Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-01

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing this letter to express my disappiontment with the product, a stove, that I purchased online from your website. Through this letter, I want to request a replacement or refund for the product. As, it does not work properly.

So, last Friday, I ordered a stove for my outdoor kitchen. It was working just fine till Sunday morning. However, in the evening when I was preparing my dinner, it suddenly stoped working. I tried restarting it, but it started producing dark black fog. I urgently turned it off.

I did contact your customer support team, unfortunately they have to responed back yet. I am in urgent need of the stove, because my kitchen is being repaired and I can not use it untill finished. Kindly reimbursh me with a full refund or send me replacement today.

Hope you will understand my situation. I will be waiting for your response.

Yours faithfully,

Ram Kumar

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response effectively covers all parts of the task, clearly communicating the purpose of the letter as a complaint about a faulty online purchase alongside a direct request for a replacement or a full refund. The tone is appropriate for a formal complaint, and the background details regarding the purchase and the subsequent failure of the stove are relevant. However, some aspects are slightly under-developed or abrupt. For instance, the explanation of the customer support issue and the urgency regarding the kitchen renovation are introduced quickly without fully extended elaboration. To reach the next level, the ideas could be expanded with more precise context or specific details about the purchase, ensuring every part of the prompt is thoroughly explored with equal weight and seamless development throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a clear, logical progression from stating the problem to describing the incident, detailing the lack of customer service response, and finally demanding a resolution. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct points, such as the introduction, the incident details, and the call to action. Cohesive devices are employed, although some transitions feel a bit mechanical or abrupt, such as starting a sentence with 'As, it does not work properly' or 'So, last Friday'. Referencing is generally clear, but smoother linking words and more flexible cohesive devices would elevate the flow of the letter to fully meet the higher standard of natural and unobtrusive cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to use less common expressions such as 'outdoor kitchen', 'customer support team', and 'full refund'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word choice errors that prevent a higher rating, including 'disappiontment', 'stoped', 'responed', and 'reimbursh'. While these minor slips do not impede communication and the reader can easily understand the meaning, they reflect the limitations typical of this level. To improve, the writer needs to expand their control over spelling accuracy and demonstrate a wider, more precise range of less common lexical items with appropriate collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, using a variety of tenses such as the present simple, past simple, and present continuous ('is being repaired'). There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as the sentence fragment 'As, it does not work properly' and missing articles or punctuation issues in places. Despite these errors, the grammatical structures used do not impede communication, and the meaning remains clear throughout the letter. To achieve a higher band, the writer must produce a greater proportion of error-free complex sentences and exercise tighter control over punctuation and minor syntactic patterns.

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