Band 4.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 4.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-06

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 4.0)

Dear sir,

i reading your book regular basis .I prefer your writing but your latast book is to much horrible.this book is horror story,but this story is very bad effect my mind .this book story is a real life story and this story is related our relagion.this story is to much cruel .this cruel story is effect me .Its also very bad effect our young people.this stroy create some violioce in our society.some people try this black magic same the story book .It a very hermfull our people.

so i request you plase change your story theme .

your sincer reader

sharmin sultana

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 3.5

The response only minimally addresses the task requirements. Furthermore, the length requirement is not met, as the text contains only 103 words, falling significantly short of the 150-word minimum. While the writer attempts to mention a book that influenced them, the description of what the book was about is extremely vague and unclear, stated merely as a horror story related to religion. The explanation of how the book influenced the writer and society is underdeveloped, relying on repetitive claims about violence and black magic without sufficient elaboration or clear positioning. To improve towards higher bands, the writer must fully meet the minimum word count and thoroughly develop each bullet point of the prompt with specific, supported ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 4.0

Information and ideas are not arranged coherently throughout the letter. The text lacks proper paragraphing, presenting all ideas in a single, dense block of text that makes the progression difficult to follow. Cohesive devices are largely absent or inadequate, with abrupt transitions between sentences such as jumping from the book being a horror story directly to its effect on the mind and society. Pronoun referencing is also frequently unclear, creating confusion about what specific nouns refer to. To achieve a higher band, the writer needs to organise the response into logical paragraphs and use a wider range of appropriate cohesive devices to connect ideas smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 4.0

The vocabulary used is basic and repetitive, employing simple words like 'book', 'story', and 'bad' multiple times. There are frequent spelling and word-choice errors that strain the reader and impede communication, such as 'latast' instead of latest, 'relagion' instead of religion, 'violioce' instead of violence, and 'hermfull' instead of harmful. The writer attempts very few less common lexical items, and those that are attempted contain severe spelling mistakes. To move up to the next band, the writer must expand their lexical repertoire, use words with greater precision, and significantly improve their spelling and word forms.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 4.0

The response demonstrates a very limited range of sentence structures, relying entirely on simple sentences with frequent errors that distort meaning. There are persistent grammatical issues throughout the text, including missing auxiliary verbs ('i reading'), incorrect prepositions, missing articles, and basic subject-verb agreement errors ('this stroy create'). Punctuation and capitalization are also poorly controlled, with lowercase letters beginning sentences and improper spacing around punctuation marks. To improve, the writer needs to incorporate a mix of complex sentence structures and exercise much greater control over basic grammatical rules, verb tenses, and sentence boundaries.

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

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