Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-27

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 7.0)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am a daily reader of your esteemed newspaer, The National Post, and actively read the articles in the paper. Today, however, I read an article in it that claimed that all the town centres in Canada look similar to one another, and I disagree with that claim.

Firstly, I want to state that their is some amount of truth in the claim. Modern achitecture has evolved to produce many similar looking buildings with massive glass windows and rectangular structures. This is the case all over the world and such buildings can be found in town centres in cities on many other countries.

However, reducing the entire downtown to just its buildings would be unjust, as each city has unique geography and regional charachtersistics that inspired its layout, culture and overall feel. For example, our downtown of Vancouver is deisgned around the huge waterfront we have which gives its own charm and design influnces that another downtown like the one in Calgary does not have. However, in Calgary, it snows for most parts of the year, thus their buldings in gernal afre designed around it and they have covered and underground tunnels to facilitate movement during snowfall.

Thus, even if the buildings share the same architectural style across cities, they all have their own styles and influenecs that led to their distinct structure. I am happy to offer a guided tour to the writer of that article to show them the unique style of the Vancouver downtown.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 7.5

The response successfully covers all bullet points outlined in the task prompt. The student clearly states which points of the newspaper article they agree with, namely the prevalence of similar modern glass and rectangular architecture globally. They then explain in detail how their town centre in Vancouver differs from others due to its geography, waterfront design, and contrast with a city like Calgary. Finally, the candidate offers a guided tour of Vancouver to the writer of the article. The tone is appropriate for a semi-formal letter to a newspaper editor. The position is clear throughout and ideas are well-supported, satisfying the criteria for a strong band score.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.0

The letter follows a clear logical organization and progression throughout. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different points, starting with an introduction and the agreement point, moving on to the detailed differences regarding geography and climate, and concluding with the tour offer. Cohesive devices such as 'Firstly', 'However', and 'Thus' are used effectively to guide the reader through the argument. While some referencing could be slightly smoother, the overall arrangement is coherent and easy to follow, making this a solid performance for cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

The student demonstrates a sufficient range of vocabulary with good flexibility and precision, using less common items such as 'esteemed', 'architecture', 'regional characteristics', and 'distinct structure'. There are a few spelling and typographical errors, such as 'newspaer' instead of 'newspaper', 'achitecture', 'charachtersistics', 'deisgned', 'influnces', and 'afre', which detract slightly from lexical control. However, the vocabulary is adequate to convey precise meaning regarding urban design and geography without impeding communication, placing the writing comfortably in the band 6.5 to 7.0 range.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

The writer employs a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional expressions, such as 'reducing the entire downtown to just its buildings would be unjust, as each city has unique geography...' There is a noticeable grammatical error in the second paragraph ('there is some amount of truth') where the homophone 'their' is used instead of 'there'. Other minor errors include pluralization or word order slips like 'their buldings in gernal afre designed around it'. Despite these occasional errors, the majority of sentences are error-free and punctuation is generally well controlled, reflecting solid grammatical control.

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

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