Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-25

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,

Subject: disappointment with an article that you published in your national newspaper about my cities town centre and requesting for correction.

I am writing to provide you with the accurate information regarding my city's downtown, which is absolutely different than other downtowns but you mention its similar to others. Indeed, I would like to tell you that there is multiple buildings were build in accient time, as well as the color of all infrastructure is same of whole downtown except statues. Even, Amritsar's downtown is the only one with statues of freedom fighters and mayters, which are made with premium white marble.

However, you published mismatched information about it but at one view point I agree with you that people feel as they are in heaven when visit to there. I would like to offer you with a tour that will be guided by me, and provide you a proper historical information that will help you to republish an article about Amritsar's downtown.

I look forward to your postive response.

Thank you so much.

Yours faithfully,

Sukhbir Singh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The letter covers all three bullet points from the prompt effectively. You successfully stated the point of agreement regarding the heavenly feel of the place, explained how Amritsar's downtown differs through unique features like statues of freedom fighters and historic buildings, and offered a guided tour. Your position is clear throughout the text, and the purpose of the letter is well-communicated. However, some ideas are slightly repetitive or under-developed, particularly when discussing the architectural details. To reach a higher band, you could expand more precisely on how the overall town centre avoids looking identical to others rather than focusing solely on specific statues. Overall, the requirements of the task have been addressed adequately.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement with a recognisable beginning and ending, correctly following the requested opening 'Dear Sir or Madam' and signing off appropriately. However, paragraphing is weak; the main body of the letter is condensed into only two dense paragraphs, and the subject line is awkwardly formatted into the opening. Cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or misused, such as 'However, you published mismatched information about it but at one view point...', which creates redundancy and logical friction. Referencing is occasionally unclear, making the flow between sentences a bit disjointed. Better use of cohesive conjunctions and clearer paragraph separation for each bullet point would improve the overall structure.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing you to convey your message, but it contains several inaccuracies and spelling errors. For example, 'accient' instead of ancient, 'mayters' instead of martyrs, and 'postive' instead of positive detract from the quality of the writing. You attempt some less common vocabulary, such as 'freedom fighters' and 'premium white marble', but overall lexical control is limited. Word choice is sometimes unnatural, as seen in phrases like 'mismatched information' instead of 'incorrect information'. To improve, focus on mastering common descriptive vocabulary and checking your spelling carefully before final submission.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

Your writing displays a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, though attempts at complexity frequently contain grammatical errors. For instance, 'there is multiple buildings were build' mixes existential structures with passive voice incorrectly and contains a subject-verb agreement error. Punctuation and article usage also need attention, such as missing articles before nouns ('is similar to others') and awkward phrasing in relative clauses ('which is absolutely different than other downtowns'). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they are frequent enough to cause difficulty for the reader and prevent the text from achieving 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.