Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-28

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 disappointment regarding an article printed in your newspaper last week. When I was reading it, I noticed the writer had mentioned about the look of the shopping centres as they all look alike. However, I do not agree with this as they all have their own uniqueness based on the location.

My College Square town centre have all of the necessary shops including pharmacy, grocery store, gym, salon and restaurants.They are not only affordable brands but also convenient for travel due to the availability of the Public transport. On the other side, other centres do not have all various shop options are included. Some has many high end luxury stores, which are expensive and unaffordable to all. They are located in the outskirts of the city, which makes it difficult to travel to.

I kindly request to republish the article with the correct information in the newspaper tomorrow. I can offer a guided tour to the writer of the article to explain the differences and experinece the reality.

I look forward to hear from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Vivek

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

You successfully covered all three bullet points required in the prompt. You stated which point you agreed with, explained how your local town centre of College Square differs by offering essential shops, affordable brands, and better public transport accessibility, and you offered to give a guided tour to the writer. Your position is clear throughout the letter. However, the tone of your request to 'republish the article with the correct information' is slightly overly demanding for a standard letter to an editor, and some of your comparisons regarding other town centres are a bit vague and generalised. Overall, you met all the communicative requirements effectively, corresponding closely to a Band 6.5 or 7.0 for task completion.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

Your letter is organised into clear, logical paragraphs with an appropriate opening and sign-off. You attempted to use cohesive devices such as 'However', 'On the other side', and 'which makes it difficult', which generally helped guide the reader through your arguments. However, some referencing is slightly confusing, such as 'Some has many high end luxury stores' where it is unclear whether 'Some' refers to other town centres or shops. Additionally, paragraphing could be smoother to enhance the overall flow. Despite these minor mechanical flaws in cohesion, the letter is coherent and easy to follow overall.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrated an adequate range of vocabulary suitable for a general task, using terms such as 'disappointment', 'uniqueness', 'affordable brands', and 'public transport'. You attempted some less common phrases, but there were noticeable word choice and collocation errors, such as 'the writer had mentioned about the look' (unnecessary preposition 'about'), 'all various shop options are included' (awkward phrasing), and 'experinece the reality' (spelling error 'experinece'). While these errors do not impede communication, they restrict your score to a Band 6, as precision and control over less common lexical items are still developing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You successfully used a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including relative clauses ('which are expensive and unaffordable to all') and conditional-like ideas. However, there are several grammatical errors scattered throughout the text. For instance, subject-verb agreement issues are present in 'My College Square town centre have all' (should be 'has') and 'Some has many' (should be 'Some have'). Additionally, you made a punctuation and prepositional error in the final sign-off sentence: 'I look forward to hear from you soon' (should be 'hearing'). These persistent errors occasionally distract the reader, placing your grammar control firmly at Band 6.0.

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

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