Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-09-16

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 hope this letter finds you well.

I am formally writing to you giving my feedback asked by your firm about whether to sponsor a local children's sports team or to pay for an open air-concert. In my view, there are numerous benefits if you sponsor our community sport team in this way children will get chance to indulge in a healthy physical activity. Moreover, they will have the opportunity to show their skills additionally they will have some activity to do other than studies. As involving in sports enhance their ability to take quick decisions and they will develop sportsmanship.

In contrast, paying for an open-air concert will give the opportunity to the residents of my area to spend time together, enjoy with their families and do something other than their daily routine.

However, spending money on any of the activity gives benefits to the people of my area in a certain way. But I believe you should spend the money which has more positive impact on the residents rather than for the entertainment for just few hours.

Thank you in advance.

Yours sincerely,

Zara Shaikh.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

The response covers all parts of the task prompt adequately. It successfully describes the benefits of sponsoring the local children's sports team, such as encouraging physical activity and building decision-making skills. It also summarises the benefits of paying for open-air concerts, noting that it allows residents to spend quality time together and escape their daily routines. Furthermore, the writer clearly states a personal recommendation on how the company should spend the money, arguing for a more lasting impact over temporary entertainment. The ideas are relevant and properly extended, though some points are slightly generalised. Overall, the task is fulfilled well, earning a solid band score.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter maintains a clear overall progression of ideas from the introduction through to the conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different sections, such as the sports team benefits, the concert benefits, and the final recommendation. However, cohesion at the sentence level is occasionally mechanical or repetitive, particularly with connectors like 'Moreover' and 'Additionally' clustered closely together. Referencing is generally clear, but transitional phrases could be varied more naturally to enhance the flow of the text. Overall cohesion is coherent enough to secure a Band 6.0.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

The vocabulary used is adequate and generally appropriate for a general correspondence task. The student attempts some less common expressions such as 'sportsmanship', 'daily routine', and 'positive impact'. However, there are noticeable word choice and collocation inaccuracies, such as writing 'giving my feedback asked by your firm' instead of 'providing the feedback requested', and 'indulge in a healthy physical activity' instead of 'engage in healthy physical activity'. Spelling is accurate, but the limitations in lexical flexibility and minor unnatural phrasing restrict the score to this band level.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The response displays a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including relative clauses and conditional-style constructions like 'there are numerous benefits if you sponsor'. There are, however, several grammatical errors throughout the text. For instance, 'I am formally writing to you giving' should be 'I am writing to formally give', 'get chance' lacks an article ('get a chance'), and 'As involving in sports enhance' contains a gerund error ('involving' instead of 'involvement') and a subject-verb agreement error ('enhance' instead of 'enhances'). These errors occasionally cause slight awkwardness, but they do not impede overall communication.

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