn basket ball.

It will suits you because I remember you were in the college team although you skipped afterwards. Now there is a good opportunity to start it again. In addition, there is a sports club in our town and at a stone's throw of your home. All the couches of this club are very expert in their relative fields and many times their teams have won the trophies.

You can book your membership online and start learning from the next day. I am also very enthusiastic to learn this sport. Therefore, I am also thinking to join with you. With best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

Sobia.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The candidate successfully covers all bullet points required by the task prompt. First, a suitable sport (basketball) is recommended and justified by mentioning the friend's past college experience. Second, the method of learning is explained clearly by directing the friend to the local sports club and online booking. Third, the proposal to learn together is explicitly stated near the end of the letter ("I am also thinking to join with you"). The tone is consistently friendly and appropriate for an informal email to an acquaintance. Ideas are relevant and fully developed, satisfying all requirements of the task efficiently. Minor lapses in natural phrasing do not prevent the response from thoroughly fulfilling the communicative goals of General Training Task 1.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter maintains a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Opening and closing conventions are observed appropriately, and paragraphing is used to separate distinct ideas, such as the introduction and recommendation in the first block, the sports club details in the second, and the joint learning proposal in the final paragraph. Cohesive devices are generally used effectively, including phrases like "First of all", "In addition", and "Therefore". However, referencing and transitions are at times slightly mechanical, such as the abrupt shift into fitness assessment. Paragraphing could also be polished slightly to avoid fragmented single-sentence paragraphs, but overall cohesion is clear and supports the reader's progression through the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The candidate demonstrates an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common idiomatic phrases and collocations such as "at a stone's throw of your home", "relative fields", and "enthusiastic to learn". However, there are notable word choice and preposition errors, such as "thinking to learn" instead of "thinking of learning", "basket ball" instead of "basketball", "couches" instead of "coaches", and "join with you" instead of "join you". While these lexical inaccuracies and spelling errors are noticeable, they do not impede communication, allowing the reader to easily follow the message. The range is sufficient for basic flexibility and precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating attempts at conditional and subordinate clauses, such as "If you are able to play any sport than it would be beneficial..." and "It will suits you because I remember you were in the college team...". Grammatical control is moderate, featuring some clear error-free sentences alongside notable errors, such as subject-verb agreement issues ("It will suits"), incorrect conjunction usage ("than" instead of "then"), and prepositional misuses. Punctuation is generally functional, but spacing errors and minor structural slips occur. These errors do not impede overall communication, placing the grammatical performance firmly within the Band 6 descriptor range.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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