Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-16

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 jass,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing letter to inform you that next week. I am coming to your city. Actually, I get my vacations from my work. I already make plan to visit your city. Because it is very beautiful place to visit. I knew some places thai I want to visit in this city.

In your city, there is a mall. From where I can get things of every brand. Most importantly, all things are not too expensive. Apart from this, I love indian food in this city. It is very yummy. Moreover, there are a beautiful beaches, which looks outstanding at sunset.

I deem that you will join me when I will come because you know everything about me. Moreover, we both get a chance to meet each other after a long time. we will go to bar once again like last time.

See you soon

your lovingly

jass

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all three bullet points required by the task prompt. The purpose of the trip is explained in the opening paragraph where the student mentions coming to the city for a work vacation. The student also asks about things to do and see by describing visiting malls, trying food, and viewing beaches. Finally, an invitation is extended in the third paragraph, proposing to meet up and go to a bar. All parts of the prompt are addressed, and the tone is appropriately informal for a letter to a friend. The ideas are relevant and generally clear, though some descriptions are quite basic. Therefore, this response meets the criteria for Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical letter-writing structure, starting with a greeting and ending with a sign-off. Paragraphing is used to separate different ideas, such as the purpose of the trip in the first paragraph, sightseeing plans in the second, and the invitation in the third. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For example, sentences in the first paragraph are fragmented with incorrect full stops, such as 'next week. I am coming to your city.' Furthermore, referencing and cohesive devices like 'Apart from this' and 'Moreover' are occasionally repetitive or awkwardly deployed. Overall cohesion is sufficient for a Band 5.5, rounded to 6.0 due to clear overall progression.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, but lacks variety and precision in several areas. The student relies on basic, repetitive adjectives and nouns, such as 'very beautiful place', 'very yummy', and 'looks outstanding'. There are also several word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as 'I get my vacations from my work' instead of 'I am taking time off work' or 'I have vacation time'. Attempts at less common vocabulary are limited, and spelling/word choice errors occur, such as 'indian' (uncapitalized) and 'thais' instead of 'things'. These errors do not heavily impede communication, fitting the Band 5.0 descriptor well.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is weak. There are frequent sentence boundary errors and punctuation flaws, such as 'I am writing letter to inform you that next week. I am coming to your city.' There are also article and preposition errors, such as 'there are a beautiful beaches' (plural mismatch) and tense inconsistencies like 'when I will come'. While some simple sentences are correct, the frequency of grammatical errors causes some difficulty for the reader and prevents the response from reaching a higher band.

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

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