Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-17

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 5.5)

Dear Mr. Telly,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing this letter regarding a book that I read recently and i feel it can influence others especially young adults those who are dealing with motivation regarding their career.

This book basically based on life story of famous Indian businessman Mr Mukesh Ambani. He is one of the richest Asian businessman. The book name is 'Ambani Life' and it recentally launched in library for public. This book mentioned all the up and downs related to Mr Ambani life like how he deal with his struggle life period.

This book is very inspirational and inspired me a lot. This book mentioned about all details regarding regular worker to successfull businessman. Mr Ambani start his career as a worker in one refinery company at the age of 29 years old and he earned only few rupees as a monthy salary. But after he start looking forward to open his own refinery company. He struggled finacially and mentally because he had no sufficient funds at that time and nobody was helping. After a long period of struggle he finally opened his first company in 2002 and later on he changed one company to 150 companies.

This book will leave positive impacts on young adults because in competitive world many of lose their hope due to lack of personal motivation. I feel if they read this book they will feel motivated about fulfilling their dreams. This book might change their way of thinking.

I hope you will think about this book and looking forward to seeing it in your article. If you have any further question please feel free to contact me on my email www.abcd.com.

Yours Sincerely.

Harry Kom.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers all three bullet points required by the task instructions. You successfully describe the book and its subject matter, explain how it inspired you personally regarding career struggles, and discuss whether it would influence other people, specifically young adults. However, the tone of the greeting is slightly inconsistent since you addressed the editor as 'Dear Mr. Telly' after the prompt instructed you to begin with 'Dear Sir or Madam'. Furthermore, while the ideas are relevant, some of the supporting details are a bit repetitive and under-developed, placing your task achievement firmly in the Band 6 territory.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organised into logical paragraphs, with each paragraph addressing a distinct aspect of the prompt, from the description of the book to its impact and your final thoughts. However, paragraphing and cohesive devices are sometimes mechanical or lacking in smooth transitions. For instance, sentences like 'This book basically based on...' and 'After that he start looking forward...' show repetitive structures that disrupt the natural flow. Referencing could also be tighter. Overall, the organisation achieves a coherent overall arrangement that satisfies the criteria for Band 6.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to express your ideas about career struggles and business success. You attempt less common words and phrases such as 'inspirational', 'finacially and mentally', and 'competitive world'. However, there are noticeable spelling errors ('recentally', 'successfull', 'finacially', 'monthy') and inaccurate word choices ('This book basically based on', 'changed one company to 150 companies'). These errors do not impede communication, but they restrict your lexical score to Band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

You demonstrate a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, such as 'I feel if they read this book they will feel motivated about fulfilling their dreams.' However, there are frequent grammatical errors, particularly regarding verb tenses and auxiliary verbs, such as 'he start looking forward' instead of 'he started looking forward', 'how he deal' instead of 'how he dealt', and lowercase 'i'. Punctuation is also inconsistent in places. Because errors are frequent and occasionally cause minor difficulty for the reader, this performance aligns with Band 5.0.

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