Band 7.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 7.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-11

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 7.0)

Dear or Madam,

My name is Adam Gilbert and I would like to share my feedback on the ambiguity that your prestigious company is facing between either sponsoring a local children's sports team for two years, or to pay for two open-air concerts.

Firstly, there are plenty of benefits of sponsoring the sports team. Children need a lot of facilities, their sports ground is in dire need of renovation. They also lack sports equipment and they could benefit significantly from a new set of equipment. Children are the future of the country and it is really important to invest in them.

That being said, there are also a lot of advantages of paying for the concerts. These kinds of events can boost local businesses as it brings in a lot of tourists. It can also bring the community together.

Though I wish that both these were possible but being realistic, my personal suggestion is to sponsor the local children's sports team as that is more a long term and prominent investment.

I hope you make a well informed decision and I wish you the best of luck for whatever approach you decide to take.

Yours faithfully,

Adam Gilbert

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt. You clearly described the benefits of the sports team, summarized the advantages of the concerts, and provided a clear recommendation. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter. To reach a higher band, ensure that your ideas are slightly more developed; for instance, when mentioning the renovation of the sports ground, you could briefly explain how this would specifically impact the children's development. Overall, the position is clear and maintained throughout the letter, fulfilling the requirements of the task effectively.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter is logically organized with a clear introduction, body paragraphs for each option, and a concluding recommendation. You use transition signals such as 'Firstly', 'That being said', and 'Though' to guide the reader through your argument. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate distinct ideas. To improve, you could vary your cohesive devices further to avoid a slightly mechanical feel. For example, instead of starting paragraphs with 'Firstly' and 'That being said', you could integrate these transitions more fluidly into the sentence structure to improve the flow between ideas.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'prestigious', 'dire need', and 'long term and prominent investment'. There are some minor issues with word choice, such as the use of 'ambiguity' in the opening, which is slightly misused in this context (the company is facing a 'dilemma' or 'choice' rather than ambiguity). However, these errors do not impede communication. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more precise collocations and less common lexical items to show greater flexibility and sophistication in your writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.5

The response uses a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While most sentences are clear, there are some grammatical slips, such as the opening 'Dear or Madam' (missing 'Sir') and the phrase 'Though I wish that both these were possible but being realistic', which contains a redundant 'but' and a slight error in clause structure. Despite these, the meaning is always clear, and the errors do not cause difficulty for the reader. To improve, focus on ensuring that complex sentences are punctuated correctly and that conjunctions are used without redundancy.

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

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