Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-14

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 5.0)

Dear sir,

I am writing about the magazine which is very influence me. This magazines is about heath and fitness. I am health consicious person that is why i have keen interest to read it. By reading, i came to fast food is not good for health because it can arise some health issues such as obesity and chestrol, blood pressure that is why people avoid it and they should eat home made food which contains alot of nutrious such as vitamin and calcium. Moreover, this book also suggest people to go walking and exercise if they want to fil. This book is very fruitful for me to reduce my weight as i follow instruction to lose weight. I always suggest my friends to read this book because this book is very useful to stay healthy because Health is Wealth.

I request to editor to write more books related to health so i can stay healthy. i hope you lauch new book as soon as possible.

your faithfully,

Gagan

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response5.5
Coherence and Cohesion5.0
Lexical Resource5.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.0
Overall5.0

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response addresses the three bullet points outlined in the prompt, although the student confuses the magazine contribution task with a book review and refers to the publication interchangeably as a magazine and a book. The description of what the publication was about is provided, mentioning health, fitness, and nutrition. The influence is explained through weight loss and dietary changes, and the student states that they recommend it to friends. However, the ideas are somewhat repetitive and lack the necessary depth and extension to reach a higher band. The tone is appropriate for a letter, but the misunderstanding of the format (writing about a magazine article rather than a specific book) prevents a higher score. Overall, it satisfies the basic requirements of the task.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter lacks proper paragraphing, as it is structured into just two dense blocks of text rather than clearly divided paragraphs for each prompt requirement. Cohesive devices are basic and repetitive, relying heavily on words like 'that is why' and 'moreover'. Progression is somewhat disjointed, leaping abruptly from health issues to exercise recommendations and back to personal weight loss. Pronoun referencing is occasionally unclear, such as 'which is very influence me' and 'i came to fast food'. While the overall meaning remains decipherable, the structural and cohesive weaknesses place this response firmly in the mid-range.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

The lexical range is limited and contains frequent spelling and word-choice errors that occasionally impede smooth reading. Examples of errors include 'health consicious', 'chestrol' (cholesterol), 'nutrious' (nutrients), 'fil' (fit), 'lauch' (launch), and grammatical errors like 'very influence me'. While the student attempts some less common vocabulary such as 'obesity' and 'fruitful', the high frequency of inaccurate word forms and misspellings ('consicious', 'chestrol') restricts the score. Basic vocabulary is used adequately to convey the central message, but precise collocation and accurate spelling are missing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, but control over grammar is weak. There are frequent errors in tense usage, article omission, and subject-verb agreement, such as 'i came to fast food is not good', 'i follow instruction', and 'I request to editor'. Punctuation is also problematic, with run-on sentences joined improperly by commas rather than conjunctions or full stops. Although the meaning can mostly be understood despite the errors, the high density of grammatical inaccuracies means the majority of sentences are not error-free.

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.