Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-10-31
IELTS Writing Task 1 question
You work for an international company, and would like to spend six months working in its head office in another country. Write a letter to your manager. In your letter
- explain why you want to work in the company's head office for six months
- say how your work could be done while you are away
- ask for his/her help in arranging it
You do NOT need to write any addresses.
Begin your letter as follows:
Dear ................. ,
Student answer (Band 6.5)
Dear Mr. Purewal,
I hope you are doing well. I am writing this to formally ask you if I could work at our head office located in the New York city for at least six months.
I have always been a desperate person who wants to enhance her work experience for a better future. While joining this organisation at the very beginning, I dreamt of working at the headquarter once in my lifetime. I believe that, it would be a great opportunity to work with strangers, and aquire knowledge from them.
While I am away from my existing workplace, I will make sure to finish everything before I go. If you need assistance, my colleague- Dhruti will cover me until my arrival. I will try to keep in touch with you during the trip.
I would appreciate it if you could suggest some accommodation choices in the New York city or somewhere nearby. I found a few rental apartments, but they were too expensive.
I look forward to your prompt response. Thank you for your continuous support.
Yours sincerely,
Rutvi Patel
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 6.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.5 |
| Lexical Resource | 6.0 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 6.5 |
| Overall | 6.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5
You address all three requested points: you explain your wish to gain experience at the New York head office, propose finishing work before leaving and having Dhruti cover your duties, and ask your manager for help. The purpose is clear and the tone is generally appropriate. However, the reasons for the placement are only partly developed: the wish to improve your experience and fulfil a long-held ambition would be more persuasive if linked to specific skills, projects, or benefits to the company. The work-cover plan also needs clarification, since completing everything before departure and having a colleague cover you do not explain how ongoing responsibilities would be managed for six months. Your accommodation request is useful, but the main request for arranging the transfer could be more explicit.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5
The letter has a clear overall sequence: request and purpose, reasons, work arrangements, then a practical request and closing. Separate paragraphs help the reader follow these stages, and phrases such as “While I am away” signal a change of focus. This gives the response a coherent structure. Some links between ideas are less precise, however. “If you need assistance” does not clearly explain whether Dhruti will cover your duties or assist the manager, and “until my arrival” leaves the timing unclear. The accommodation paragraph also shifts attention away from the central request without connecting it to the proposed placement. Make references and transitions more exact, and end by directly asking the manager to discuss or approve the arrangement.
Lexical Resource: Band 6.0
You use an adequate range for a formal workplace letter, including “enhance her work experience,” “head office,” “assistance,” and “continuous support.” These choices communicate your intentions, and you attempt some less common vocabulary. A few word choices and collocations are inaccurate or unnatural, though: “a desperate person” suggests distress rather than ambition, “strangers” is not the best description of colleagues, and “headquarter” should be expressed as “headquarters.” There are also spelling and naming-form issues in “aquire” and “New York city.” Choose vocabulary that conveys professional motivation precisely, and check spelling and standard forms. More natural collocations would make the letter sound more confident and polished.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.5
You use a mix of simple and more complex sentence forms, including the conditional request “I would appreciate it if you could…” and the time clause “While I am away…”. Most sentences are understandable, and errors do not prevent the reader from following your message. Some grammatical and punctuation issues remain. In “I believe that, it would be,” the comma incorrectly separates the clause; “at the very beginning” would be clearer as “when I first joined”; and “the New York city” needs a different article pattern, such as “New York City.” The phrase “until my arrival” also makes the timing of the cover arrangement unclear. Review articles, punctuation around clauses, and tense choices, while continuing to use varied sentence structures.
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