Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-10-03

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 or Madam,.

I am writing to report a lost of bag during my ride with your taxi company on 1st of October. I was going back from downtown to Richmondhill.

My Boss scheduled an important meeting with our repetitive client yesterday in Downtown. The meeting was too long and it was lasted until 10:00 pm and at that time to rich to Richmond was quite unsafe, and because of which I booked taxi, but in a rush to get off the car I forgot to carry my bag from the taxi.

The bag was in blue colour and is of Nike brand which was gifted by my fiance and it is close to my heart. The main concern behind finding bag is that I have important business documents in it and my passport is there inside a bag. I would appreciate if you can help to search the backpack and keep it safe. Please let me know once you find them and will discuss the best day to collect it according to your availability.

Thank you for your help and waiting to hear positive response.

Yours faithfully,

Hamza

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 8.0

Your response covers all parts of the prompt well. You clearly explain how you lost your bag by describing your taxi ride from downtown to Richmond Hill and mentioning how you rushed out of the vehicle. You also provide a good description, noting that the bag is blue, made by Nike, and holds personal significance as a gift from your fiancée. Furthermore, you effectively ask the manager to help find it and keep it safe. The tone is appropriate for a formal complaint or inquiry letter, and your purpose is clear throughout. To move towards the highest band, you could expand slightly more on specific details such as the taxi's license plate number or the exact time of arrival, which would further illustrate full development of all bullet points.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your letter has a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical structure appropriate for a correspondence of this type, divided clearly into an introduction, body paragraphs for details and requests, and a proper sign-off. You use basic cohesive devices adequately to connect your ideas. However, the progression between sentences in the second paragraph feels somewhat mechanical and overly conversational, with run-on phrasing such as 'and because of which I booked taxi, but in a rush to get off the car I forgot...'. To reach a higher level, you need to manage referencing more clearly and employ a wider, more flexible range of cohesive devices without repetition or awkward joining of clauses.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items and descriptive phrases such as 'business documents' and 'repetitive client'. However, there are several word choice and collocation inaccuracies throughout the text, such as writing 'report a lost of bag' instead of 'loss of a bag', 'repetitive client' instead of 'repeat client', and using 'rich to Richmond' which contains an incorrect verb form. Spelling is generally fine, but these vocabulary choices create minor strain for the reader. To achieve a higher score, you should refine your collocation control and ensure greater precision when using less common lexical items.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms to convey your narrative, attempting subordinate clauses such as 'when you got home, you realized...'. However, there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation, particularly with article usage, prepositions, and verb tenses. For instance, you wrote 'booked taxi' missing the article 'a', and 'it was lasted until' where the passive structure is incorrect. Punctuation issues also appear, such as the unnecessary period after the salutation ('Dear Sir or Madam,.'). These errors require the reader to occasionally decipher your meaning. To reach the next band, you need to produce a higher proportion of error-free sentences and demonstrate tighter control over complex grammatical patterns.

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

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