Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 1 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · Cambridge IELTS 13 · 2026-09-16

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 or Madam,

I am writing to inform you about the recent concluded meeting we organised in your hotel, the ambiance was great and i received a lot of good reviews from the staffs and participants. The lighting of the conference room was well-illuminated, the view of the ocean was spectacular. Although, the meal was bad and had an awful smell, majority of the participant refused to eat their food because it was not edible. Also, the services of the employees need to be addresssed as they were rude to the participant when we informed them about mixing up our order.

I would like to suggest that the services rendered by the staff of your establishment should be addressed and inspections should be done to the ingredients that were being used to prepare this meal, as this could affect the development of the hotel.

Thank you. I hope my request is considered and being attended promptly.

Yours faithfully,

Ajawara Chidimma

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 7.0

The candidate successfully covers all the bullet points required by the prompt. You state what the participants liked about the hotel, such as the ambiance, lighting, and ocean view. You also explain why they were unhappy about the food by mentioning that it was bad, had an awful smell, and was considered inedible by the majority. Furthermore, you provide a constructive suggestion for improvement by recommending that inspections be done on the ingredients used. The tone is appropriate for a formal complaint letter, and all parts of the task are adequately addressed, earning a solid band score for this criterion.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.0

The letter maintains a clear overall progression and logical arrangement, starting with the purpose of the letter, moving into the positive aspects and the complaints, and concluding with suggestions and a sign-off. However, the cohesion is sometimes faulty. For instance, the first sentence runs several clauses together using commas instead of proper conjunctions or full stops: 'I am writing to inform you about the recent concluded meeting we organised in your hotel, the ambiance was great and i received...'. Paragraphing is also somewhat lumped together, as the complaint about staff service and the praise for the venue are mixed in the same paragraph.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully using terms like 'ambiance', 'spectacular', and 'establishment'. However, there are some noticeable vocabulary and word choice issues. For example, 'recent concluded meeting' should be 'recently concluded meeting', and 'staffs' should be 'staff'. Additionally, you introduce a new complaint regarding employee service in the middle of the paragraph about food, which slightly distracts from the focus, though communication is not impeded. Your use of less common items shows some awareness, but occasional errors prevent a higher band.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, but control over grammar and punctuation is inconsistent. There is a run-on sentence in your opening lines: '...we organised in your hotel, the ambiance was great and i received...'. Furthermore, capitalization of the pronoun 'i' is missing in several places. Other errors include passive voice construction issues such as 'being attended promptly' and 'ingredients that were being used'. While these errors do not severely impede communication, they occur frequently enough to prevent the writing from reaching the Band 7 threshold.

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

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