Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 21 · 2026-10-18

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You enjoy walking in the countryside near your home. However, you are noticing that there is more and more litter left there by other walkers.

Write a letter to your local newspaper. In your letter

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.0)

Dear sir/madam,

Hope you are doing good,

There is a beautiful walking path with a lot of greenary and river by side i enjoy walking there with my pets morning in the countryside near my home.

i am writing this letter to bring to your notice that people are throwing waste in the path and i see its getting more day by day

i suggest that keeping dustbins in more area, fixing cameras and fining for people who litter can be done to address this problem

I request you to please address this issue at the earliest.

Yours sincerly

XYZ

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.0
Coherence and Cohesion5.5
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

You address the main purpose of the letter and include all three requested points: you explain that you walk on a countryside path near your home with your pets, mention waste being left there, and suggest bins, cameras and fines. However, the response is only 100 words, so it does not meet the 150-word minimum. The description of the litter is very general: “people are throwing waste” does not say what kinds of rubbish you have seen or where it is accumulating. Your proposed actions are relevant but need explanation, and the opening does not clearly establish a suitable formal tone. Add specific examples and develop each point to make the letter more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The ideas follow a broadly sensible order: you introduce the walking area, identify the litter problem, suggest solutions and close with a request. This gives the reader a basic sense of progression. However, the letter is presented as one continuous block, with little paragraphing to separate its purpose, description and recommendations. Connections between ideas are also limited; for example, the shift from enjoying the path to reporting litter is abrupt. Use clear paragraphs and linking phrases such as “Recently, however” and “To address this issue” to make the progression easier to follow. The greeting and sign-off are present, but the overall organisation remains quite basic.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is sufficient to communicate the central message, with relevant terms such as “walking path,” “countryside,” “dustbins,” “cameras” and “litter.” However, the range is limited, and some wording is imprecise or unnatural, including “waste in the path” and “getting more day by day.” There are also noticeable spelling and word-form errors, such as “greenary” and “sincerly,” which reduce the accuracy of the letter. More specific vocabulary would help describe the problem clearly—for example, naming bottles, wrappers or food packaging—and more formal expressions would suit a letter to a newspaper. Aim for precise, natural collocations rather than repeating general words such as “people” and “problem.”

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response relies mainly on short, simple sentence patterns, so it shows a limited range of grammatical structures. Several sentences contain errors that make the message less clear or polished. For example, “Hope you are doing good” is an incomplete, informal construction, while “there with my pets morning” lacks a clear time expression and has an awkward sentence structure. In “a lot of greenary and river by side i enjoy walking,” the ideas need to be separated and the clauses formed more accurately. Capitalisation and punctuation are also inconsistent, particularly at sentence beginnings. Practise combining ideas with accurate clauses, articles and prepositions, and check sentence boundaries before submitting.

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