Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-04

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 6.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing this letter regarding the inclusion of an article about the book that influenced me the most. The name of the book is "The Body Keeps the Score". This is a psychology book that explains the impact of trauma on our brain, mind, and body. After reading this book, I learned that our minds desperately try to leave trauma behind, and our bodies keep us trapped in the past with emotions and feelings. However, this book created self-awareness and helped us to understand the richness of life. I will recommend this book to other people too who are especially going through any kind of trauma because, after reading this book, you will feel relaxed and light. This book will help you to heal from your past traumas related to childhood, sexual, and domestic abuse. It also helps you engage yourself in the present. However, it is my humble request that you include an article about this book in your magazine. I will be thankful to you.

Yours faithfully

Jashan

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the prompt by describing the book, explaining its influence, and discussing its potential effect on others. All three bullet points are covered, reflecting a solid performance. However, some ideas are more fully developed than others; for instance, the explanation of how the book influenced you touches on self-awareness and healing, but the discussion on whether it would influence other people relies on somewhat generalized statements rather than extended support. The tone is appropriate for a magazine letter, and the purpose is clear throughout. To move towards a higher band, you would need to extend and support all your ideas with greater depth and specific detail.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The letter maintains a coherent overall arrangement and follows a logical sequence from describing the book to explaining its impact and concluding with a request to the editor. However, the progression is slightly hindered because the response is formatted as a single block of text rather than distinct paragraphs. Paragraphing is used insufficiently, which impacts the structural cohesion of the letter. Additionally, cohesive devices are somewhat mechanical, relying heavily on basic transition words like 'However' and 'After reading this book'. To improve, you should organize your ideas into clear, distinct paragraphs for each bullet point and employ a wider, more natural range of cohesive devices to guide the reader smoothly through your arguments.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, successfully conveying your meaning with terms such as 'self-awareness', 'richness of life', and 'domestic abuse'. You attempt some less common vocabulary items like 'desperately try' and 'humble request', which demonstrates a sufficient range for some flexibility. There are minor vocabulary and collocation choices that could be more precise, such as shifting between pronouns ('our minds', 'helped us', 'you will feel'), which detracts slightly from a consistent register. Errors in word choice and spelling do not impede communication, remaining at a manageable level. To achieve a higher score, incorporate more sophisticated, less common lexical items with greater precision and maintain a consistent narrative perspective.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5

The writing demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, utilizing relative clauses and participial phrases successfully, such as in sentences involving trauma and healing. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, but they are infrequent and rarely impede communication; for example, mixing pronouns from 'our' to 'us' and 'you' creates slight inconsistency in grammatical referencing. You show good control over basic verb tenses and structures. To reach the next band, you should incorporate a wider variety of complex structures with higher accuracy, ensuring that grammatical referencing and pronoun agreement remain consistent throughout the entire piece of writing.

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

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.