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 or Madam,

I am writing to disagree with an article which is published in national newspaper about in our country. Mentioning the town centre looks similar to each other. I do not agree with this statement.

I read the article and enjoyed because the way our town parks and nature expressed is really comandable and way of expressing new grown plant and decorated houses are so impressive and adoreable.

However, i do not agree with explaining each town centre similar to each other because all centres have its own history and symbols yet, i agree each centre use same structure to maintain the beauty of town but the symbols use in each building and paint shows complete history of our culture.

If you would like, I can provide a comple tour of town and share the knowledge of our town cultural history at no cost.

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Your faithfully,

Harleen

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The candidate addresses all parts of the task prompt, achieving the communicative requirements of a general correspondence. The letter begins appropriately, notes which parts of the article are agreed with, such as the praise for nature and decorated houses, and clearly explains how the writer's town differs due to unique historical symbols. Furthermore, an offer to provide a guided tour of the town is successfully included. While the development of ideas is slightly constrained by sentence structure and vocabulary limitations, the purpose of the letter remains clear throughout. The response covers all bullet points adequately, aligning well with the descriptors for Band 6.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with standard opening and closing conventions, although the structural flow is occasionally disrupted by awkward phrasing and abrupt transitions. Paragraphing is attempted to separate the different points required by the task, such as agreeing with the article, explaining differences, and offering a tour. However, cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or missing entirely, as seen in phrases like 'However, i do not agree with explaining each town centre similar to each other'. Referencing and logical progression are mostly functional, but the connection between sentences can occasionally feel disjointed, which places this response comfortably at a Band 5.5 to 6.0 range; a 5.5 is awarded due to the noticeable lack of flexible cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing the writer to express basic opinions and describe features of their town. There are attempts to use less common or descriptive lexical items, such as 'commandable', 'adoreable', and 'cultural history'. However, there are noticeable word choice and spelling errors throughout the text, including 'published' instead of 'published recently', 'comandasle'/'commandable', and 'adoreable' instead of 'adorable'. Additionally, phrases like 'providing a comple tour' demonstrate minor slips. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they restrict the vocabulary score to Band 5.5, reflecting a limited but minimally adequate range with recurring inaccuracies.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The candidate attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety in structure. However, frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues persist throughout the letter. Examples include missing articles ('in national newspaper', 'provide a comple tour of town'), incorrect prepositions ('about in our country'), and tense or agreement issues ('an article which is published', 'each centre use same structure'). Sentences containing dependent clauses often exhibit faulty grammar, such as 'Mentioning the town centre looks similar to each other.' These errors require some effort from the reader to parse, though the overall meaning remains decipherable. This aligns with the Band 5 descriptors, where frequent errors in complex structures are characteristic.

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

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