Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-20

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 4.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to express my dissatisfaction regarding the piece of furniture that I bought from your store named Mehtab Furniture, which was damaged.

I bought the bed from your store on the first week of August. It is a double bed in black color plywood work that has storage. The back of the bed has leather work ,and it has detailed engravings on the all four sides.

Since the bed has storage beneath it, the plywood above it was cracked when the shipping was made by the store. As the plywood for the support was broken into two pieces, it made that hard for use.

If possible, I would request the Mehtab Furniture either to repair the furniture or to compensate for the damage. Besides this, for the next furniture delivery I request the store not to include shipping charges.

I request the store to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Kind regards,

Jasnoor Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 1.0

The response is completely off-topic. The prompt required a letter to an event organiser named Luis regarding an international food event. Instead, the student wrote a formal complaint letter to a furniture store about a damaged bed. Because the response fails to address any of the bullet points provided in the instructions (offering a dish, describing it, or explaining its inclusion), it does not meet the requirements of the task. While the length is sufficient, the content is entirely irrelevant to the prompt provided.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter is structured with a clear opening and closing, and the paragraphs are logically separated. The use of cohesive devices such as 'Since', 'As', and 'Besides this' shows an attempt to link ideas. However, because the content is irrelevant to the task, the overall coherence is undermined by the fact that the letter does not serve the purpose requested by the prompt. Within the context of the letter written, the progression of ideas is logical, but it fails to fulfill the communicative intent of the actual task.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for a formal complaint letter. The student uses terms like 'dissatisfaction', 'compensate', and 'detailed engravings'. There are some minor errors in collocation, such as 'shipping was made by the store' (should be 'shipping was handled by' or 'the item was damaged during shipping') and 'made that hard for use' (should be 'made it difficult to use'). The range is sufficient to convey the message of a complaint, but it does not demonstrate the flexibility required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The student uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors, such as 'on the first week' (should be 'in the first week'), 'in black color plywood work' (awkward phrasing), and 'on the all four sides' (unnecessary article). Punctuation is generally acceptable, though there are minor issues with comma placement. While the errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to suggest a lack of control over complex structures.

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

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