Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Dear Sir,

Hope this letter finds you well.

I have read that your magazine wants to include contribution from its readers for an article called “The book that influenced me most” I would like to contribute in this regard. The book that influenced me is about “Healthy Eating Habits”. The book is about how you should choose your food. By adapting healthy eating habits how you can improve your health. And if you’re someone who is struggling to lose weight this book will help you by helping you counting your calories but alongside the exercise is must.

This book influenced me in many ways. First I have stopped consuming frozen food. As a mother of two children it helps my decide which food is good for my children. After reading this, I have come to know that we should have whole fruits instead of juice. At what time one should have last meal and so on.

I am hopeful that this book will influence other people also. Those who are fighting with a disease or more likely obesity.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,

Zara Shaikh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: describing the book, explaining its influence, and discussing its potential impact on others. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the description of the book is quite brief and repetitive, and the explanation of how it influenced you could be more detailed to fully satisfy the requirements of a 'well-developed' response. While the tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution, adding more specific examples or personal anecdotes would help elevate the response to a higher band.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter is logically organized into clear paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your ideas. You use some basic cohesive devices such as 'First' and 'After reading this'. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes a bit mechanical, and the transition between the introduction and the body paragraphs could be smoother. The use of referencing is generally clear, but there are instances where the connection between ideas feels slightly disjointed, particularly in the first paragraph where sentences are short and choppy.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'consuming', 'obesity', and 'adapting'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are some minor inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'it helps my decide' (should be 'helps me decide') and 'fighting with a disease' (usually 'fighting a disease' or 'battling a disease'). To improve, try to incorporate more precise adjectives and varied verbs to describe your experiences and the book's content.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but there are frequent grammatical errors that occasionally distract the reader. Examples include 'how you can improve your health' (which is a fragment rather than a full sentence in this context), 'it helps my decide', and 'alongside the exercise is must' (missing an article). While these errors do not prevent communication, they indicate a need for more careful proofreading and a better grasp of sentence construction and article usage.

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