Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-09-17

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 6.5)

Dear Luis,

I am writing this to express my interest in including one of the famous dishes from my home country, India. I would like to prepare it myself and bring it for the event.

The food item is called dhokla, a soft and fluffy savory snack, most commonly enjoyed in western parts of my nation. It is made up of gram flour and yogurt through a vigorous steaming process. It is considered to be really health because its preparation style and ingredients used for it.

I believe that people would really enjoy this dish as it is not only popular in India, but in many parts across the globe. Since the event is held for recognizing top food items from all over the world, this dish is very relevant to this because of its vast popularity.

I look forward to your response.

Yours faithfully,

Aesha

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The student successfully covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You clearly offered to make and bring a popular Indian dish named dhokla, described it as a soft and fluffy savory snack made of gram flour and yogurt through steaming, and explained why it should be included due to its global and regional popularity. However, a slight penalty must be applied to Task Achievement because the response is under the 1,500-word limit—specifically, it contains 146 words, falling just short of the 150-word minimum requirement. Despite this minor length deduction, the tone is appropriately semi-formal, fitting the general training letter format, and the communicative purpose is fully achieved.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter demonstrates a clear, coherent overall arrangement. Ideas are logically sequenced, moving naturally from the purpose of the letter to the description of the dish, and finally to the justification for its inclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately, with distinct paragraphs dedicated to each major point. Cohesive devices such as 'and', 'through', 'Since', and 'this dish' are generally used effectively to connect ideas, though referencing is slightly repetitive in places (e.g., beginning multiple sentences with 'It is'). Overall, the progression of ideas is easy to follow, supporting a solid band 7 performance for this criterion.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student demonstrates an adequate and sufficient range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using less common and specific food-related terms such as 'savory snack', 'gram flour', and 'vigorous steaming process'. Word choice is mostly appropriate, though there is one noticeable lexical error where 'health' is used instead of the adjective 'healthy' ('considered to be really health'). Despite this minor error, the vocabulary used is precise enough to convey the intended meaning clearly without impeding communication, fitting comfortably into the band 6 descriptor.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.0

The student uses a good mix of simple and complex sentence structures, incorporating relative clauses and participial phrases effectively (e.g., 'a soft and fluffy savory snack, most commonly enjoyed in western parts of my nation'). Grammatical control is generally quite good, with many error-free sentences. However, there is a minor prepositional error towards the end where the writer states 'relevant to this because of its vast popularity' instead of 'relevant to the event'. Punctuation is accurate, and the sign-off, although using 'Yours faithfully' instead of 'Yours sincerely' (given the name Luis is provided), remains within acceptable bounds for semi-formal letters. The grammatical range and accuracy align well with a band 7 score.

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

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