Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-15

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 or Madam,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing this letter to say thank you very much for publishing this amazing book called 'The book that influenced me most'.

First and foremost, I would like to describe that the book is about a writer's personal story who fails several times, but he is very stubborn to succeed one day in his life, and tips for living life with discipline.

Personally, I found it very motivating and helpful in overcoming my personal life hurdles. This book helped me achieve by dreams goals and improve my day-to-day hurdles.

Yes, this book is very motivating, and life lessons can help to change one's lifestyle in a positive way. Influenced many youth who fail in their life exam.

I hope you will find my feedback helpful for your articles, and thank you for giving time for reading my feedback.

Best regards,

Harshil trivedi

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points in the prompt, which is a positive start. However, the development of your ideas is quite limited. For instance, when describing the book, you mention a writer who 'fails several times' but do not provide enough detail to give the reader a clear sense of the book's content. Similarly, the explanation of how it influenced you is somewhat vague, using repetitive phrases like 'personal life hurdles'. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your points with specific examples or more descriptive language to fully develop your ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter follows a logical structure, beginning with a standard opening and ending with a formal closing. You use basic cohesive devices like 'First and foremost' and 'Personally' to signal transitions. However, the paragraphing is somewhat disjointed, and the flow between sentences is occasionally mechanical. Some sentences, such as 'Influenced many youth who fail in their life exam', are grammatically incomplete and lack a clear connection to the previous sentence, which disrupts the overall progression of your argument. Improving the use of linking words and ensuring each paragraph has a clear focus would enhance the coherence.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to convey your message clearly. You use some relevant terms like 'motivating', 'discipline', and 'hurdles'. However, the range is somewhat limited, and there are instances of awkward phrasing, such as 'achieve by dreams goals' and 'life exam'. These errors do not impede communication, but they do show a lack of precision. To improve, try to incorporate more varied and sophisticated vocabulary related to literature and personal growth, and pay closer attention to word collocations.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text. For example, 'describe that the book is about a writer's personal story who fails' is syntactically incorrect, and 'achieve by dreams goals' contains a preposition error. Additionally, some sentences are fragmented, such as 'Influenced many youth who fail in their life exam', which lacks a subject. While these errors rarely prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they are frequent enough to limit your score. Focusing on subject-verb agreement and sentence completeness will help.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.