Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 17 · 2026-08-04

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have bought some clothing online and are not satisfied with your purchase.

Write a letter to the company that you bought the clothing from. In your email:

• give details of the purchase
• describe the problem
• explain why you need a replacement urgently

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my dismayed feeling towards the damage products which I received during the recent purchase which I had done from your website.

Firstly, during the last Black Friday sale I bought Zara jacket for my husband for his birthday from your website and customer reference number : ARN[redacted phone]PR and the product costed me around $1200.

However, I was extremely disappointed when I received the product since the jacket was ripped at the front pocket and the colour was completely different which showed in the website and real one. Moreover, this costed me quite expensive even though I bought during the sale. Hence, I believe the quality is not upto the cost.

As I mentioned earlier, I ordered this product to surprise my husband on his birthday, which is in next two days and I have no time for alternative choice rather than requesting you to replace the product on the priority and also offer me extra discount on my next purchase.

I hope to receive favourable service at the earliest.

Yours faithfully,

Anjali Reddy

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You provided the purchase details (reference number and cost), described the specific defects (ripped pocket and incorrect color), and explained the urgency regarding the birthday deadline. The tone is appropriate for a formal complaint letter. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are fully developed; for instance, while you mentioned the price, you could have briefly elaborated on the expectation of quality versus the reality of the product received to make the argument more persuasive. Overall, the task is fully covered.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter follows a logical progression, moving from the purpose of the email to the specific issues and finally the requested resolution. You have used some cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'However', 'Moreover', and 'Hence' to link your ideas. However, the paragraphing is somewhat limited; the entire body of the letter is compressed into a few dense blocks. Using clear paragraph breaks between the introduction, the description of the problem, and the call to action would improve the visual structure and readability of your letter significantly.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'dismayed', 'favourable service', and 'reference number'. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'damage products' (should be 'damaged products') and 'costed me quite expensive' (should be 'was quite expensive'). Additionally, 'alternative choice rather than requesting' is slightly awkward phrasing. To improve, focus on using more natural collocations and ensuring that adjectives and verbs are used in their correct forms to convey your meaning more precisely.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is appropriate for this task. However, there are several grammatical inaccuracies that occur throughout the text. For example, 'which showed in the website' should be 'which was shown on the website', and 'upto the cost' should be 'up to the price'. There are also issues with article usage and preposition choice. While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your message, they are frequent enough to limit the score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and correct preposition usage will help improve your accuracy.

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

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