Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-12

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)

The diagram illustrates how plastic's bottle is processed in order to produce a rang of different products.

Overall, the diagram shows that there are nine main stages in the recycling process. The process begin with the collecting used bottles and the end of recycling process in the new items.

First, ues plactice bottes placed in bins. then collecting by a recycling truck and transported to a recycling centre. At the centre, bottles are sorted, next the selected bottles compressing into large blocks.

After that the blocks are crushed into a small pieces. The pieces are washed and processed in a machineto produced plastic pellets.In the following stage, the pellets are heated from new raw materials .This raw material is usr to manufacture various a new products.

Finally,recycle plastic producing a new products such as, new plastic bottles ,clothes,and shopping bags .

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The response attempts to summarize the main stages of the plastic bottle recycling process, covering the general flow from collection to final products. However, there are significant omissions and inaccuracies in reporting the steps, such as confusing the heating stage with new raw materials. Furthermore, the length requirement is NOT met: the student's response contains 141 words, which is 9 words short of the 150-word minimum. This shortfall directly impacts the task achievement score, resulting in a penalty. The overview is also very basic, stating simply that there are nine stages.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response shows some basic organisation through sequential markers such as 'First', 'then', 'next', 'After that', and 'Finally'. However, the paragraphing is extremely poor, with most of the text clumped into a single, poorly structured block of sentences. Cohesive devices are sometimes inaccurate or awkward, as seen in 'The process begin with the collecting used bottles and the end of recycling process in the new items.' The referencing is occasionally unclear, which disrupts the logical progression of the text.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is limited and repetitive, with noticeable spelling and word choice errors throughout the text, such as 'plastic's bottle', 'ues', 'plactice', 'bottes', 'machineto', and 'usr'. While the student attempts some less common vocabulary related to the diagram (e.g., 'recycling centre', 'plastic pellets'), these attempts are marred by frequent errors and awkward collocations like 'heating from new raw materials'. The lexical range is minimally adequate for the task, but errors cause some difficulty for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The response demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures. Most sentences are simple, and attempts at complex or passive structures are frequently faulty, such as 'The process begin with the collecting...' and 'bottles are sorted, next the selected bottles compressing into large blocks.' There are pervasive grammatical, punctuation, and word-form errors throughout the text (e.g., missing articles, incorrect verb forms, and preposition errors). These frequent errors cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from achieving a higher score.

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

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