Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-22

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

The diagram below shows the process for recycling plastic bottles.

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

How plastic bottles are recycled

Student answer (Band 4.5)

Plastic has become a huge part of our society , it's everywhere. But have you ever wondered where does this plastic goes once it's used up and thrown away? If no , then let me tell you the life cycle of the plastic. Here it goes . Once used , the owner throw it into the trash can . Then the garbage truck collects all of the garbage and take it to a specific place down town where the selected people seperate the plastic items and other form of garbage once separated all of the plastic items are gathered at one place and get compressed. Then the garbage is crushed and then thoroughly cleaned by the chemical process. The next step is to convert that plastic into pallets and then the pallets are heated up to form a raw material then the raw plastic material is used to form products.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.0

The response fails to meet the requirements of an Academic Task 1 report. Instead of providing an objective summary of the process, the writing adopts an informal, conversational tone ('let me tell you the life cycle', 'Here it goes'), which is inappropriate for this task. Furthermore, the response lacks a clear overview of the process and fails to structure the information logically as a report. It reads more like a personal narrative than a technical description of a diagram. To improve, you must remain objective, avoid addressing the reader directly, and focus on describing the stages of the process clearly and systematically.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 4.5

The text is written as a single, dense paragraph, which makes it difficult to follow the stages of the process. There is a lack of logical progression or clear signposting between the steps. While some basic cohesive devices like 'Then' and 'Once' are used, they are repetitive and mechanical. The lack of paragraphing and the informal, conversational style hinder the overall flow. To achieve a higher score, you should use paragraphing to group related stages of the process and employ a wider variety of linking words to show the sequence of events more naturally.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary is quite limited and repetitive, relying heavily on basic terms like 'plastic', 'garbage', and 'things'. There is little attempt to use academic or technical vocabulary appropriate for describing a recycling process. Phrases like 'specific place down town' are vague and informal. To improve, you should incorporate more precise, topic-specific vocabulary related to industrial processes, such as 'collection', 'sorting', 'shredding', 'granulation', and 'manufacturing'. Avoid conversational fillers and focus on using more sophisticated, precise nouns and verbs to describe the transformation of materials.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response contains several grammatical errors that affect clarity. There are issues with subject-verb agreement ('the owner throw it'), incorrect verb tenses, and punctuation errors, such as the misuse of commas and spaces before punctuation marks. The sentence structures are predominantly simple or repetitive, lacking the complexity required for higher bands. For example, 'the garbage truck collects all of the garbage and take it' should be 'takes it'. To improve, focus on mastering basic sentence construction, ensuring subject-verb agreement, and practicing the use of complex sentences to describe sequential actions.

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

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