Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 16 · 2026-10-23

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 or Madam,

I am writing this letter to inform you about the Atomic habits book which is written by James clear, and it helped me to improve my habits throughout reading journey.

The book is all about changing the bad habits into good ones. The book focuses on the compounding effect of tiny, consistent daily improvements rather than massive exhausting life overhauls.

I was influenced by this book owing to I noticed huge improvements in my daily living after following this book. A little change became my daily routine which surprised me ahead.

This book is widely considered worth reading because it translates complex psychological research into a practical, step-by-step system for building good habits and breaking bad ones. Therefore, This will help people to improve themselves.

I hope you will consider my suggestions about this book.

Yours faithfully,

Sandeep Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three requested points: you identify the book and author, explain its focus on replacing bad habits with good ones, and describe how it affected your daily routine. The explanation of the book’s practical approach is relevant, but your personal influence is less fully developed: “A little change became my daily routine” does not specify what change you made or give a concrete result. Your claim that the book could influence others is also quite general, although the reference to practical, step-by-step advice supports it. The response is 7 words below the required minimum, so it does not meet the length instruction; adding a specific personal example and a fuller recommendation would help develop the ideas.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The letter has a clear overall sequence: introduction, description of the book, personal effect, recommendation, and closing. Paragraphing helps the reader follow these stages, and links such as “Therefore” make the relationship between the book’s approach and its potential benefit clear. This is a coherent arrangement, though some connections feel mechanical or unclear. For example, “I was influenced by this book owing to I noticed…” does not link the cause and result smoothly, and “This” after “Therefore” is capitalised unnecessarily within the sentence. The closing is appropriate but brief. To strengthen progression further, connect the personal example directly to the book’s ideas and use a more natural transition into your recommendation.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range for the topic, including relevant expressions such as “compounding effect,” “consistent daily improvements,” and “step-by-step system.” These help explain the book’s message and show an attempt to use more precise vocabulary than basic descriptions. Some choices are inaccurate or unnatural, however: “throughout reading journey” is unclear, “daily living” is awkward in this context, and “surprised me ahead” does not convey a clear meaning. The title and author’s name should also be capitalised as “Atomic Habits” and “James Clear.” These issues do not prevent the reader from understanding the main points, but more natural collocations and precise wording would make the letter more fluent and convincing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use both simple sentences and more complex forms, including the relative clause “which is written by James clear” and the contrast structure “rather than massive exhausting life overhauls.” Most of the message remains understandable, but some grammatical errors are noticeable. In “owing to I noticed,” the phrase is followed by a clause where “because” would be needed; “after following this book” also has an unclear grammatical relationship. The sentence “A little change became my daily routine which surprised me ahead” has an awkwardly attached relative clause, and “This” is incorrectly capitalised after the comma-linked transition “Therefore.” Aim to make clause relationships explicit and check sentence boundaries and capitalisation.

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.