Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-08-26

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 Sir or Madam,

I hope you are doing well. I have heard that you are looking for contributions of book readers about a specific book they influenced them the most.

I want to talk about the book that I read last month about 'How to start your own business'. As the name suggests, the book is for individuals who are looking for opportunities to start their own startups. Also, it provides specific management functions and principles about various types of trades.

My dream is to start something of my own and this is the book that influenced me more about achieving my goal. It talks about the several challenges that early startups may face and how to eliminate those issues which were very realistic and specific as if written from a real life example.

Not only me but my friends, when I recommend this book to them they also found it very interesting and realistic. Thus, I believe that this book would very likely to influence more young people who wants to start their own firm.

Thank you

Warm Regards,

George

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response addresses all three bullet points of the prompt. You clearly describe the book's content, explain its personal influence on your career aspirations, and provide a logical reason why it would influence others. The tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution. To reach a higher band, you could expand slightly more on the specific 'management functions' mentioned to provide a more vivid picture of the book's content, as the current description is somewhat general. However, the task requirements are fully met with a clear and consistent focus throughout.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

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 aids readability. You use some cohesive devices such as 'As the name suggests', 'Also', and 'Thus' to link ideas. However, the transition between the second and third paragraphs could be smoother. Additionally, some referencing is slightly mechanical. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that sentences flow more naturally into one another would help elevate the coherence of the piece.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'opportunities', 'management functions', and 'realistic'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation. For example, 'contributions of book readers about a specific book they influenced them the most' is awkward; a better phrasing would be 'contributions from readers about the book that influenced them most'. Similarly, 'influence more young people who wants to start' contains a subject-verb agreement error and a slightly unnatural collocation. Expanding your vocabulary to include more precise, topic-specific collocations would improve this score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While the meaning is always clear, there are several grammatical errors that persist. For instance, 'the book that I read last month about 'How to start your own business'' is a sentence fragment. There are also errors in verb forms and agreement, such as 'who wants to start' (should be 'want') and 'would very likely to influence' (should be 'would be very likely to influence'). Increasing the frequency of error-free complex sentences and proofreading for basic subject-verb agreement would significantly improve your performance in this criterion.

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