Band 7.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.5 · Cambridge IELTS 11 · 2026-10-06

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

Write a letter to the local council. In your letter

• give details of how you and your friends or family use the centre
• explain why the sports and leisure centre is important for the local community
• describe the possible effects on local people if the centre closes

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 7.5)

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my concern about proposed closure of the local sports and leisure centre, which is regularly used by my family and many people in our neighbourhood.

My family and I visit the centre several times a week. I usully go there after work to use the gym and swimming pool, my wife attends fitness classes. At weekends, I often play badminton with my friends and my daugther also takes part in swimming lessons. Therefore, the centre has become an important part of our weekly routine.

I believe this facility is extremely valuable to the local community because it provides affordable opportunities for people of different ages to stay and healthy. That is to say, children can participate in sports, adults can exercises after work and older people can attend suitable fitness programmes. Moreover, the centre allows local residents to meet and socialise, which helps create a stronger and more connected communities.

If the centre closes, many people could become less physically active because alternative facilities may be more expensice or too far away. As a result, some residents particularly children and elder peole, may spend more time at home and have fewer opportinities to exeercise.

I strongly urge the council to reconsider this decision and explore other ways of keeping the centre open. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Darshit

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 8.0

The response covers all parts of the task well and presents a clear, appropriate position from beginning to end. You successfully provided specific details of how you and your family use the centre, such as going to the gym, swimming pool, fitness classes, and badminton. You also clearly explained why the facility is important for the local community by mentioning affordable opportunities for different age groups and social connection. Furthermore, the possible negative effects on local people if the centre closes are well described, noting reduced physical activity and alternative facilities being too expensive or far away. Your ideas are well developed and extended throughout, showing a high level of task fulfillment. To reach the highest bands, you could provide even more precise contextual detail or extend the consequences of the closure with further nuanced examples.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 7.5

Your letter demonstrates a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. The opening salutation and closing sign-off appropriately match the formal tone required for a letter to the council. You have used paragraphing sufficiently and appropriately, with each paragraph focusing on a distinct aspect of the prompt, such as personal use, community importance, and the effects of closure. Cohesive devices are used reasonably well, with transitional markers like 'Therefore', 'Moreover', and 'As a result' helping to connect your ideas smoothly. To move further up the scale, you could work on varying your cohesive devices even more flexibly, ensuring that relationships between sentences feel entirely natural and never mechanical.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task and demonstrates a sufficient range for some precision. You attempted less common items and phrases, such as 'regularly used', 'weekly routine', 'affordable opportunities', and 'physically active', which successfully convey your message. However, there are some spelling and word-choice errors that prevent a higher score, such as 'usully' instead of 'usually', 'daugther' instead of 'daughter', 'stay and healthy' instead of 'stay healthy', 'exercises' instead of 'exercise', 'expensice' instead of 'expensive', and 'elder peole' instead of 'elderly people'. These occasional slips show you are attempting a wider vocabulary range, but greater control over spelling and word forms is needed to secure a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 7.0

Your writing displays a good mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating a decent grasp of sentence structures. You successfully incorporated subordinate clauses and varied sentence beginnings, such as 'If the centre closes, many people could become...' and 'I strongly urge the council to...'. There are some errors in grammar and punctuation, such as the missing article in 'about proposed closure' (which should be 'about the proposed closure'), a comma splice in the second paragraph ('use the gym and swimming pool, my wife attends fitness classes'), and minor agreement issues. Nevertheless, these errors rarely impede communication, and you maintain good control over many parts of your writing. To achieve a higher score, ensure your complex sentences are entirely error-free and pay closer attention to articles and punctuation boundaries.

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

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