Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-14

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 Luiz,

I hope you are good. I was glad to hear that the the student's club will be hosting an event to celebrate foods that are well known around the globe. I would love to make my country's popular delicacy known on that day.

Jellof rice is a popular food among Nigerians. It is usually prepared on special occasions like weddings, Christmas, and birthdays. It is usually paired with roasted chicken or turkey. You can also eat it with salad, or steamed vegetable like spinach. The food is made by boiling the rice for a few minutes afterwhich the water from the rice is drained, the rice is washed thoroughly and set aside. Then a tomato sauce is prepared by frying the fresh tomatoes together with onions, garlic, and some seasoning. The washed rice is added into the sauce and both are mixed together. The chicken broth is added into the rice as well. After all these are done you can put a little quantity of water to the pot, the rice is covered with a foil and allowed to cook till it is well done.

Jellof rice should be included on the menu for our food event because, the delicacy is nutritious and very palatable. It demonstrates the richness of Nigerian's culture.

I hope you consider adding the meal to the list of food that would be served on that day. Thanks for your kind consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Oge Frances.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

You address all three points clearly: you offer to prepare a Nigerian dish, explain how jollof rice is made and served, and give reasons for including it. The preparation details and examples of occasions make the dish easy to picture, while its cultural significance provides a relevant justification. The response also maintains a polite, appropriate tone for writing to an event organiser. To make the case more fully developed, explain more specifically what makes the dish distinctive or appealing to guests from different countries; “nutritious and very palatable” is relevant but quite general. The cultural point could also be linked more directly to what visitors would learn or experience at the event.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter has a clear overall arrangement: an opening offer, a paragraph describing the dish and its preparation, a reason for including it, and a courteous closing. Sequencing words such as “Then” and “After all these are done” help readers follow the recipe. However, the long preparation paragraph contains several stages and serving suggestions, so the progression becomes dense. Some links are mechanical, and the final justification is brief compared with the description. Grouping serving details separately from cooking instructions, and using clearer transitions to connect the dish’s cultural value to the event, would make the organisation more flexible and the progression smoother.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use an adequate range for the topic, including food-related terms such as “seasoning,” “chicken broth,” “roasted chicken,” and “steamed vegetable,” as well as the more formal “delicacy” and “consideration.” These choices make the dish and its preparation understandable. There are, however, some spelling and word-choice inaccuracies, including “Jellof” for “jollof,” “afterwhich” for “after which,” and “Nigerian's culture,” which is not the natural possessive form. “Popular food” and “very palatable” are also broad or slightly awkward in this context. More precise collocations and careful proofreading would add flexibility and polish without changing your clear meaning.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex forms, including the relative clause in “a popular food among Nigerians” and the sequence of instructions describing how the rice is prepared. Most meaning remains clear, but some grammatical and punctuation errors persist. For example, “I hope you are good” is not a natural grammatical construction here; “I hope you are well” is appropriate. The sentence beginning “Jellof rice should be included on the menu” has an unnecessary comma after “because,” and “the rice is covered with a foil” has an article error. There is also a repeated “the” in the opening. Review articles, sentence boundaries, and punctuation, especially in longer sentences, to improve accuracy.

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

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