Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-17

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You rode in a taxi yesterday. When you got home, you realized you had left your bag in the taxi.

Write a letter to the manager of the taxi company. In your letter
• explain how you lost your bag.
• describe your bag.
• ask the manager to help you find it.

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear sir,

I am writing this letter to inform you that yesterday I booked a taxi from your company from my workplace to home. After I reached home I forget to take bag from the back of the vehicle. I tried to get that came out to of home but unfornately taxi driver already gone. It was suv car of black colour. The bag is black colur like laptop bag with a crossbody straps on and has a branding tag on it of XYZ company. It contains my laptop and other value documents related to my work and few identifaction documents of my employement moreover the bag is rectangular shap made of black leather and few scraches on it. I am requesting to you please help me to find this bag it has my various personal belonging. I will be very thankful to you for finding my loosen items.

Regards

Ram

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all three bullet points required in the prompt. You clearly explain how you lost your bag by mentioning that you left it in the back of the taxi after reaching home and that the driver had already left when you tried to catch him. You also provide a good description of the bag, noting its black leather material, rectangular shape, crossbody straps, branding tag, and contents such as your laptop and work documents. Finally, you clearly ask the manager for help to find it. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a company manager, although minor details could be slightly more expanded. Overall, all parts of the task are addressed adequately, fitting the Band 6.5 to 7.0 descriptors nicely for coverage.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter maintains a reasonably coherent overall arrangement, allowing the reader to follow your narrative of how the bag was lost. However, the paragraphing is underdeveloped; the entire message is squeezed into one block of text rather than being broken down into logical paragraphs for greeting, explanation, description, and request/closing. Furthermore, cohesive devices are somewhat basic or missing, leading to choppy sentences, such as 'After I reached home I forget to take bag...' and 'It was suv car of black colour.' While referencing is generally clear, the lack of paragraphing and limited use of cohesive links hold this criterion back to a Band 5.5.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary range is adequate for the task, allowing you to describe the incident and the bag using words like 'workplace', 'branding tag', 'crossbody straps', and 'confidential' or 'identification documents'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'unfornately' instead of 'unfortunately', 'suv car of black colour' instead of 'a black SUV', 'value documents' instead of 'valuable documents', and 'loosen items' instead of 'lost items'. These errors do not completely impede communication because your meaning remains clear, but they restrict your lexical score to a Band 5.5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as using 'I am writing this letter to inform you that...' and 'I am requesting to you please help me...'. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues, including tense inconsistencies ('forget' instead of 'forgot', 'already gone' missing the auxiliary verb 'had'), missing articles ('from workplace to home', 'in rectangular shape'), and awkward phrasing ('I tried to get that came out to of home'). Punctuation is also weak, particularly regarding the handling of sentence boundaries. These errors cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the grammar score from rising above a Band 5.0.

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

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