Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-16

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Mrs Barrett, an English-speaking woman who lives in your town, has advertised for someone to help her in her home for a few hours a day next summer.

Write a letter to Mrs Barrett. In your letter

• suggest how you could help her in her home
• say why you would like to do this work
• explain when you will and will not be available

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Mrs Barrett,

Student answer (Band 4.0)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you to suggest a name of local people who has done a lot for community.

I am a resident of Trailview area, and I have been leaving there for last 5 year. There is my neighbour whose name is Mohan Singh. He is near about 62 year old, and He is a former solder.

Actually, he served 20 years in army. Right now, he teach the poor students, who do not have resources to pay for education. Moreover, he always go to orphan homes to teach children once in a week. He is very helpful, and always come first whenever community needs any volunteer workers.

I suppose that, this man deserve the reward. Firstly, I think Mohan should be recognized since vary few people knows him currently in my area. Secondly, I would be great, if you could help him to nominate for the national award.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Harshpreet Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 2.0

The response fails to address the prompt provided. The writing task specifically asked the student to write a letter to Mrs Barrett to apply for a domestic help job by suggesting how they could help, explaining why they want to work, and stating availability. Instead, the student wrote a letter nominating a neighbour for a community award, which completely addresses a different task prompt entirely. Consequently, the candidate has missed all bullet points required for the actual task. Although the tone of a formal letter is attempted, the complete mismatch with the task requirements pulls the score down significantly.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter is organised into clear paragraphs with an appropriate opening and closing, although the greeting 'Dear Sir/Madam' contradicts the prompt requirement to begin with 'Dear Mrs Barrett'. Basic cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'Secondly', and 'Moreover' are used to link ideas. However, the overall progression is heavily disrupted because the content is entirely off-topic. Paragraphing is visually present, grouping related ideas about the neighbour together, but referencing is problematic due to the mismatch with the intended recipient.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is relatively basic and repetitive, showing adequate range for simple topics but falling short of more flexible or precise usage. There are noticeable lexical errors, such as 'leaving' instead of 'living', 'near about' instead of 'nearly' or 'around', 'solder' instead of 'soldier', and 'teach the poor students' rather than 'teaches'. Words like 'volunteer workers' and 'national award' demonstrate a minimal ability to communicate ideas, but frequent word choice and spelling inaccuracies restrict the score to a band 5.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but grammatical accuracy is weak throughout. There are numerous foundational errors, including subject-verb agreement issues ('He teach', 'He always go'), tense misuse ('I have been leaving there for last 5 year'), and missing articles ('in army', 'deserve the reward'). Punctuation is also faulty, with unnecessary commas breaking up natural clause structures ('I suppose that, this man deserve the reward'). While these errors do not completely obscure the intended meaning, their high frequency prevents the writer from achieving a higher band.

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.