Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-06

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You are a member of an International Students' club. The club is organising an event to celebrate popular food from around the world.

Write a letter to the event organiser, Luis. In your letter

• offer to make a popular dish from your country
• describe what this dish is
• explain why it should be included in the event

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Luis,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Luis,

I hope you are doing well. I am writing to express my interest to participate in international food event.

Firslty, I want people to taste the most popular dish of India. It is called Panner Tika Masala which is known for its unique taste.

In addition to that, the real taste lies in its suace which is made of three key indgrediants, rosted Onions, tomatos, and indian spices; later paneer (cottage cheese) is added in the suace as a source of protien.

Lastly, the dish is already loved by my friends who are from different parts of the world. That is why, I believe that my dish deserves to be available in the event of celebrating popular food.

Thank you for your time and consideration and I look forward to your prompt response.

Yours sincerely,

Smit Surti

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: offering to make a dish, describing it, and explaining why it should be included. However, the response is significantly under the 150-word minimum requirement, which limits the depth of your ideas. While the purpose of the letter is clear, the development of the points is somewhat brief. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your descriptions and provide more detailed justifications for your suggestions to ensure you meet the length requirement and fully develop your ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. You have used basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'In addition to that', and 'Lastly' to transition between ideas. However, the paragraphing is a bit fragmented due to the short length of the sentences. To improve, ensure that your ideas flow more naturally within paragraphs and use a wider variety of linking words to connect your sentences more fluidly rather than relying on simple list-like transitions.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, but there are several spelling errors that detract from the quality of your writing, such as 'Firslty', 'Panner Tika Masala', 'suace', 'indgrediants', 'rosted', 'tomatos', and 'protien'. These errors are frequent enough to be noticeable. While you attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary related to food, the spelling mistakes suggest a lack of precision. To improve, focus on proofreading your work to catch these common spelling errors and try to incorporate more sophisticated descriptive adjectives to enhance your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are consistent grammatical errors throughout the text. For example, 'interest to participate' should be 'interest in participating', and 'event of celebrating' is slightly unnatural. There are also issues with article usage and prepositions. While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently. To improve, focus on mastering common verb-preposition collocations and ensure subject-verb agreement is consistent. Increasing the variety of your sentence structures will also help you demonstrate better control over complex grammar.

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

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