Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-09

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 6.0)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am your big fan of books and magazines. I am extremely excited to share my thoughts for an article "The book that influenced me most", which is going to be in your a magazine.

I would like to talk about book which motivated me a lot is "Do or Die". This book was written in the previous years and sold out in couple of days. It contains life story of a young guy who lived abroad for study and struggling to maintain work and study life. It was about 121 pages book which has many sweet- bitter stories and pictures of real incidents.

Although I am mature enough to do house work and job, doing study gathered was quite challenging for me. However this book increased not only my self confidence but also my emotion became more strong. I was able to focus on my exam practice and enable to achieve desire score.

Definitely these book will give power to their readers and boost their inner strength. I would highly recommended to all students as well as learners to read it once for their better future.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I really appreciate your ideas and giving me opportunity to share my voice.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have addressed all three bullet points in the prompt: describing the book, explaining its influence, and discussing its potential impact on others. The tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, when explaining how the book influenced you, you mention it increased your 'self confidence' and helped you 'achieve desire score', but these points could be expanded with more specific examples of how the book's content directly led to these changes. The response covers the requirements, but the depth of explanation is at a Band 6 level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is logically organized into clear paragraphs, each serving a distinct purpose. You use some cohesive devices, such as 'Although', 'However', and 'Therefore', to link ideas. However, the flow is occasionally interrupted by awkward phrasing, such as 'doing study gathered was quite challenging'. While the overall progression is clear, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes mechanical or slightly unnatural, which prevents the response from reaching a higher band. Improving the transition between sentences would enhance the overall readability.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using words like 'motivated', 'incidents', and 'consideration'. However, there are several instances of imprecise word choice and collocation errors, such as 'I am your big fan of books' (should be 'a big fan'), 'sweet- bitter stories' (should be 'bittersweet'), and 'achieve desire score' (should be 'desired score'). These errors are noticeable but do not prevent the reader from understanding your message. To improve, focus on learning common collocations and ensuring word forms are used correctly in context.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, which is good. However, there are frequent grammatical errors throughout the text, including issues with articles ('in your a magazine'), subject-verb agreement, and word order ('doing study gathered was quite challenging'). Some sentences are fragmented or lack necessary prepositions. While these errors do not impede communication, they are frequent enough to limit the score. Focusing on proofreading for basic errors like missing articles and incorrect verb forms will help you achieve a higher band.

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

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