Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-09-30

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 writting to discribe about my sincere feelings to you about your articles, I also love to read different articles whenever i get a chance

I want to tell you about the book that i recently read on the last month. The book name was 'NEVER GIVE UP' written by the author Livy. I also read many books which is written by him. He write many books about the life motivation

In this book, There are many think who inspire me. For instance, He discribe about hoe can we handle hurdles of our lives. Whenever, we face any difficulty in our life we should alway find a way to rescue our self instead of doing notting

This is a best book about the life. Many people inspired through the book. I suggest if you also put these articles in magazine. There are many people who will be infuence by this.

Thanks for you attention

Yours sincerely,

X, y, z

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.0

The candidate has addressed all parts of the task prompt, albeit in a rudimentary manner. The response describes what the book was about ('NEVER GIVE UP' by Livy, focusing on life motivation and handling hurdles), explains how it influenced the writer ('rescue our self instead of doing notting'), and mentions whether it would be likely to influence others ('Many people inspired through the book'). However, the ideas are quite limited, repetitive, and under-developed, particularly regarding how the book specifically transformed the writer's mindset. There are also noticeable digressions into talking about magazine articles rather than purely focusing on the book itself. Despite these limitations, all bullet points are touched upon, satisfying the minimum requirements for a Band 5 performance.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.0

The letter lacks clear overall progression and logical paragraphing. While the text is broken into short paragraphs, the transitions between ideas feel abrupt and disjointed. Cohesive devices are minimal, inadequate, and sometimes inaccurate (for example, the transition 'Whenever, we face any difficulty' is awkwardly punctuated and mechanically deployed). Referencing is occasionally unclear, such as the pronoun shifts between the author, the book, and the reader. The salutation and sign-off are attempted, but the internal structuring of the body paragraphs lacks the cohesive glue necessary for higher band levels. This aligns well with the descriptors for Band 5.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.5

The vocabulary used is very basic and repetitive, with several spelling errors ('writting', 'discribe', 'think', 'hoe', 'alway', 'notting', 'infuence') and word-form inaccuracies ('the book name was', 'inspired through the book'). While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey the basic message, the frequent lexical slips and lack of less common idiomatic or precise terminology restrict the score to a Band 4.5 or 5.0. Words are often misused in terms of collocation and grammatical category, which places some strain on the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.5

The writer demonstrates a very limited range of grammatical structures. Most sentences are simple, and attempts at complex sentences—such as 'Whenever, we face any difficulty in our life we should alway find a way to rescue our self instead of doing notting'—are faulty, containing punctuation errors, incorrect verb forms, and subject-verb agreement issues ('He write many books'). Errors are frequent throughout the text, involving tense inconsistencies ('recently read on the last month') and missing plural markers. However, meaning is still retrievable despite the high frequency of errors, placing this safely at Band 4.5.

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