Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-28

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently bought a jacket, but when you got home, you discovered it was
damaged. When you took it back to the store, you were told that merchandise
cannot be returned.

Write a letter to the store manager. In your letter:
• describe the problem with the jacket.
• explain what happened when you tried to return it.
• say what you would like the manager to do.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I am writting a letter that i just bought a jacket from your store and i was just check its size and that was really amazing but when i come to my home and and i tried to wear unfortunatelly i just saw it was damaged from right down the shoulder and same day i was come to returned but your store workers refuse to get it back so at that time i just make a decision to write a letter to expalin my problem to you. so its my humble request to you please exchange my jacket and i do have the original bill reciept on my phone if you required.

thanks for reading my letter and understand my problem.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The response covers all three bullet points required by the prompt: you described the problem with the jacket being damaged near the shoulder, you explained that the store workers refused to accept a return, and you stated what you would like the manager to do regarding an exchange. However, the response has a significant drawback regarding length. As indicated in the length check, the text contains only 123 words, falling well short of the 150-word minimum requirement. This under-length limitation directly impacts the fullness of the task response, preventing a higher score, and you must ensure you meet the minimum word count in future tasks.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter lacks proper paragraphing, as it is written as one long block of text with a single sentence break, making the structure feel dense and difficult to navigate. Cohesive devices are minimal and repetitive, relying heavily on consecutive coordinating conjunctions like 'and' to string ideas together, such as 'when i come to my home and and i tried to wear unfortunatelly i just saw...'. While the chronological sequence of events is somewhat understandable, the lack of cohesive control and absence of clear paragraphs restricts the overall flow and organization of the letter.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is basic, highly repetitive, and restricted to everyday functional language, such as 'store', 'jacket', 'problem', and 'bill'. There are noticeable word-choice and spelling errors that detract from the quality of the writing, including 'writting' instead of 'writing', 'reciept' instead of 'receipt', and the awkward phrasing 'from right down the shoulder'. Furthermore, colloquial or overly informal phrases like 'make a decision to write' limit the appropriateness of the register for a formal business letter to a store manager.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response relies almost exclusively on long, run-on sentences connected by conjunctions rather than controlled complex structures. There is a very limited range of grammatical structures, and pervasive errors in tense consistency, punctuation, and subject-verb agreement occur throughout the text. Examples include 'i just check its size', 'when i come to my home', 'workers refuse to get it back', and missing capitalisation for the pronoun 'I'. These frequent errors require the reader to occasionally pause and interpret the intended meaning.

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

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