Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-10-17

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 5.5)

Dear Luis,

I am writing to offer a popular dish from my region for an event to celebrate popular food from around the world. My name is Hardi and I am a member of International Students' Club.

India is already known for its famous food culture. There are variety of spices available in my country. Like our culture ,our food is also diverse. For that I would like to request to reprsent The Birayani from our culture.

The birayani is cooked Basmati rice, alongwith some aromatic spice and vegetables. It is slow simmered in clay pot. Firstly the layer of rice then spices and then vegatables. The top layer would be again cooked Basmati rice.

The dish was represnted to the guests when there is any celebration from King side. This makes it main reason to be included in event. All I want to say it is part of our tradition. The aroma of the dish is so strong that , people from every culture will enjoy it.

I hope , you would consider our request.

Yours faithfully,

Hardi Thakar

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three points: you offer biryani, describe its rice, spices and layered preparation, and explain its cultural importance and broad appeal. The dish is clearly relevant to the event, and the letter has an appropriate opening and closing. However, some parts are less fully developed than others. The description gives a basic sequence of layers but could explain more clearly what makes the dish distinctive, while the reason for inclusion relies mainly on its traditional association with celebrations and its aroma. Clarify the cultural detail—for example, who traditionally served it and on what occasions—and connect this more specifically to the event’s celebration of food from different countries. The response meets the task requirements, though a few ideas remain unclear.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a coherent overall arrangement: it introduces the offer, describes the dish, gives reasons for including it, and ends with a polite request. Paragraphing helps distinguish these stages, and sequencing words such as “Firstly” make the cooking description easier to follow. Some connections are less clear or mechanical, however. “For that” does not clearly link the comments about India’s food culture to the request, and “This makes it main reason” leaves the reference to the previous sentence unclear. The description also reads as a list of layers rather than a smoothly connected explanation. Use clearer links such as “Because of this” and refer explicitly to the dish or tradition, while varying transitions to improve progression.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “aromatic spice,” “Basmati rice,” “slow simmered,” “tradition,” and “aroma.” These choices show an attempt to describe the dish rather than relying only on general terms. However, spelling and word-choice errors are noticeable, including “Birayani,” “reprsent,” “vegatables,” and “represnted,” and some combinations are unnatural, such as “from King side” and “request to reprsent.” These reduce precision, even though the reader can generally understand your meaning. Check the spelling of culturally specific food names and choose natural collocations, such as “represent our culture” or “served at royal celebrations.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You use both simple sentences and some attempts at more complex structures, such as “The aroma of the dish is so strong that, people from every culture will enjoy it.” The main message is generally understandable, but grammatical control is uneven. For example, “There are variety of spices” needs an article or plural form, and “The birayani is cooked Basmati rice” is missing a grammatical link such as “with.” The sentence beginning “Firstly the layer of rice” is a fragment, while “This makes it main reason” has an unclear structure. Punctuation also needs attention, particularly spaces before commas and full stops. Practise complete sentences and check articles, verb forms, and sentence boundaries.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.