Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-12

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 Aman,

I hope you find this letter in radiant health and high spirits. I am writing this letter to inform you that i will visit your city next monday for business meetings. During this business trip, i will stay at the International Royal Hotel . I will stay there for a week and i also have some spare time betwen meetings. I think it would be great to spend this time to see the famous places. Can you suggest me famous places, where i can visit during trip.

As it is your city and you live hare since his birth.

I will be glad if you are free and join me. In this way we will spend some quality time together after a long time. we will remind our old memories. I WI

Yours faithfully,

Manpreet kaur Gill

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You cover the main purpose of the letter: you explain that you are visiting for business meetings, mention your hotel and free time, ask for sightseeing suggestions, and invite Aman to join you. However, the request for recommendations is brief, and the invitation does not specify an activity or a time, so these parts are only partially developed. The sentence about Aman living in the city is unclear and does not add a useful detail. The response is also 11 words below the required minimum, which limits the opportunity to develop the points. Add a specific question about attractions or activities and propose a plan, such as dinner or a visit to a landmark on a particular evening.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The letter follows a broadly suitable order: it introduces the trip, asks about places to visit, and then invites your friend. The greeting and sign-off also make the format recognisable. However, the progression is interrupted by the standalone sentence, “As it is your city and you live hare since his birth,” which is difficult to connect to the surrounding ideas. Several sentences begin with “I,” and the invitation and closing are not clearly separated into paragraphs. Use paragraph breaks for the trip details, your questions, and the invitation, and connect ideas more clearly—for example, explain that Aman’s local knowledge is why you are asking for recommendations.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use some appropriate expressions for a friendly letter, including “business meetings,” “spare time,” and “quality time together.” There are also attempts at more expressive language, such as “radiant health and high spirits,” although this sounds overly formal for a letter to a friend. Several word-choice and spelling problems reduce naturalness, including “suggest me famous places,” “hare,” and “betwen.” The phrase “we will remind our old memories” does not express the intended meaning clearly. Aim for accurate, natural collocations and a consistent friendly tone: for instance, ask Aman to “recommend some places to visit” and say you could “reminisce about old times.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response includes simple sentences and attempts to combine ideas, as in “I will stay there for a week and i also have some spare time between meetings.” However, control is uneven, and errors sometimes make the message harder to follow. Examples include the incomplete construction “As it is your city and you live…,” the question structure “Can you suggest me…,” and inconsistent capitalisation of “I” and “we.” The final fragment, “I WI,” also leaves the letter unfinished. Practise forming indirect questions and complete sentences, and check verb forms, sentence boundaries, and capital letters before finishing. A wider range of accurately controlled sentence patterns would make the letter clearer.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.