Band 5.0 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.0 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-12

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 5.0)

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing this letter to bring to your notice that I recently organised an all-day meeting for our company, participants at the meeting said that they liked the hotel, but were unhappy about the food that was served for lunch.

Last week on weekend we are organised on meeting with my employee and aroun 50 people participate that time. Yesterday some employee ask about hotel. I see every one happy with your hotel decoration and cleanness, also they are give me good feed back about your staff service.

But here I talk to unfourtunatlly they arguue for you hotel`s food . They are complaining about starter and some food. In starter Juice was not fresh and some food not good quality wise.

I suggest you next time we are organised any event , please take care of food quality. I know that is not happning again but , I wish you you take in future.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Your Sincerely,

Ghanshyam Patel

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 5.5

The response covers all three bullet points required in the task instructions. You successfully mentioned what the participants liked about the hotel, such as the decoration, cleanliness, and staff service. You also explained why they were unhappy, pointing out issues with the starters, stale juice, and poor food quality. Finally, you offered a suggestion for the manager to improve the food quality for future events. However, the tone fluctuates slightly and some ideas are underdeveloped or repetitive. While the overall purpose of the letter is achieved, the level of detail is somewhat basic. For instance, the suggestion to take care of food quality is rather generalized. Therefore, this performance meets the criteria for Band 5.5, as all parts of the prompt are addressed, but the development and clarity of ideas lack the extension expected at higher band levels.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 5.0

The letter exhibits a basic level of organization, with an attempt to separate different points into paragraphs. However, the logical progression is frequently disrupted by awkward transitions and confusing phrasing, such as 'But here I talk to unfourtunatlly they arguue for you hotel`s food'. Paragraphing is used, but the internal cohesion within paragraphs is weak. Referencing is sometimes unclear, making it hard for the reader to follow the exact sequence of events, such as who said what in the feedback. Repetitive connectors and mechanical linking devices are noticeable throughout the text. Overall, while the letter has a clear opening and closing, the cohesive links and overall flow align best with Band 5.0 descriptors, as information is not always arranged with clear progression and cohesive devices are frequently inaccurate or inadequate.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.0

Your vocabulary is limited and basic, which restricts your ability to express ideas precisely. You rely heavily on simple words like 'good', 'bad', and 'food' repeatedly. There are noticeable lexical errors and incorrect word choices, such as 'we are organised on meeting with my employee' instead of 'organized a meeting with my colleagues or staff', and 'aroun 50 people participate that time'. Spelling errors are also present, including 'unfourtunatlly' and 'arguue'. While the vocabulary is minimally adequate to convey your basic message about the hotel and the food, the frequent errors and restricted range prevent the text from reaching Band 6.0. Therefore, a band score of 5.0 is appropriate, reflecting a limited range with noticeable errors that occasionally cause difficulty for the reader.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 5.0

The response displays a very limited range of grammatical structures. Most sentences are simple, and your attempts at complex or compound sentences often contain serious structural errors, such as 'Last week on weekend we are organised on meeting with my employee and aroun 50 people participate that time'. There are frequent tense errors (e.g., mixing past and present tenses like 'I talk' instead of 'I talked') and missing auxiliary verbs or prepositions. Punctuation is also problematic in places, with misplaced commas and spacing issues. Because errors are very frequent across different sentence types and occasionally distort the intended meaning, your grammar falls into the Band 4.5 to 5.0 range. A score of 5.0 is awarded as there is a mix of simple structures, but frequent errors persist and can cause difficulty for the reader.

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

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