Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-29

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 or Madam,

I am writing to suggest a book that significantly influenced me, and I would like to recommend it for your upcoming magazine article.

The book is 'Atomic Habits' which is written by a famous author James Clover.This book primaraly focuses on how following small habits bring remarkable results in one's life.

I have learned so many useful life changing lessons after reading this book.Activities such as priortizing important tasks,

This book is not only about a certain age group .In addition,understanding the concepts is quite simple as it is full of grahpic representations and language is so easier to acknowledge. Thus, this book can have a positive impact

I hope you would like this idea.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Yours Sincerly,

Prabhjot.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The candidate has partially covered all parts of the task prompt, including describing the book Atomic Habits, explaining its influence on daily activities, and discussing its suitability for other readers. However, there are incomplete sentences and abrupt breaks in the text, such as "Activities such as priortizing important tasks,". Crucially, the response is 129 words long, falling short of the required 150-word minimum specified for General Training Task 1. This significant under-length prevents full development of the ideas and directly impacts the task achievement score, resulting in a band 5.0 rating.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The letter opens and closes with appropriate formal conventions ("Dear Sir or Madam,", "Yours Sincerly,"). However, the internal coherence and paragraphing are heavily disrupted by unfinished thoughts and missing content. While some cohesive links are attempted, such as "In addition," and "Thus,", the erratic spacing and broken sentences like "Activities such as priortizing important tasks," create a disjointed reading experience. Paragraphing is poorly handled due to these abrupt fragments and the extremely short overall text. Organisation lacks smooth progression, leading to a band 5.0 score for coherence and cohesion.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

The vocabulary used is adequate for basic communication but contains noticeable errors in word choice, spelling, and collocation. For instance, the author misspelled the author's name as 'James Clover' instead of James Clear, misspelled 'primaraly' and 'grahpic', and used 'easier to acknowledge' rather than easier to understand. While there is an attempt to use topic-specific vocabulary such as 'remarkable results' and 'positive impact', the frequency of spelling mistakes ('priortizing', 'Sincerly') and awkward phrasing restrict the lexical score to a band 5.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

The response demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures. Simple sentences dominate, and attempts at complex forms are either broken or overly simplistic. There are issues with punctuation and missing words, such as in the sentence "language is so easier to acknowledge". Furthermore, the incomplete sentence "Activities such as priortizing important tasks," lacks a main clause, indicating poor control over sentence construction. Frequent basic errors and structural incompleteness lead to a band 5.0 for grammatical range and accuracy.

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