Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-11-11

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

A large company in your area has decided to spend a certain amount of money, either to sponsor a local children's sports team for two years, or to pay for two open-air concerts. It has asked for feedback from the general public.

Write a letter to the company. In your letter

• describe the benefits of sponsoring the sports team
• summarise the benefits of paying for the concerts
• say how you think the company should spend the money

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear Sir,

I'm writing to bring your attention towards the program you want to sponsored. There are two specific programs sponsored for the sport team and paying for the concert.

These both have there separate benefits, as the sports are beneficial for team members physical health and useful for the growth of the company curriculum activities. By sponsoring a local children sport's team for two years boost there confidence and encourage them for performing on the national level.

Similarly, the two day open-air concert will be beneficial for refreshing the people mind and give them stress free nights from their hectic routein.

As both the activities have their own benefits, but provide sponsorship to the local children sport's team will give the confidence to the children and add valuable company's reputation in the international market.

I hope my feedback may help you out to figuring in which domain company needs to invest.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

You address all three requested points and make a clear recommendation: the company should sponsor the children’s sports team. You also give relevant benefits, including improved physical health and confidence for the children, and relaxation for concertgoers. However, the two options are not developed equally. The sports-team benefits receive more explanation, while the concert section offers only a general benefit and does not explain who would attend or how the events might benefit the wider community or company. The opening also describes the choices rather than clearly introducing your purpose as a request for the company to consider your feedback. Add specific supporting details to each option and make the recommendation’s reasoning more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The letter has a recognisable overall progression: it introduces the alternatives, discusses the sports team, considers the concerts, and gives a recommendation. Paragraph breaks help distinguish these stages, and linking expressions such as “Similarly” and “As both the activities have their own benefits” show an effort to connect ideas. At times, however, the connections are mechanical or unclear. The opening sentence about “two specific programs” is difficult to follow, and “As both the activities have their own benefits, but” combines two contrasting structures awkwardly. The final sentence also shifts to a vague reference to “which domain.” Use clearer topic sentences and refer directly to the two options throughout so the reader can follow the comparison more smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough vocabulary to communicate the main ideas, including “sponsor,” “confidence,” “physical health,” and “reputation.” There are also attempts at more specific expressions, such as “national level” and “open-air concert.” However, several word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, which makes parts of the letter less clear: “bring your attention towards,” “company curriculum activities,” and “refreshing the people mind” do not express the intended ideas naturally. Spelling errors such as “routein” also reduce accuracy. Build a more reliable range of formal letter and community-event vocabulary, and check whether words combine naturally before using them. More precise phrasing would make your arguments sound clearer and more professional.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, and the main recommendation is generally understandable. However, errors in verb forms, agreement, articles, and sentence construction occur in several places. For example, “the program you want to sponsored” needs a correctly formed verb, while “By sponsoring … boost there confidence” lacks a clear grammatical subject and has an agreement problem. The sentence beginning “As both the activities …” also joins clauses incorrectly, and “I hope my feedback may help you out to figuring” has an inaccurate verb pattern. These errors sometimes make the reader pause to interpret your meaning. Practise forming complete sentences with a clear subject and verb, and review verb patterns after expressions such as “help” and “by.”

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

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