Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-19

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 5.0)

The given diagram illustrates the various stages in the process of producing ethanol, a kind of biofuel.

Overall, there are about 9 main phrases in the ethano production, starting with growing plants and tress, and finishing with supplying ethanol for transportation and gas mission.

At the first stage in the process of making ethanol, a large number of trees and plants are grown.

Thanks to the source of energy from sunlight and carbon dioxide from humman and transportattin, plants and trees grow up and are haverested when they are mature enough. After being collected by machine, they are put into another machine where slice them into small pieces to form cellulose.

This step is call pre-processing.

In the following stage, cellulose are taken to a factory where "processing" stage occurs.

Subsequently, Sugars are extracted from original cellulose before microbes are added to make ethanol. It is then used as a tupe of fuel for a lot of means of transportation such as cars, trucks, airplanes. Finally, a huge amount of carbon dioxide which is released into the air become energy for process of "photosynthesis" of plants and trees.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The student successfully identifies the main stages of the biofuel production process depicted in the diagram, beginning with the growth of plants and ending with the release of carbon dioxide and transportation usage. An overview is attempted in the second sentence ("Overall, there are about 9 main phrases in the ethano production..."). However, there are minor inaccuracies in reporting the steps, such as treating the continuous cycle somewhat linearly without fully capturing the cyclical nature until the final sentence. Ideas are relevant and follow the sequence of the diagram, meeting the core requirements of Task 1 for an Academic response.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The response is arranged coherently, moving from the start of the process to the finish using time and sequence markers such as "At the first stage", "After being collected", and "Subsequently". However, the paragraphing is underdeveloped; the text is presented as a single large block with an introductory sentence, lacking distinct paragraphs for the different phases of the process. Furthermore, cohesive referencing is sometimes flawed, as seen in "This step is call pre-processing" appearing as a fragmented single-sentence paragraph. Logical progression is present, but mechanical cohesion limits a higher band score.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The student demonstrates an adequate vocabulary range for the task, using process-specific terms like "cellulose", "sugars", "microbes", and "photosynthesis". However, there are numerous spelling and typographical errors throughout the response, including "phrases" instead of "phases", "ethano" instead of "ethanol", "tress" instead of "trees", "humman", "transportattin", "haverested", "slice" instead of "slicing", "call" instead of "called", and "tupe" instead of "type". These errors detract from lexical control, although communication is not severely impeded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as participial phrases ("After being collected by machine, they are put into...") and subordinate clauses. However, grammatical accuracy is weak due to frequent errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ("cellulose are taken", "carbon dioxide which is released... become energy"), missing plural forms, and sentence fragments ("This step is call pre-processing."). These errors require some effort from the reader to parse, placing the response firmly in the Band 5 category for grammar.

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

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