Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Barron's Writing · 2026-08-24
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
You live in a small apartment building. You are frequently bothered by noise from your upstairs neighbour's apartment.
Write a letter to your neighbour. In your letter
• describe the situation.
• explain why it is a problem for you.
• suggest a solution.You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear _________,
Student answer (Band 4.5)
Some people belive that it is better to work for a large organization, while others think that working for a small company is more beneficial. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
There is an ongoing debate about the workers who are working for the multinational firms or working in small organisations. Although some people believe that big corporations provide more career opportunities and job security, while small enterprises provide faster career growth and friendly working environment.
On the one hand, multinational companies provide more opportunities to the employees related to salaries, promotions and career growth, which can enhance the workers' skills for the intensive growth and also it provides a job security to the employees.Furthermore, if the workers work in big firms, they can also receive an attractive benefits, such as health insurance and pension plans. For instance, Amazon provides an intensive benefits to all the workers yearly. Therefore, working in large organisations provide more opportunities for the overall growth to all the workers.
On the other hand, small firms provide more friendly working environment, which can help the employees to work efficiently and with less stress. Although, small businesses have less financial resources, they provides a flexible and supportive work environment. Moreover, there are more opportunities for the promotions in small companies as there are limites staff with intensive skills, so it is more beneficial for the workers to get promotion easily. For instance, Tim Hortons provides more opportunities to the workers to get promoted. Thus, small corporations provide a supportive environment and more promotion opportunities.
To conclude, although, workers get more chances of promotion in small companies, i believe that big organisations provide more opportunities for the career growth and also more intensive benefit plans.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 1.0 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 4.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0
The response is completely off-topic. The prompt explicitly asked for a letter to a neighbour regarding a noise complaint, but you have written an essay discussing the advantages and disadvantages of working for large versus small organizations. Because you have failed to address the task requirements entirely, this response cannot be scored according to the standard criteria for a letter. In an actual IELTS examination, this would result in a score of 1.0 for Task Achievement as the content is irrelevant to the prompt provided.
Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0
Despite being off-topic, the essay itself is structured logically with an introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use cohesive devices such as 'On the one hand', 'Furthermore', and 'To conclude' to link your ideas. However, because the content does not relate to the task, the overall coherence is undermined by the fact that the text does not fulfill the purpose of the communication requested in the prompt.
Lexical Resource — Band 5.5
You demonstrate a reasonable range of vocabulary suitable for an essay format, using terms like 'multinational firms', 'financial resources', and 'supportive work environment'. There are some minor errors in word choice and collocation, such as 'intensive benefits' (should be 'extensive') and 'limites staff' (spelling error). While the vocabulary is sufficient for an essay, it is not being used to address the specific task of writing a letter to a neighbour.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5
You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'Some people belive' (spelling), 'they provides' (subject-verb agreement), and 'i believe' (capitalization). Additionally, the opening sentence is a fragment. While these errors do not generally impede communication, they represent a lack of control over basic grammatical rules. The range of structures is adequate for an essay but does not meet the requirements for a formal letter.
See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.
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