Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-09

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 am writing this letter to request regarding my preference of dish you should needs to be add in food celebration.

I have got message from the club about the event. I want to add south indian dish in this event. The reason behind this is I am belong to south India and the dish is really popular not even in my area but also in whole part of the india. If you can accept my request and add the dish so every one can enjoy the dish.

The dish have dosa, idali and sambhar with some sauces and it is really delicious dish. There are many people in my country who really love this dish and they eat once in a month.

I hope you will add my dish in this event and I look forward to hearing positive reply from you. Apart from that if you need more information about the dish let me know.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: offering to make a dish, describing it, and explaining its importance. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the description of the dish is quite brief and lacks sensory detail, and the explanation of why it should be included is repetitive. To reach a higher band, you should expand on the cultural significance or the unique flavors of the dish to provide a more engaging response. The tone is appropriate for a letter to a club member, maintaining a polite and helpful stance throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your message. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'The reason behind this is' and 'Apart from that' to link your ideas. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes mechanical, and there are instances where the logical progression is slightly hindered by awkward phrasing, such as in the opening sentence. Using a wider variety of linking words (e.g., 'furthermore', 'consequently', 'in addition') would help improve the overall flow and make the connections between your ideas more natural and sophisticated.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your intentions clearly. You use some topic-specific vocabulary like 'celebration' and 'information'. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors, such as 'I am belong to' instead of 'I am from' and 'whole part of the india' instead of 'all over India'. These errors do not impede communication, but they do limit your score. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and ensuring that your word forms (e.g., 'needs to be add' vs 'needs to be added') are accurate.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'request regarding my preference of dish you should needs to be add' and 'The dish have dosa'. These errors involve subject-verb agreement, incorrect verb forms, and missing articles. While the meaning remains understandable, the high frequency of these slips prevents a higher score. To improve, focus on basic sentence construction, specifically ensuring that your verbs agree with the subject and that you are using the correct tense consistently.

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

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