Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-22

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,

I hope you are doing well ! There are thousand of books available in the market that interest readers. I am writing about one of my favorite book that influenced me the most.

Since childhood I am biblipohile.I read almost 1000 of books. I was the scholar student but struggled in public speaking. One day my professor recommended me the novel named "Three phases of life" written by "Adbul Khan" in 1879 and within 15 days I completed the book. The book was based on real life stories exlplained the concept of self esteem and intersections.

To be honest, after completing the book I felt self motivated and tricks to overcome the public speaking fear. The best part about that book was each concept was elobrated with real life stories. I still remember one of the paragraph from that book that is whenever you feel demotivated just take a deep breath and start counting backward and you will be okay. And honestly it that worked for me when I was giving my interview.

Nowadays, everyone single is struggling with their communication skills. I personally believe that this is one of the best book to motivate yourself. Even I recommended this novel to my colleagues who were stuggling in getting promtion and I heard positive feedback.

I hope you would like my story. I look forward to your response.

Your faithfully.

Riya

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The candidate addresses all parts of the prompt successfully. The letter describes what the book 'Three phases of life' was about, explaining its focus on self-esteem and real-life stories. It clearly explains how the book influenced the writer by helping overcome public speaking fears and boosting confidence during an interview. Furthermore, the response states whether the book would be likely to influence others, noting that it helped colleagues struggling with promotions. The tone is appropriate for a magazine contribution, and the format opens correctly with 'Dear Sir'. Ideas are relevant and developed adequately, meeting the requirements of a Band 6.5 or 7.0 for Task Achievement. Minor improvements in detail could push it higher, but overall the content fulfills the bullet points nicely.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is generally coherent and easy to follow, with a clear overall arrangement. Paragraphing is utilized to separate the introduction, body points regarding the book's content and impact, and the conclusion. However, cohesion is sometimes faulty or mechanical. For instance, transitional phrases are occasionally lacking, and sentences like 'Since childhood I am biblipohile.' disrupt the smooth logical flow. Referencing is mostly clear, but the progression between ideas could be smoother. There are punctuation spacing errors around commas and periods, such as 'well !' and 'biblipohile.I', which affect the visual cohesion. Overall, the organization aligns well with Band 6.0 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

The student displays an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, attempting less common items such as 'self-esteem', 'demotivated', and 'communication skills'. However, there are noticeable spelling and word-choice errors, including 'biblipohile' (bibliophile), 'exlplained' (explained), 'elobrated' (elaborated), and 'stuggling' (struggling). Additionally, phrases like 'scholar student' are slightly unnatural in this context ('top student' or 'academic student' would be better). The phrase 'everyone single is struggling' contains a grammatical word-order slip. While these errors do not impede overall communication, they prevent the score from reaching Band 7.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The writer attempts a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating some variety. However, there are frequent grammatical errors and punctuation issues throughout the text. Examples include tense errors ('Since childhood I am biblipohile' instead of 'have been'), missing articles ('One day my professor recommended me the novel'), and awkward phrasing ('and it that worked for me'). Punctuation errors are also prominent, such as missing spaces after periods and incorrect spacing before exclamation marks. While the meaning remains clear and communication is not seriously impeded, the high frequency of basic structural and mechanical errors places this firmly in the Band 5.5 category.

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