Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-07-25

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A magazine wants to include contributions from its readers for an article called 'The book that influenced me most'.

Write a letter to the editor of the magazine about the book that influenced you most. In your letter

- describe what this book was about
- explain how this book influenced you
- say whether this book would be likely to influence other people

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 7.5)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing to contribute to your article," The Book that Influenced Me Most". The book I would like to recommend is Atomic Habits written by James Clear "Atomic which has had a profound impact on both my personal and professional life.

The book explains how small, consistent improvements can lead to remarkable long-term success. It focuses on developing positive habits, breaking negative ones, and creating systems that make achieving goals easier. Instead of expecting overnight success, it encourages readers to improve by just one percent every day.

This book completely changed the way I approach my daily life. Before reading it, I often tried to achieve too many things at once and become discouraged when I failed. However, after appying ideas from book, I started focused on small improvements. As a result, I become more disciplined, productive and optimistic.

I strongly believe this book would influence many other people because its advice is practical and easy to apply.

Thank you for considering my contribution. I hope my recommendation encourages other readers to discover this inspiring book.

Yours Sincerely,

Anuj

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 8.0

You have successfully addressed all three bullet points in the prompt. You clearly identified the book, explained its core concepts, described its personal impact on your productivity and mindset, and provided a logical reason why it would influence others. The tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution, and the letter format is correctly followed. The ideas are well-developed and relevant to the task. To reach a higher band, ensure that your explanation of how the book influenced you is slightly more detailed, perhaps by providing a specific example of a habit you changed, which would add more depth to your personal narrative.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.5

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Each paragraph focuses on a specific aspect of the prompt, which helps the reader follow your ideas easily. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'However', 'As a result', and 'Instead of' to link your sentences effectively. The progression of ideas is smooth and easy to follow. To improve further, try to vary your cohesive devices by using more sophisticated linking phrases or transition words to connect your sentences, which would make the flow feel even more natural and less mechanical.

Lexical Resource — Band 7.5

You demonstrate a good range of vocabulary appropriate for this task, using terms like 'profound impact', 'consistent improvements', 'disciplined', and 'productive'. These words are used accurately and fit the context well. There are a few minor slips, such as 'appying' (spelling) and 'started focused' (grammatical collocation), but these do not impede communication. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more idiomatic expressions or less common collocations related to personal development or literature to show a greater flexibility in your word choice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 7.5

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures effectively. Most of your sentences are clear and error-free, which makes your writing easy to read. There are a few minor grammatical errors, such as 'after appying ideas from book' (missing article 'the') and 'I become more disciplined' (tense inconsistency; should be 'became'). However, these are rare and do not interfere with the overall meaning. To improve, ensure you proofread for small articles and verb tense consistency, especially when shifting between past experiences and current states of mind.

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