Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-03

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 5.5)

The provided process illustrates how a biofuel ethanol is produced through different steps.

Overall, the process consists of several stages begin with plants and trees that takes energy from sunlight and carbon dioxide through air and ending with how carbon dioxide made that plants and trees takes from the pollutions.

Initially the process started with the plants and trees that takes energy through sunlight and carbon dioxide that exsisting in air after that, these are harvested by machine that is handled by human. Then, these puts in the machine then pre-processing started next, it became cellulose.

In the next stage, cellulose taken to the lab where processing started and in result, the sugars made. Afterwards, in sugars the microbes added that made the Ethanol Finally, Ethanol evaporated in the air by cars, buses and airplanes , they bacame the greatest source of Carbon Dioxide and then the same circle statred and this taken by plants and trees in the end.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

The response attempts to describe the process of ethanol production, meeting the basic word count requirement. However, it addresses the task only partially. While it identifies major steps such as plant growth, harvesting, pre-processing, and processing into sugars, the description is somewhat limited and lacks clear development of all parts of the diagram. For instance, the cyclical nature of carbon dioxide absorption and release is mentioned rather vaguely in phrases like 'how carbon dioxide made that plants and trees takes from the pollutions.' The overview provided in the second paragraph tries to capture the main trends, but the execution is disjointed, meaning the overall progression of the process is not always clearly highlighted for the reader.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

There is some basic organization apparent in the separation of the introduction, body details, and conclusion stages, creating a coherent overall arrangement. However, cohesion is often faulty or mechanical. The student relies on repetitive transitional phrases such as 'Initially,' 'Then,' 'In the next stage,' and 'Afterwards,' without always maintaining smooth logical links between ideas. Referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as when pronouns like 'these' refer back ambiguously to previous nouns. Paragraphing is attempted, but paragraph boundaries do not always align neatly with distinct phases of the diagram, leading to a somewhat clumped structure in the second body paragraph.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is limited but minimally adequate to convey the basic topic of biofuel production, with attempts at task-related words such as 'harvested,' 'cellulose,' 'sugars,' and 'microbes.' However, there is a restricted range and frequent word-choice errors that cause difficulty or sound unnatural, such as 'carbon dioxide made that plants and trees takes from the pollutions' and 'these puts in the machine.' Spelling and word formation errors also appear, including 'exsisting' instead of existing and 'bacame' instead of became, which prevent the lexical score from reaching a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The text displays a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences joined by basic conjunctions. Attempts at more complex clauses or relative structures are frequently faulty, demonstrated in clauses like 'plants and trees that takes energy' (subject-verb agreement error) and 'Ethanol evaporated in the air by cars... they bacame.' There are frequent errors in verb forms, tenses, article usage, and prepositions throughout the response. Punctuation is also erratic, with commas misplaced around clauses, resulting in run-on phrasing that can cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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