Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-19

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,

With utmost repect, it is stated that i prefer to read your articles for a long time and we share similar thoughts but recently i read an article of yours, which i don`t fully agree with. It was regarding the similarity of the town centres in our country. I agree that there are many similarities among many town centres and many have been constructed on the same structural basis. However, many cities show exponentital key differences also. Big cities totally differ in their city centres from the country sides and vital components such as number of shops, variety of structural components are varying among both.

Town centre in our city is far more different than many cities as it is the cultural and business hub and is well structured and organized. Compared to many others, it is larger in size and has a vast range of almost every necessity and shows more cultural diversity. You are cordially invited to visit our town and enjoy a guided tour representing the key structural and cultural differences which may alter your vision of this specificity.

Looking forward to accompany you,

Name:- XYZ.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response successfully covers all parts of the prompt. You begin by acknowledging the points you agree with, noting that many town centres do share structural similarities. You then explain specific ways in which your town centre differs, highlighting its role as a cultural and business hub, its larger size, and its greater variety of necessities and diversity. Finally, you successfully offer a guided tour to the writer of the article. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter to a newspaper editor, although the opening phrase 'With utmost repect, it is stated that' sounds a bit unnatural. Overall, your position is clear and the bullet points are fully addressed, corresponding well to the requirements for a Band 6.5 or 7.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical progression from your opening stance to agreement, differences, and finally the invitation. Paragraphing is used, although the body of the text is somewhat clustered into a single large paragraph before the invitation. Cohesive devices are employed, such as 'However', 'Compared to many others', and 'vital components', but referencing and linking could be smoother. For instance, using 'both' to refer back to the countryside and city centres is slightly confusing as only two elements were contrasted. Paragraphing should ideally be broken down more clearly to separate your agreements from your contrasting points. These features place the text solidly at Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for the task, attempting some less common items such as 'exponentital', 'structural basis', 'cultural diversity', and 'specificity'. However, there are some noticeable inaccuracies in word choice and spelling, such as 'repect' instead of 'respect', 'exponentital' instead of 'exponential', and using 'country sides' as one word or inappropriately for town comparison. Furthermore, phrases like 'prefer to read your articles for a long time' are somewhat unnatural. While communication is never impeded, these lexical errors and minor awkwardness in collocation prevent the response from achieving a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some control over structure through conditional and concessive clauses, such as 'Compared to many others, it is larger in size and has a vast range...' However, there are several grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout. For example, 'it is stated that i prefer' mixes passive voice unnecessarily with a lowercase pronoun 'i'. Punctuation around clauses and the backticks used instead of a standard apostrophe in 'don`t' also detract from accuracy. The majority of sentences contain minor slips or awkward phrasing, meaning control is best described by the Band 6 descriptor where errors are present but do not impede overall communication.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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