Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-04

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 ,

I hope you are doing well. Recently, i organized an all-day meeting of my company in your hotel. In feedback, participants like about the hotel like services. It is not only good behaviour with staff but also good communication skills.

Furthermore, most of participants were not happy about the food as service of food was very slow and late . They ordered vegetarian food and they got received some non- vegetarian food and food was not fresher and not hot .Because of staff, there staff was not listening properly. Due to this, our team members were unhappy.

In addition, I suggest to the manager, they should do to improve the food. Firstly, staff should listen to proper orders. Secondly, they ought to give food on time and fresh.

I am thankful for the managers . When they improve this thing in the food .

Your sincerely

Lovejit Kaur

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the prompt: the positive aspects of the hotel, the issues with the food, and suggestions for improvement. However, the development of these points is quite limited. For instance, the explanation of why the participants were unhappy is somewhat repetitive and lacks detail regarding the specific impact on the meeting. To reach a higher band, you should expand on your ideas with more descriptive language and ensure the tone remains consistently professional throughout the letter. The structure is clear, but the content needs more depth to fully satisfy the requirements of a formal complaint letter.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter is organised into logical paragraphs, which helps the reader follow your points. You use some basic cohesive devices like 'Furthermore' and 'In addition' to transition between ideas. However, the flow is occasionally hindered by awkward phrasing and repetitive sentence structures. The use of referencing is sometimes unclear, such as in the sentence 'Because of staff, there staff was not listening properly,' where the connection between the staff and the problem is confusing. Improving the variety of linking words and ensuring that each sentence flows naturally into the next will significantly enhance the coherence of your writing.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is generally adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your message clearly. However, there are several instances of word-choice errors and awkward collocations, such as 'got received' and 'food was not fresher'. These errors occasionally draw attention to the language rather than the message. To improve, focus on using more precise adjectives and verbs. For example, instead of saying 'food was not hot', you could use 'the food was served lukewarm'. Expanding your range of vocabulary beyond basic terms will help you achieve a higher score in this criterion.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

There is a mix of simple and some attempted complex sentence structures, but the accuracy is inconsistent. You have frequent errors in basic grammar, such as subject-verb agreement ('there staff was not listening'), article usage ('the service of food'), and tense consistency. Additionally, there are punctuation errors, such as the space before the comma in 'Dear Sir ,'. While these errors do not completely prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they occur frequently enough to impact the overall quality of the writing. Focusing on proofreading for basic grammatical slips will help improve your accuracy.

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

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