Band 4.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-16

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 4.5)

dear sir,

i am writing with regard to express my thoughts for your upcoing article regarding public experiences withg reading boks.

i would like to write on the book i have read recently. the book name is change personality by Audrie harrisons. This helps to improve learning skills and improve communication skills.

the book have had a great influence on me since i have started reading it, such as i have learned to have casual talk with people who i met in my daily life. moreover, i have joined some skill learning sessions for part time which was suggested in this book, which made me learn many skills.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 4.5

The response only partially addresses the prompt and fails to meet the minimum word requirement of 150 words, coming in at just 108 words. While you attempt to describe what the book is about and mention its influence on you ('such as i have learned to have casual talk'), you completely omit the third bullet point regarding whether the book would be likely to influence other people. Furthermore, the ideas are very limited and under-developed. To improve, ensure you address all bullet points in the prompt fully and write at least the minimum required word count.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

There is some organisation, but the text lacks clear overall progression and suffers from inadequate and mechanical paragraphing. Sentences like 'the book name is change personality by Audrie harrisons' disrupt the flow. Cohesive devices are minimal, with a simple 'moreover' used to link ideas, but referencing is sometimes unclear, such as the dangling modifier in 'which was suggested in this book, which made me learn many skills.' To achieve a higher band, you need to structure your letter into clear paragraphs with a logical sequence of ideas and varied cohesive devices.

Lexical Resource — Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, such as the repeated use of 'improve learning skills and improve communication skills' and 'skills learning sessions'. There are also spelling errors like 'upcoing' and 'boks', and capitalization is consistently ignored throughout the text (e.g., 'dear sir', 'i'). The lexical range is limited and only minimally adequate for the task. To improve, you should incorporate a wider range of less common vocabulary and pay closer attention to spelling and word choice.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 4.5

The text shows a very limited range of grammatical structures, relying mostly on simple sentences with occasional, faulty attempts at complex forms. There are frequent punctuation and capitalization errors, such as starting sentences with lowercase letters ('i am writing', 'the book name'). Grammatical control is weak, with errors like 'with regard to express my thoughts' instead of 'with regard to expressing'. Frequent errors cause some difficulty for the reader and prevent the score from reaching a higher band.

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

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