Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-03

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 5.0)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter to appreciate your efforts to reach the readers attention and share some essential lessons about the life via weekly magazine.

First of all, congratulations for the best magazine award. I would certainly greatfull to read your thoughts and how to over come the difficulties when someone overwhelmed with their daily life. Particularly, when someone find hard to surmount the professional challenges and personal life balance this would more likely to give desire answer to alleviate the situations.

This book helped me to take appropriate decisions at the right time and also helped me to overcome the anxiety and stress whenever there were some complex situations in my professional and personal career.

I am very certain that this would definitely help others to tackle the complex situations and also educate them with the good knowledge. Since many take wrong decision due to lack of guidance and support.

Thank you for your book and knowledge.

Yours faithfully,

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.0

The letter addresses all three bullet points, but the development is quite weak. You mention that a book helped you, but you fail to name the book or describe its content in any meaningful way. The instructions specifically ask you to 'describe what this book was about', which you have not done. Consequently, the response feels generic and lacks the specific detail required for a higher band. While you explain how it influenced you and suggest it would help others, the lack of a specific subject matter makes the response feel incomplete and under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is organized into short paragraphs, but the logical flow is hindered by the lack of specific content. The transition between the introduction and the body is abrupt. While you use some cohesive devices like 'First of all' and 'Particularly', the connections between sentences are sometimes mechanical. The paragraphing is present, but the ideas within the paragraphs do not progress in a way that fully supports the prompt's requirements. The overall structure is clear, but the internal cohesion is limited by the vague nature of the content.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, such as 'surmount', 'alleviate', and 'anxiety'. However, there are several errors in word choice and collocation that affect the naturalness of your writing. For example, 'I would certainly greatfull' is grammatically incorrect, and 'give desire answer' is an awkward collocation. You also use 'the life' incorrectly in the first sentence. While your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning, the errors and the lack of precision in describing the book limit the score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. Examples include 'reach the readers attention' (missing possessive apostrophe), 'someone overwhelmed' (missing verb 'is'), and 'someone find hard' (subject-verb agreement error). Additionally, the sentence 'Since many take wrong decision...' is a sentence fragment. While the meaning is generally clear, these persistent errors in basic grammar and punctuation prevent the response from reaching a higher band level.

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

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