Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-02
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 5.0)
The diagram illustrates the process for recycling plastic bottles.
Overall, it is evident that, there are 9 stages are involved for converting un-used plastic bottles or plastic items to producting the new plastic products.
Initially, the waste plastic items are collected from the trash bins, the grabage collected truck should responsible for collecting those waste plastic materials. After the waste meterials should goes to a recycling center. In recycling center the workers should done by sorting the plastic meterials after those sorted items must be compressed into blocks. Thes blocks are passing through a crushing machine, these machine can crush the large block into tiny pieces, the pieces can goes into a large tub for washing process.
After collecting those washed plastic pellets, the pellets pour on the powder machine, the machine carfully powered the plastic pellets into raw materials. The raw materils comes out of a little bit moister, so they heated in a sun light surface. By using these raw plastic powerd to make a raw materials. Therefore raw materials is used of generating or creating new plastic products, these process are repeded for the creation of old plastic items to new plastic materials.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 5.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 4.5 |
| Overall | 5.0 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
The response attempts to cover all parts of the diagram, providing an overview and mentioning most of the stages involved in recycling plastic bottles. However, some ideas are limited and under-developed, and the information is not always accurately reported. For instance, the transition from waste collection to sorting is somewhat confused, and the explanation of stages like heating and creating raw materials becomes imprecise ('raw materials comes out of a little bit moister, so they heated in a sun light surface'). While the overall sequence is acknowledged, the lack of precision in describing the technical steps keeps the task achievement at a partial level.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5
The response shows some organization, using paragraphs to separate the introduction, overall statement, and body steps, and employs basic cohesive devices such as 'Initially' and 'After'. However, there is a lack of clear overall progression, and the flow between sentences is frequently disrupted by mechanical or inaccurate referencing. For example, sentences often run into one another with comma splices or confusing pronoun links ('these blocks are passing through a crushing machine, these machine can crush...'). The transitions between the sorting, washing, and pelletizing stages feel abrupt and repetitive, which prevents the essay from achieving a smooth and logical progression.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.0
The lexical range is limited and minimally adequate for the task. The student attempts some less common vocabulary related to the process, such as 'recycling center', 'compressed into blocks', and 'crushing machine', but these are accompanied by noticeable errors in word choice, form, and spelling (e.g., 'un-used', 'producting', 'grabage', 'meterials', 'moister', 'powerd', 'repeded'). These lexical inaccuracies and spelling slips cause some difficulty for the reader and reflect a restricted vocabulary control, preventing the response from reaching a higher band.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5
The response demonstrates a very limited range of structures, relying primarily on simple sentences and basic clauses. Attempts at more complex sentences are frequently faulty, characterized by persistent grammatical errors such as severe subject-verb agreement issues ('there are 9 stages are involved', 'the workers should done by sorting'), incorrect verb forms ('should goes', 'are repeded'), and run-on sentences joined by commas instead of proper conjunctions or full stops. These frequent errors in grammar and punctuation cause considerable difficulty for the reader throughout the text.
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