Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-08

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You have just read an article in a national newspaper which claims that town centres in your country all look very similar to each other. You don't fully agree with this opinion.

Write a letter to the editor of the newspaper. In your letter

• say which points in the article you agree with
• explain ways in which your town centre is different from most other town centres
• offer to give a guided tour of your town to the writer of the article

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to express my opinion regarding the claim that was printed in a national newspaper about town centres in my country.I completely disagree to the comment that you made about similarity.

However to some extent it may look quite the same from the outside but entirely its not similar.There are plenty of unique stalls in the town centres which represents our uniques and modesty of my country.

There are shops where there are numerous options of cuisine

such as street style food, dessert bar.every year there will be a food festival to celebrate the encouragement of local residents and to let the people know that things that we eat every single day.

i can provide a tour guide to know to know better about my country main city.After you witness the stunning architecture in addition to that knowing about the famous meals .

ThankYou for your attention.I look forward to get a response from you.

yours faithfully,

Rakshitha

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the task. You stated your disagreement with the article, provided specific examples of how your town differs (unique stalls and food festivals), and offered a guided tour. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For example, the explanation of why your town is different could be more detailed to fully convince the reader. The tone is generally appropriate for a letter to an editor, though it could be slightly more formal. To reach a higher band, ensure that your arguments are expanded with more depth and clarity.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organised into paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your argument. However, the use of cohesive devices is somewhat mechanical and occasionally inaccurate. For instance, 'However to some extent' and 'in addition to that' are used, but the flow between sentences is sometimes disjointed. There are also issues with punctuation, such as missing spaces after periods and incorrect capitalization (e.g., 'every year', 'i can'). Improving the use of linking words and ensuring consistent paragraph structure will significantly improve the logical flow of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to convey your message clearly. You use some relevant terms like 'unique stalls', 'cuisine', and 'stunning architecture'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'disagree to the comment' (should be 'disagree with') and 'encouragement of local residents' (which does not quite fit the context of a food festival). To improve, try to use more precise vocabulary and ensure that words are used in their correct collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You use a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures, but there are frequent errors in grammar and punctuation that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include 'entirely its not similar' (should be 'it is'), 'things that we eat' (which is a bit vague), and 'look forward to get a response' (should be 'look forward to getting'). Additionally, there are several issues with capitalization and missing spaces after punctuation. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and consistent sentence construction will help you achieve a higher score.

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.