Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-25

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 hope this letter finds you doing well.I am writing to bring to your attention that i availed your taxi services yesterday and i noticed i left my bag in it.

I was on call with my collegaue and we were talking about the meeting with an international client that i should join around 6pm.I was in a hurry and my bag was on the other side of the seat.So, while getting out i accidently forgot to pick up my bag.It was pink in color with black bows and its almost 30*30 cm long. Moreover,there are multiple zips on it.I am looking forward to receive assistance in finding my bag.I hope to hear back from you soon.

Yours Faithfully

Drishti

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You successfully covered all bullet points required by the prompt. Specifically, you explained how you lost your bag by mentioning that you were distracted on a phone call with your colleague about an international client meeting, described your bag as being pink with black bows, measuring approximately thirty by thirty centimetres with multiple zips, and asked the manager for assistance in finding it. However, your response has a significant drawback regarding length. As noted in the instructions, this task requires a minimum of 150 words, but your text contains only 122 words. Being under the word count means the development of your ideas is somewhat restricted, which prevents you from achieving a higher band score despite covering all content requirements. To improve, ensure you expand further on each point.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

Your letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical sequence from explaining the situation to describing the bag and finally requesting assistance. However, there are noticeable cohesion and formatting issues. You started the letter with 'Dear Sir,' and ended with 'Yours Faithfully / Drishti,' but you omitted standard paragraph breaks, clumping almost the entire body of the letter into a single dense block of text. Cohesive devices are also somewhat basic and occasionally repetitive (e.g., multiple sentences starting with 'I'). The lack of proper paragraphing limits the clarity and flow of your writing. To achieve a higher band score, you must separate your ideas into distinct paragraphs, such as an opening paragraph for the context, a second paragraph for the bag description, and a final paragraph for the call to action.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrated an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using functional terms like 'availed,' 'accidently,' 'assistance,' and 'international client.' However, there are a few lexical and spelling errors that detract from the overall quality. For instance, 'collegaue' is misspelled, 'accidently' is missing a letter (accidentally), and 'availed your taxi services' is somewhat unnatural for a simple taxi ride, where 'used your taxi' or 'took your taxi' would be more appropriate. You also missed opportunities to use more precise or advanced vocabulary to describe your situation. To improve, you should expand your control of less common lexical items, pay closer attention to spelling, and focus on natural word combinations and collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You attempted a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as using subordinate clauses like 'while getting out i accidently forgot to pick up my bag.' However, your grammatical accuracy is impacted by frequent mechanical errors. You have multiple spacing and capitalization mistakes throughout your text, such as missing spaces after periods (e.g., 'well.I am', '6pm.I was', 'bag.It was', 'centimetres. Moreover,there'). Additionally, the pronoun 'i' is repeatedly written in lowercase instead of capital 'I'. There are also minor punctuation issues with comma splices and missing commas. Although these errors do not severely impede communication, their frequency prevents you from reaching a higher band. Focusing on punctuation rules, spacing, and capitalization will significantly elevate your grammatical control.

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

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