Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-17

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 7.0)

Dear Mrs. Barrett,

I am writing to discuss the house helper position advertised in the Times Newspaper on 16th October 2026 and my availability to start this upcoming summer.

I can help with fixing things in the house, such as filling the holes in the wall, painting, roof leaks, and many more. I have previous experience working as a carpenter with a plumbing company. Moreover, I am open to contributing to gigs like cleaning the house, cleaning toilets, or moving furniture. I am very interested in learning and developing any skills needed to fulfill the job responsibilities.

I have some time to spare, apart from my daily schedule. Therefore, I want to make it more useful by working on myself or helping others. Since I intend to buy a house next year, I definitely want to gain some ideas on how to run a house. What are the challenges related to the fixes required in a fully functional unit? So, this will help me gain insights into the investment I am going to make in my future home.

Regarding the timings for the job, I am available 7 days a week in the evening between 3 and 7 pm. I am currently working Full-time for an electrical company during the weekdays, which consumes all of my morning period. While I am mostly home on the weekends, I would like to spend the time on my personal routine. However, I can make some accommodations on alternate weekends to meet the timing to do the necessary work at your house.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon with a positive response.

Best regards,

Kushal Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You address all three points: you offer practical help, explain your motivation, and describe your availability. The examples of repairs, cleaning, and moving furniture make your offer relevant, while your interest in learning about home maintenance gives a clear reason for applying. However, some details are less fully developed or unclear. For example, “available 7 days a week” conflicts with saying you want to keep weekends for your personal routine and can only work on alternate weekends. Also, the task is for a few hours a day next summer, but your letter does not clearly confirm that these times apply during the summer. Clarifying your exact days and hours, and focusing your motivation more on the work itself, would make the response more complete.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter is organised into clear paragraphs, each dealing with a main purpose: your offer of help, your reasons for applying, and your schedule. The progression is easy to follow, and linking expressions such as “Moreover,” “Therefore,” and “Regarding the timings” help guide the reader. The closing is also appropriate for a formal enquiry. Some connections could be more precise, however. The shift from being available “7 days a week” to preferring personal time on weekends makes the schedule difficult to follow, and the rhetorical questions about house repairs interrupt the explanation of your motivation. State your availability in a direct, consistent way and connect each supporting detail more closely to the point of the paragraph.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

You use an adequate range of vocabulary for the letter, including relevant terms such as “carpenter,” “plumbing,” “accommodations,” and “responsibilities.” These help communicate the kinds of tasks you could undertake and your flexibility. There are also attempts at more specific phrasing, such as “gain insights” and “fully functional unit,” though some choices sound unnatural or imprecise in this context. “Contributing to gigs” is too informal for a letter to a prospective employer, and “cleaning toilets” could be expressed more tactfully as part of general household cleaning. “Run a house” is understandable but vague. Choosing more natural collocations and maintaining a consistently polite, professional register would improve precision and style.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

You demonstrate a useful mix of simple and complex sentence forms, and many sentences are controlled, including “I have previous experience working as a carpenter with a plumbing company” and “Since I intend to buy a house next year, I definitely want to gain some ideas on how to run a house.” Your meaning remains clear throughout. A few grammatical and punctuation issues persist. In “I can help with fixing things … and many more,” the list structure is not fully parallel; “I can help fix … and carry out other repairs” would be smoother. The question “What are the challenges related to the fixes required in a fully functional unit?” is awkwardly inserted into a statement and would work better as an indirect clause. Also, “Full-time” does not need a capital letter, and the final sentence of the motivation paragraph could be joined more clearly to the preceding idea.

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