Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

 

The diagram below shows how a biofuel called ethanol is produced.

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

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The chart below provides a breakdown of production of biofuel ethanol from scratch.

Overall, ethanol production is a continious circle reaction where natural reactants are used to produce the aimed product, which in use gets broken down and released as reactant form.

The circle reaction starts with harvesting plants and trees using heavy machinery, which a step before absorbed supplements for growth such as sunlight and carbon dioxide. Afterwards, collected greens are prepared for turning into cellulose by pre-processing step where they get crushed into small parts. The fine particles are then sent to industry labs where through chemical reactions turn into sugars. Finally, ethanol is achieved by adding microbes to product of previous step, the sugars.

What makes the production of ethanol an endless circle reaction is product turning back to reactant. In our case, ethanol is used by transportation machines, which produce carbon dioxide while burning the ethanol.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response successfully covers all the key stages of the biofuel production diagram, outlining the cyclical nature of ethanol creation and consumption. The student correctly identifies the progression from energy absorption and plant growth to harvesting, pre-processing into cellulose, chemical processing into sugars, and the addition of microbes to produce ethanol. Furthermore, the report accounts for the final stage where vehicles burn the ethanol and release carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. While some minor details of the process are generalised, the main features and comparisons are appropriately reported, fulfilling the core requirements of Academic Task 1.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The report displays clear logical organisation and progression throughout. The response is divided into logical paragraphs, beginning with an introduction that paraphrases the prompt, followed by body paragraphs detailing the sequential stages of the cycle, and concluding with a summary of the circular mechanism. Cohesive devices such as 'Afterwards', 'The fine particles are then', and 'Finally' are used effectively to guide the reader through the process. However, some minor referencing and cohesion issues are present, such as 'which in use gets broken down', which slightly disrupts the flow.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is generally adequate and demonstrates a reasonable range for the task, including terms such as 'reactants', 'heavy machinery', 'pre-processing', and 'chemical reactions'. However, there are several word choice errors and unnatural collocations, such as 'continious circle reaction' (instead of 'continuous cyclical process') and 'which a step before absorbed supplements' (instead of 'which previously absorbed'). While these errors do not impede communication, they prevent the lexical score from reaching higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as relative clauses ('which produce carbon dioxide while burning the ethanol'). There are, however, a number of noticeable grammatical and punctuation errors throughout the text, including spelling mistakes ('continious'), missing articles ('to industry labs', 'by pre-processing step'), and awkward phrasing ('product turning back to reactant'). These errors occur frequently enough to impact the overall accuracy of the writing, though the meaning generally remains clear.

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

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