Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-10

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You are planning a business trip to another city. You will have some free time to do some sightseeing while you are there.
 

Write a letter to a friend who lives in the city you will visit. In your letter:
• explain the purpose of the trip.
• ask about things to do and see in the city.
• invite your friend to do something with you during your visit.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ____

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear friend I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing this letter to let you know that I will be visiting to your town for some business I have planned my trip in such a manner that I will happen to have some free time. You have told me a lot of good things about your town and I am really excited to explore along with you. I am letting u know a week earlier so u can plan your schedule and take out time for me I will email you the address at which I will be staying at. I miss our old friend ship days and I am really excited to have a lot of fun with you I really like hiking and I have heard that your town have the best hiking tracks.

looking forward to your response hope to see you next week on my address with lots of laugh and joys

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the task: explaining the purpose of the trip, asking for recommendations, and inviting your friend to meet. However, the development of these points is somewhat limited. For example, while you mention the trip is for 'business,' you do not specify the nature of the work, and your request for sightseeing ideas is quite brief. To reach a higher band, try to expand on your ideas with more detail, such as mentioning specific types of cuisine or landmarks you are interested in. The tone is appropriately informal for a letter to a friend, which is a positive aspect of your response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter lacks clear paragraphing, which makes the text feel like a single block of information. In IELTS writing, it is essential to use paragraphs to separate distinct ideas—for example, one for the purpose of the trip, one for the sightseeing request, and one for the invitation. Additionally, the use of cohesive devices is quite limited; you rely heavily on simple sentence structures without using linking words or transition phrases (e.g., 'furthermore', 'consequently', or 'as a result') to connect your thoughts. Improving your paragraph structure and using a wider variety of connectors will significantly improve the flow of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, but it is quite basic and repetitive. You use informal abbreviations like 'u' instead of 'you,' which is inappropriate for an IELTS exam, even in an informal letter. There are also some minor collocation errors, such as 'friend ship days' (should be 'friendship') and 'on my address' (should be 'at my address'). To improve, try to incorporate more descriptive adjectives and precise nouns related to travel and social activities. Avoid text-speak and ensure that your word choices are standard and formal enough for a written assessment.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

Your writing contains a mix of simple sentence structures, but there is a lack of complex grammatical forms. You have several punctuation errors, such as missing full stops between sentences, which makes the text difficult to read. There are also grammatical inaccuracies, such as 'your town have' (should be 'your town has') and 'visiting to your town' (should be 'visiting your town'). To improve, focus on using a variety of sentence structures, including relative clauses or conditional sentences, and pay closer attention to subject-verb agreement and basic punctuation rules to ensure your meaning is always clear.

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

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