Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-23

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 6.0)

The flow chart illustrates the recycling process plastic bottles having total 9 stages, begin with collection of plastic bottles the transporting to recycling center and finished with products made from raw material of pellets.

The bottles collected from homes,offices and bins by people,then loaded in a truck to transport the bottles to recycling center, where the recycling process will start, separete the useful bottles for compressing into small blocks, next the crusing process will begin and all the blocks crushing into small pieces.

Following this, all the pieces will be washed to removce all the dirt to produce the pure material. After washing, the production of plastic pellets process begins and small pellets will be in result. Subsequently, raw material will be made from these pellets by providing heat to pellets and raw material will be made.

Raw material has been used by factories to make clothes, stationary, different plastic items, carpets , bottles and plastic utensils. The product will be sold to the customers and these items will be thrown after using and this recycling process begins again.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You cover the main stages from collection and transport through sorting, compression, crushing, washing, pellet production and heating, and you recognise that the process is cyclical. This gives the reader a generally accurate account of the diagram. Some details, however, are less fully or precisely reported: the sorting stage separates suitable bottles from unsuitable material, but “useful bottles” is vague, and the diagram does not show collection specifically from homes and offices. The final products are also partly misrepresented: it shows examples such as containers, a T-shirt, pencils and a carrier bag, rather than carpets or utensils. Your overview identifies the start and finish, but could more clearly summarise the transformation from discarded bottles into new products and their return to use.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The stages are presented in a broadly logical order, and paragraph breaks help separate the early processing, later production and final reuse. Sequencing expressions such as “Following this” and “Subsequently” guide the reader through the process. However, the first sentence is difficult to follow, and several stages are joined into long chains with commas, as in “The bottles collected from homes,offices and bins by people,then loaded in a truck.” This weakens the progression despite the correct overall sequence. Some links also introduce information not shown in the diagram, such as products being sold and discarded. Use clearer sentence boundaries and connect each stage directly to the next, while keeping the cycle’s return arrow explicit.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use relevant process vocabulary, including “compressing,” “crushing,” “pellets,” “raw material” and “recycling center,” so the topic is generally clear. There is some variety in how stages are described, but word choice and spelling errors are noticeable and occasionally make the meaning less precise. Examples include “separete,” “crusing,” “removce” and “stationary”; the intended terms appear to be “separate,” “crushing,” “remove” and “stationery.” Phrases such as “pure material” and “small pellets will be in result” are also unnatural or imprecise. Aim for accurate process collocations, such as “the plastic is washed” and “the pellets are heated to produce raw material,” and use the diagram’s specific product examples.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt to combine stages using subordinate clauses and sequencing phrases, but control of sentence structure is uneven. The opening, “The flow chart illustrates the recycling process plastic bottles having total 9 stages,” lacks grammatical links and has an unclear construction. There are also recurring problems with passive forms and verb agreement: “all the blocks crushing” should be “all the blocks are crushed,” while “Raw material has been used by factories” would be clearer as “Raw material is used by factories.” Missing articles and punctuation, including the run-on construction after “people,” also affect readability. Practise accurate passive sentences for process descriptions and divide long sequences into complete sentences. More reliable control of these forms would make your range of sentence structures clearer.

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