Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · 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 6.0)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to express my dissatisfaction for the news article which you posted in your newspaper recently.

Firstly, thanks for writing an article on Hyderabad which gives an opportunity to show case about my city to many people all over the country. In article you mentioned about the famous places to explore, Moreover you said it's safe place to travel. Therefore, it may increase tourism to out city. we really felt very thankful to you.

However, you mentioned all the cities look similar in our country, I did not agree with the statement. Cities are designed as per the requirement of the people living in the city. For example, Hyderabad is a big city with many multinational companies and big universities so it had developed infrastructure like flyovers, subways, buses for every ten minutes, many people feel comfortable to live here but all the cities will not have the same facilities, they will have as per there requirements.

If you are interested in knowing in-detail about my city, I am happy to help you to explore with you in explaining each and every place.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Pranusha

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response covers all three bullet points from the prompt effectively. You successfully stated which points in the article you agree with (the mention of safe places to explore and increased tourism), explained ways in which your town centre differs from others by citing specific infrastructure like flyovers and multinational companies, and offered a guided tour of Hyderabad. Your tone is generally appropriate for a letter to an editor, shifting from polite disagreement to an invitation. However, some ideas, particularly around how cities are designed, tend to over-generalise or remain slightly under-developed. For instance, explaining the contrast between Hyderabad and other towns could have been more focused. Overall, all parts of the task are addressed adequately, meeting the criteria for Band 6.0.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a clear overall arrangement and follows a logical progression from expressing dissatisfaction and agreement to explaining differences and offering a tour. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different points, such as the discussion on city similarities and the final invitation. Cohesive devices are employed, including transition words like 'Firstly', 'Moreover', and 'However'. However, some referencing and linking are a bit mechanical or faulty, such as 'In article you mentioned' (missing article) and 'so it had developed infrastructure... but all the cities will not have the same facilities'. These minor slips in cohesion prevent the response from achieving a higher band, placing it comfortably at Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for the task, allowing you to successfully convey your message about Hyderabad and city infrastructure. You attempt some less common vocabulary items such as 'multinational companies', 'infrastructure', and 'dissatisfaction'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'express my dissatisfaction for' (instead of 'with'), 'show case' (as one word, 'showcase'), and 'to out city' (typographical error for 'our'). Furthermore, repetitions of words like 'city' and 'cities' limit lexical variety. These inaccuracies indicate a Band 6.0 level for lexical resource, where communication is not impeded but vocabulary control lacks precision.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating a reasonable attempt at subordination and coordination (e.g., 'Cities are designed as per the requirement of the people living in the city'). There are, however, several grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the text, including missing prepositions ('in article you mentioned'), agreement errors ('it had developed infrastructure' referring to a singular city with plural features, and 'as per there requirements' instead of 'their'), and run-on structures. Despite these errors, the meaning remains clear and they rarely impede overall communication. This mix of structures and error frequency aligns well with the Band 6.0 descriptors.

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

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