Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-05

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows the manufacturing process for making sugar from sugar cane.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

How sugar is produced from sugar cane

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The diagram illustrates the manufacturing process for making sugar from sugar cane.

Overall, it can be seen that, the sugar process consists of seven major steps. Starting from production of sugar in agriculture site to purifying the sugarcane juice to produce clean and crystal clear sugar.

Initially, sugarcane are produced in huge quatity in agriculture site which take 12 to 18 months to grow. After that, second phase starts where heavy machines and worker harvests sugarcane through automatic cutter and manually. Moreover, the harvested sugarcane are taken to the mill to crush the sugar to extract juice from it.

In the next stage, purifying juice takes place where a limestone filters inpurities and separate pure sugarcane juice. The pure sugarcane juice is processed through evaporation process where all juice becomes syrup. Moreover, the syrup goes through centrifuge process which extract sugar crystals from syrup ,it is placed in a tank for drying and cooling.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response satisfies the length requirement of 150 words minimally, though 9 words copied from the prompt were not counted, leaving the student's own text at 145 words. The overview is present, identifying seven major steps, and the main features of the diagram are covered from growing to cooling. However, certain parts of the process are under-developed or less fully addressed. For instance, the description of the harvesting phase lacks detail regarding the two distinct methods shown (mechanical versus manual), and the final stages of drying and cooling are rushed. To reach a higher band, the response should provide a more fully developed account of all stages, ensuring all visual data points are integrated clearly and balanced.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The writing demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical sequence following the stages of the diagram chronologically. Paragraphing is utilised to separate the introduction, overall summary, and the body stages. However, cohesion is sometimes mechanical or faulty. Devices such as 'Initially', 'After that', and 'In the next stage' are used to sequence events, but referencing and linking across sentences can be repetitive. Additionally, some transitional phrases feel forced, and punctuation errors around clauses (such as 'syrup ,it is placed') disrupt the natural flow of ideas. Improving the sophistication of cohesive ties and ensuring smooth transitions between sentences would elevate this criterion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, successfully communicating the main stages of the sugar manufacturing process with terms like 'evaporation', 'centrifuge', and 'limestone filters'. The student attempts less common vocabulary, but this is accompanied by some word choice, collocation, and spelling errors, such as 'quatity' instead of 'quantity', 'agriculture site' instead of 'an agricultural site', and phrasing like 'crush the sugar to extract juice'. These lexical inaccuracies do not seriously impede communication, but they reflect a limited and sometimes awkward control of word forms and collocations. Expanding lexical flexibility and ensuring accurate spelling and word formation will improve performance in this area.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, attempting structures such as passive voice ('are produced', 'is processed') and relative clauses. However, there are notable grammatical errors in article use, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions within patterns, such as 'sugarcane are produced', 'production of sugar in agriculture site', and missing articles before singular countable nouns. Punctuation errors are also present, including comma splices and incorrect spacing around punctuation marks. While these errors rarely impede overall communication, they persist throughout the text and restrict the response to a moderate band. Increasing syntactic accuracy and refining control over complex sentence structures will help improve this score.

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

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