Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-02

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 recently came across your advertisement in newspaper to include readers contributions in your magazine's article. I would love to provide my thoughts about the book "The courage to be disliked" that influenced me.

To begin with, it is one of the best sellers in category of philosophy and psychology. The book is written by two Japanese philosophers in a form of conversation between a youth and a philosopher, where the youth is struggling in his life to move forward and seeks guidance. He is challenged with different ideas to problems that are discussed such as isolating my thoughts from how others will react, deny trauma to move ahead, live by oneself while staying connected socially and many more. Those ideas were quite influential to me when I started recognizing the patterns in my life. I am sure the ideas mentioned in this book might change many people's lifestyle.

I am looking forward to a prompt response about the ideas mentioned about book.

Yours faithfully,

John doe

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

You have addressed all three bullet points of the task: describing the book, explaining its influence, and discussing its potential impact on others. The tone is appropriate for a letter to an editor. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For example, while you mention that the book helped you recognize patterns in your life, you do not provide a specific example of how this changed your behavior. Expanding on these points with more concrete personal detail would move your response into a higher band. The letter is well-structured and fulfills the requirements of the prompt effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter follows a logical progression, moving from the introduction to the description of the book, its influence, and finally a concluding remark. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the introduction, the body, and the sign-off. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with' and 'where the youth' are used to link ideas, though some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The flow of information is clear, and the reader can easily follow your argument. To improve, you could use a wider variety of linking words to connect sentences more fluidly within the paragraphs.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'philosophy', 'psychology', and 'patterns'. There are some minor inaccuracies, such as 'in newspaper' (should be 'in the newspaper') and 'in a form of' (should be 'in the form of'). While the vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, it lacks the sophistication and precision required for higher bands. You tend to rely on fairly common phrasing. Incorporating more precise collocations or topic-specific vocabulary would enhance your lexical score.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, such as the relative clause in 'where the youth is struggling in his life to move forward'. There are several grammatical slips, including missing articles ('in newspaper', 'about book') and minor prepositional errors. While these errors are noticeable, they do not impede communication or cause confusion for the reader. To reach a higher band, you should focus on consistent article usage and ensuring that complex sentence structures are punctuated correctly to avoid minor errors.

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.