Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-11-07

IELTS Writing Task 1 question

You recently organised an all-day meeting for your company, which took place in a local hotel. In their feedback, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but they were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch.

Write a letter to the manager of the hotel. In your letter

• say what the participants liked about the hotel
• explain why they were unhappy about the food
• suggest what the manager should do to improve the food in future

You do NOT need to write any addresses.

Begin your letter as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Student answer (Band 5.5)

Dear sir,

Last week our company organised meeting in your hotel.Everything is good.but our participants were not happy about the food.otherwise, they liked everthing about the hotel. like your staff is very helpful.we booked meeting hall at your hotel and we alredy metioned that we did not want noise around meeting hall and by the help of staff their is no noise by which our runs very smothly and free from distraction.

Another feedback is that our participants were unhappy about the food you served.Because food was tasteless and your cook did put proper ingredints in food and another thing is that we already told you that want both veg and not veg food but your staff only gave us vegetaterian food and if i asked for non veg food and than they start arguing with us like you only order veg food.

So,i would you like to give some suggestion how you can improve your food items.First, i think you can change your cooking staff because cooking behave very rude and they did not have helpful nature.By following this suggestion i think you can improve your food.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5

You cover all three required points: you praise the helpful staff and quiet meeting room, explain that the food was tasteless and that only vegetarian meals were provided despite the request, and recommend changing the cooking staff. These details make the complaint relevant and understandable. However, the praise is broad (“Everything is good”) and the proposed improvement is limited to replacing staff; more practical suggestions, such as checking dietary requirements in advance or improving menu quality, would develop this point. The letter also needs a more consistently appropriate formal tone and a clearer closing. Overall, the task is addressed, but some ideas—especially the proposed solution—remain under-developed.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a recognisable progression from describing the hotel, to explaining the food complaint, to offering a suggestion. The paragraph breaks help distinguish these stages, and phrases such as “Another feedback” and “First” signal movement between ideas. However, several points are crowded into long sentences, particularly the explanation about the meeting room and the food order, so the reader has to work to follow the sequence. Some linking is mechanical or unclear, including “otherwise” and “So, i would you like.” Use shorter sentences and clearer transitions, and make references explicit—for example, state directly that the staff provided only vegetarian food despite the request for both options.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.0

You use enough task-related vocabulary to communicate the main complaint, including “meeting hall,” “distraction,” “tasteless,” and “vegetarian food.” However, the range is limited and several word choices or forms are inaccurate, which sometimes makes the message less clear: “our runs very smothly” appears to mean the meeting ran smoothly, while “cooking behave very rude” does not express the intended criticism naturally. Spelling errors such as “everthing,” “alredy,” and “ingredints” are also noticeable. Build a more precise range for formal complaints, especially for describing service and proposing improvements, and check spelling and collocations before submitting.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.0

You attempt both simple and longer sentences, including a reason clause beginning “Because food was tasteless” and a sentence explaining the meeting-room arrangements. However, complex sentences are often faulty, and errors in articles, verb forms, agreement, and sentence boundaries occur frequently enough to make parts difficult to follow. For example, “our company organised meeting” needs an article, while “your cook did put proper ingredients” has an incorrect verb construction. The opening also contains several run-on sentences, such as “Everything is good.but our participants…” Practise building accurate short sentences first, then combine them with correctly formed clauses. Check capitalisation and punctuation as part of this revision.

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

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