Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-15

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 5.0)

Dear Raman,

I hope you are fine and I am writing this letter about my business trip in your city and I will have some leisure time to see the tourist sites. I will come in Chandigarh for next week for my business meeting with my business partners and this meeting purposes only for two day, so I will decide to meet with you.

You lived in Chandigarh, so you can tell me about the famous places at there as well as I really excited to see the Sukhna Lekh, because it is very famous.

I will stay in the Rose hotel during my visit and I invite to you at this hotel, because we are meet after a long time. So, please you can free for next week and no give me any excuse for this. See to you.

I look forward hearing to you.

Yours loving

Yashandeep kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The candidate addresses all three bullet points required by the prompt. First, the purpose of the trip is explained as a business meeting with partners lasting two days. Second, the writer asks about famous places in Chandigarh. Third, an invitation is extended to meet at the hotel. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited and repetitive. For example, the mention of the business meeting is slightly confused regarding the exact timeline, and the invitation includes conversational commands like 'please you can free for next week and no give me any excuse'. Despite these limitations, the purpose of a friendly informal letter is clear and all task requirements are covered, which fits the Band 5 descriptors well.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter lacks proper paragraphing, as nearly the entire text is lumped into one long block or fragmented awkwardly. Cohesive devices are basic and repetitive, such as the overuse of 'and' ('...and I am writing...', '...and I will have...', '...and my business meeting...'). Reference pronouns are occasionally unclear, as seen in 'at there' and 'to you at this hotel'. While there is a basic chronological arrangement moving from the trip announcement to asking about sights and finally extending an invitation, the lack of cohesive control and paragraphing prevents the letter from achieving a higher band score, aligning it with Band 5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is generally basic and repetitive. The writer employs simple words and phrases such as 'fine', 'leisure time', 'famous places', and 'long time'. There are several noticeable lexical and collocational errors throughout the response, including 'see the tourist sites', 'purposes only for two day' instead of 'purpose is only for two days', 'You lived in Chandigarh' instead of 'You live in Chandigarh', and 'Sukhna Lekh' (which should be Sukhna Lake in English context). The range of vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, but the frequent errors place it securely at Band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The grammatical structure relies heavily on simple sentences joined by coordinating conjunctions like 'and' and 'so'. There are frequent grammatical errors and awkward phrasings, such as 'I am writing this letter about my business trip in your city' (in vs to), 'I will come in Chandigarh' (in vs to), 'we are meet after a long time' (tense/form error), and 'no give me any excuse'. Complex structures are attempted with varying degrees of success, but frequent errors in verb tenses, prepositions, and sentence construction cause occasional difficulty for the reader. This corresponds to the Band 5 criteria for grammar.

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

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