Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-08-19

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 6.5)

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to express my concerns regarding the food that was served for lunch at your Sunrise hotel.

To begin with, a week ago I have organized an all-day meeting of my company at your hotel where the participants were totally impressed with the decoration and the parking facilities, however they were quite unsatisfied with the food quality. To brief it out, some of the individuals shared their dissatisfaction regarding hygiene due to a lot many flies near the kitchen area along the poor choice of the food product with expiry date.

As a result, some of the employee face serious issue like food poisoning once after they consultated witbh doctor. For that, I would appreciate if you look after the expiry date of the food and maintain the hygiene near the kitchen area before it got served to people.

Looking forward to your prompt response and trust the matter will be resolved at your earliest convenience.

Yours faithfully,

Keertan Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response covers all three bullet points required by the prompt. You successfully identified the positive aspects of the hotel, explained the issues with the food, and provided suggestions for improvement. The tone is appropriate for a formal letter of complaint. However, the development of ideas is somewhat limited; for instance, the description of the food quality could be more detailed to better justify the severity of the complaint. While the task is fully addressed, the content is quite brief and could benefit from more elaboration to reach a higher band level.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 7.0

The letter follows a logical structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate the different points of the prompt. Cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'As a result', and 'For that' are used to link ideas, although some transitions feel slightly mechanical. The progression of ideas is generally clear, though the flow between the mention of hygiene and the specific incident of food poisoning could be smoother to improve the overall readability of the complaint.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'dissatisfaction', 'hygiene', and 'convenience'. However, there are some awkward collocations and word choices, such as 'a lot many flies' (which is grammatically incorrect and informal) and 'poor choice of the food product'. Additionally, there are minor spelling errors like 'witbh'. To improve, you should focus on using more precise collocations and ensuring that your vocabulary choices are consistently formal and accurate throughout the letter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

The letter contains a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. However, there are several grammatical errors that affect the accuracy of the writing. Examples include 'I have organized' (should be 'I organized' for a specific past time), 'some of the employee face' (subject-verb agreement error), and 'once after they consultated witbh doctor' (tense and spelling errors). While these errors do not completely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent a higher score. Focusing on verb tense consistency and subject-verb agreement will significantly improve your accuracy.

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

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