Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-05

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 6.5)

Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my views on a book that influenced me most in one of your magazines.

Basically, the book is called ''The Jungle Book. It relates to the story of a young boy who was lost in the jungle during a trip with his family. After walking for hours, he met Bagheera and a pack of wolves who raised him and gave him protection from Sher Khan, who wanted to harm him.

Most importantly, the storyline influenced me. Usually, I am not fond of books. However, I started reading this book after being told by my friend, and I was shocked; I read the whole book in a day. The storyline relates to real-life difficulties faced by many of us and shows true friendship among them and their victory against Sher Khan.

Reading this book teaches important life lessons, like how animals show friendship and hold responsibility to protect a child from enemies, which I believe will give viewers a reason to read the book.

I hope you will mention that book in your article and provide viewers a chance to read it.

Yours faithfully,

Arshdeep Singh

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task effectively. You described the book's plot, explained its personal influence, and provided a clear opinion on its potential to influence others. The tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution. To reach a higher band, ensure your explanation of the 'influence' is more profound. While you mentioned you were 'shocked' and read it in a day, expanding on how the themes specifically changed your perspective or behavior would demonstrate better development of ideas. Overall, the response is well-focused and meets the requirements of the prompt.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organized with clear paragraph breaks that separate the introduction, the plot summary, the personal reflection, and the conclusion. You use some cohesive devices such as 'Most importantly,' 'However,' and 'Usually,' which help guide the reader through your thoughts. To improve, try to vary your linking words further and ensure that the transition between the plot summary and your personal reaction is smoother. Currently, the progression is clear, but some sentences feel slightly disjointed. Using more sophisticated referencing or substitution would help improve the flow between sentences.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You have an adequate range of vocabulary for this task, allowing you to convey your message clearly. Phrases like 'real-life difficulties' and 'hold responsibility' are relevant. However, the vocabulary is somewhat basic and repetitive in places. For instance, using 'book' multiple times could be improved by using synonyms like 'literary work,' 'novel,' or 'piece of literature.' There are also minor collocation issues, such as 'provide viewers a chance,' where 'readers' would be more appropriate given the context of a magazine article. Expanding your range of descriptive adjectives and precise verbs will help elevate your score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is generally effective. There are some grammatical slips, such as 'in one of your magazines' (which sounds like you are writing about the magazine rather than for it) and 'among them' (which is slightly ambiguous). Punctuation is generally accurate, though there is a minor error with the quotation mark placement in 'The Jungle Book. Despite these occasional errors, your meaning is always clear, and the grammar does not impede communication. To improve, try to incorporate a wider variety of complex sentence forms, such as conditional or passive structures, to showcase greater control.

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

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