Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-22

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 5.5)

The diagram iliustrats the recycling process of plastic bolttles.

Overall, there are nine stages of recycling plastic bottles. Starting from collecting used bottles and ending with making new products.

First, People put used bottles into garbage containers and a truck will collect them and take it to a recycling center where the employes will make sure the recycled bottles are seppreted. because only recycled bottles are accepted. After that, collected bottles will go through a compressing machine where bottles will converted into blocks, then these blocks gose into a crushing machine where blocks will crush into little plastic pellets, these plastic pellets will be washed before turning them into form of raw material. Finaly after turning it into raw material, the material can be used to produce many items such as bottles, boxs, shirts, bags and other plastic things. The process then starts again when these products items are recyled.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all nine main stages of the recycling process shown in the diagram, beginning with collection and ending with producing end products and restarting the loop. The candidate successfully identifies the key features of the process and presents a clear overview stating that there are nine stages. However, there are minor inaccuracies in the description of the intermediate steps, such as stating that the blocks crush into plastic pellets directly in the crushing machine, whereas the diagram shows crushing into pieces followed by washing and then producing pellets. Overall, the task is adequately addressed, meeting the requirements for a Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The response has a coherent overall arrangement and follows the chronological flow of the diagram sequentially. However, the text suffers from a lack of proper paragraphing, being written almost entirely as a single block of text (with the exception of a very brief two-sentence introduction). Cohesive devices are used, but they are sometimes repetitive or basic (e.g., 'First', 'After that', 'then', 'Finaly'). Referencing is generally clear, but run-on sentences and comma splices affect the flow. For these reasons, a Band 5.5 is appropriate.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, attempting less-common items relevant to recycling such as 'compressing', 'crushing', 'pellets', and 'raw material'. However, there are several spelling errors throughout the text, including 'iliustrats' instead of 'illustrates', 'bolttles' instead of 'bottles', 'employes' instead of 'employees', 'seppreted' instead of 'separated', 'gose' instead of 'goes', and 'Finaly' instead of 'Finally'. These lexical errors and spelling mistakes prevent the response from achieving a higher band, placing it at a Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There are several run-on sentences and comma splices, such as 'First, People put used bottles into garbage containers and a truck will collect them and take it to a recycling center where the employes will make sure the recycled bottles are seppreted. because only recycled bottles are accepted.' Article usage and subject-verb agreement also show errors (e.g., 'blocks gose into'). While meaning is generally conveyed, frequent grammatical and punctuation errors restrict the score to Band 5.0.

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