Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · 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 5.5)

Dear Manager,

I hope you are doing well.

I am writing to express my concern regarding your hotel feedback . I would like to explain that our company recently organized meeting in your hotel but some employees were unhappy about the food , I felt it was important to contact you and provide the necessary details.

To begin with, the participants was liked your hotel service which was provided whole day. In addition, they were unhappy with food because it was mot prepared well and too much oily. Therefore, I would like to bring this to your attention.

I would appreciate it if you could improve the food in future. I believe this would help resolve the situation in a better way.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I truly appreciate your understanding and assistance.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

John Smith

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

You have addressed all three bullet points required by the prompt: mentioning the positive feedback about the hotel, explaining the issues with the lunch, and suggesting improvements. However, the development of these ideas is somewhat limited. For instance, the explanation regarding the food is quite brief ('not prepared well and too much oily'). To reach a higher band, you should provide more specific details or examples to support your points. The tone is generally appropriate for a formal letter, though the opening sentence regarding 'hotel feedback' is slightly ambiguous. Overall, the task is fulfilled, but the depth of the content could be improved.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.5

The letter follows a logical structure with a clear introduction, body paragraphs, and a closing. You have used some basic cohesive devices such as 'To begin with', 'In addition', and 'Therefore' to link your ideas. However, the flow between sentences is sometimes a bit mechanical. The paragraphing is appropriate for a formal letter. To improve, try to use a wider variety of linking words and ensure that the transition between your explanation of the problem and your suggested solution is smoother. Referencing is generally clear, though some sentence structures are slightly repetitive.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

Your vocabulary is adequate for the task, allowing you to communicate your message clearly. You use some relevant terms like 'participants', 'organized', and 'consideration'. However, there are some inaccuracies in word choice and collocation, such as 'the participants was liked' (should be 'liked') and 'too much oily' (should be 'too oily' or 'excessively oily'). The range of vocabulary is somewhat limited and relies on fairly simple expressions. To achieve a higher score, try to incorporate more precise adjectives and formal collocations suitable for a business complaint letter.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.5

You demonstrate a mix of simple and some complex sentence structures. There are several grammatical errors that occur throughout the text, such as subject-verb agreement issues ('the participants was liked') and missing articles ('organized meeting' instead of 'organized a meeting'). While these errors do not prevent the reader from understanding your meaning, they are frequent enough to impact the overall fluency of the writing. To improve, focus on checking your work for basic subject-verb agreement and ensuring that articles are used correctly before singular countable nouns.

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

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