Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-09-30

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 6.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to formally address you that yesterday while travelling back from the great northern road to my home, I forgot my bag in taxi number 45.

To provide some context, I booked my ride at 9:00 PM from Uride application. I had four grocery bags containing some grocery and household stuff. I was on a call with my friend, as we were discussing about the initial timeline for the project submission and my whole focus was on the call.

When I reached home, I tried to take all my bags; unfortunately, I left the blue colored bag containing household items. It says ''Home deor'' on the top right corner.

Being a loyal customer, who has patronized your business for years, I trust you will find my bag at your earliest convenience. I remain available to provide you more sophisticated details, such as number of items in the bag and reciepts of bill for your reference.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Vishal.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response7.0
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy6.0
Overall6.5

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.0

The student has successfully covered all bullet points of the task prompt. The letter clearly explains how the bag was lost by detailing the taxi number, time, and context of being distracted by a phone call. It accurately describes the bag, mentioning its blue colour, contents, and the distinctive text 'Home deor' on the top right corner. Furthermore, the response effectively asks the manager for assistance in finding the lost item. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a taxi company manager, and all required information is fully developed without any omissions. Therefore, the response fulfills all the requirements of the task very well, earning a solid band score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter demonstrates a clear overall progression and logical organization. It opens with an appropriate formal salutation and immediately states the purpose of the communication. Ideas are grouped reasonably into paragraphs, transitioning from the event itself to the description of the bag, and finally to the request for help and sign-off. However, there are minor issues with cohesion, such as the abrupt shift into the context paragraph ('To provide some context...') and the slight mechanical nature of some referencing. Paragraphing is mostly sufficient, though breaking up the second paragraph could have improved readability. Overall, the organization is coherent and easy to follow throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The student uses an adequate and generally appropriate range of vocabulary for the task, including phrases like 'formally address you', 'patronized your business', and 'at your earliest convenience'. However, there are a few word choice and spelling errors that slightly distract the reader, such as writing 'deor' instead of 'decor', 'reciepts' instead of 'receipts', and the awkward phrase 'discussing about' where 'discussing' should not be followed by a preposition. Despite these flaws, the vocabulary is sufficient to convey the intended meaning precisely, allowing the communication to proceed smoothly without any real impediment.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The writing exhibits a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses ('who has patronized your business for years') and conditional or temporal dependent clauses. There are several grammatical errors present, including 'address you that' instead of 'inform you that', 'in taxi number 45' missing an article ('in taxi number 45' or 'in cab 45'), and the preposition misuse in 'discussing about'. Punctuation is generally acceptable, though the greeting uses a comma instead of the standard colon or comma for formal letters ('Dear Sir,' is acceptable in some variants). The errors do not impede communication, but they prevent the grammar from reaching a higher band level.

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.