Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 19 · 2026-08-15

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Five months ago, you started renting an apartment on a six-month agreement. You now wish to stay in the apartment for longer than the six months you originally agreed with the owner.

Write a letter to the owner of your apartment. In your letter

• say how long you now want to rent the apartment for
• explain why your plans have changed
• tell the owner about a problem in the apartment

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear ....................................,

Student answer (Band 7.0)

Dear Smith,

I hope you are doing well! I am writing this letter to check if there are any opportunities to extend my house rental contract.

Since I will be completing a 6-month lease on August 26th. I would like to extend my agreement for another 6 months to enhance my career opportunities.

Actually, I was supposed to complete my Project Management course on August 20th but recently I received an update from my course advisor that there will be a campus recruitment drive held by several renowned organisations in the month of November. Therefore, I would like to extend my contract to grab the opportunities and foster my career growth in the city.

As I already informed you about the water leakage from the kitchen sink, this started causing numerous damages to the cupboards and floor mats and house smells extremely awful to stay. Hence, it will be highly appreciated if you can arrange a professionals plumber for inspection.

I hope you will consider my request and look into the issue.

Yours sincerely,

Anjali Reddy

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.5

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You clearly stated the desired extension period, provided a logical reason for the change in plans related to your career and course, and described the water leakage issue effectively. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a landlord. The ideas are well-developed and relevant, ensuring the reader understands your situation and the urgency of the maintenance request. To reach a higher band, ensure that all parts of the prompt are balanced; your explanation of the career change is quite detailed, while the maintenance request is slightly more concise, though still sufficient.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The letter is logically organized with a clear progression of ideas. Each paragraph serves a specific purpose, moving from the request to the justification and finally the maintenance issue. You use cohesive devices such as 'Since', 'Therefore', and 'Hence' to link your ideas effectively. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different topics. The flow is smooth, and the relationship between the sentences is clear. To improve further, ensure that your transitions between the personal request and the maintenance issue feel slightly more natural, perhaps by using a bridging sentence to shift the focus from your lease to the apartment's condition.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary suitable for a formal request, such as 'enhance', 'renowned organisations', and 'foster'. There are some minor collocation issues, such as 'arrange a professionals plumber' (should be 'professional plumber') and 'house smells extremely awful' (a more natural phrasing would be 'the apartment has an unpleasant odor'). However, these errors do not impede communication. You use topic-specific vocabulary well, particularly regarding your career goals. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more precise collocations and avoid slightly informal phrasing like 'smells extremely awful' in favor of more professional alternatives.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as the conditional-like structure in 'it will be highly appreciated if you can arrange'. There are some grammatical slips, such as the sentence fragment 'Since I will be completing a 6-month lease on August 26th.' which should be connected to the following sentence. Additionally, 'there will be a campus recruitment drive held' is grammatically sound, but 'this started causing' would be better as 'this has started to cause'. Despite these errors, your meaning is always clear, and the majority of your sentences are accurate. Focus on avoiding sentence fragments to improve your control over complex structures.

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

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