Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-22

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/Madam,

I am writing this letter to tell you about my viewpoints on recently published article regarding similarity of each town centre in a national newspaper.

Although I beleive that each and every town centre have similiar genre of appearence from out side, people get various kind of services from one to another town centre.

Moreover, for example, Scarbrough town centre has not only grocessory strore, food court and several brands shopps on different floors but also it is also a major bus station as well. However, Malvern town is built on the northest side in Scarbrough and it has Service Canada office where people make their Identity documents and imigration realted documents. Unlike, Scarbrough town centre does not have this facilites.

Indeed, you have not explored the whole scarbrough. Therefore, I want you to give guided tour with me in which we will visit every town centre and get experience about their varieties.

Thank you

Gurpreet

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The candidate has addressed all parts of the task prompt reasonably well. The letter begins appropriately by addressing the newspaper article and stating partial agreement regarding the external appearance of town centres. The student then explains specific ways in which their local area differs, mentioning specific examples such as the Scarborough town centre and Malvern town. Finally, the third bullet point is covered by offering a guided tour of the town to the writer. However, some ideas are slightly confused or under-developed, particularly in the geographical descriptions and relationships between Scarborough and Malvern. Overall, the purpose of the letter is clear, and the tone is appropriate for a general correspondence to an editor, placing it comfortably in Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter maintains a generally coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical letter structure from the opening salutation to the closing sign-off. Paragraphing is attempted, with distinct sections for the introduction, body examples, and the concluding tour offer. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases such as 'Moreover, for example,' and 'Unlike, Scarbrough town centre' are used awkwardly and impede the smooth flow of ideas. Pronoun referencing is also occasionally unclear, such as shifting between different locations without clear contextual markers. Nevertheless, the progression of ideas is discernible throughout the text, satisfying the requirements of Band 5.5 to 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, demonstrating an attempt to communicate specific details about town amenities. The student uses basic workplace and daily life terminology such as 'bus station', 'Service Canada office', and 'Identity documents'. However, there are numerous spelling errors and awkward word choices throughout the text, including 'viewpoints on recently published article' instead of 'on a recently published article', 'beleive' for believe, 'similiar' for similar, 'appearence' for appearance, 'grocessory strore' for grocery store, 'shopps' for shops, 'northest' for northern, and 'imigration' for immigration. These errors indicate a limited and developing lexical resource, though meaning is generally decipherable, aligning closely with Band 5.0 descriptors.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The student attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and coordinating conjunctions, such as 'which claims that town centres...', and '...not only grocessory store, food court and several brands shopps... but also it is also a major bus station as well.' However, grammatical accuracy is weak, with frequent errors in articles, prepositions, subject-verb agreement, and sentence structure. Examples include 'each and every town centre have' instead of 'has', 'from out side' instead of 'from the outside', 'give guided tour with me' instead of 'give me a guided tour', and redundant phrasing like 'it is also... as well'. These frequent errors occasionally cause difficulty for the reader, placing the grammar performance at a Band 5.0 level.

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

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